Jeep Grand Cherokee

If you're looking for a prime example of how Europeans and Americans flat-out confuse each other, it's hard to go past their cars. Europeans prefer compactness, refined lines or unobtrusive functionality; Yanks want muscle, and power, and SUVs that straddle several zip codes at once and roar like Godzilla denied an epidural. Preferably with an eagle airbrushed onto the bonnet (all cars should have eagles airbrushed onto the bonnet).

The new, 2011 model Jeep Grand Cherokee is an example of our Stetson-sporting cousins' tendency to think big - even when they think they're thinking, er, medium sized. It will look reasonably burly on antipodean roads (and its top end 5.7l V8 option will increase the impression by towing up to 3500kg), but in the US, where 10-cylinder road tanks are as common as rap sheets on rappers, the Jeep is still firmly in the diminutive middle ranks of their mid-sized SUV category.

This is a good thing, because if they've proved anything, it's that when they make super grunty, giant "pickups" or similar they aren't particularly great off road, nor necessarily put together in an airtight way. It means that the Jeep can be a capable off-roader, unhampered by steroids, even if its only ever used to drive the kids to soccer. This is the new Jeep's niche, and it fills it well. Which is just as well.

Barely a month before Chrysler went tits up in 2009 they paraded their forthcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee at the New York Auto Show. Then, infamously, the torpedo hit amidships and just about deep sixed the entire company. But Fiat stepped in, via a new, kinda subservient seeming alliance, and the Chrysler - happily - reemerged. This is their first release since, and so it was always going to be expected to make a statement. Happily, it has.

The new Jeep isn't perfect, but it's... better. The styling is a credible update of their iconic look, with nifty touches (like the gimmicky but whatever-man-it's-cool Micro Machines-sized Jeep Wrangler profiles in the headlights). The interior, quite shockingly, because it used to be put together like Michael J Fox's jigsaws, has more than a touch of class and is seamlessly put together. The new 3.6l Pentastar V6 is also worthy, the air suspension and Quadra-Trac/Quadra Drive diff systems are clever, the 800km claimed cruising range impressive, the sound damping remarkable, the highway cornering at speed... er, well. Not so good. But you can't have everything.

TopGear piloted all three of the new models on a test trip in California - the Laredo (standard), Limited and Overland. Each features the new 210kW, 347Nm 3.6l DOHC V6 Pentastar engine as standard (the 5.7l V8 is optional on all models), coupled with a nifty choice of two 4x4 systems, useful "Quadra lift" air suspension, independent front and rear suspension and clever "Selec-Terrain" knob that, in dodgy conditions, allows you to choose between Sand/Mud, Sport, Auto, Snow and Rock settings.

Without banging on, it's safe to say that Jeep's off road boasting seems justified - the downhill descent control, especially, is top notch. Sure, it's not a road car, but cornering at speed feels a bit grim and leaden, and occasionally woollier than Jenny Kee; you're never mistaken for driving anything but a well-fattened beast. And - annoyingly - they refuse to be baited on an Aussie price or range (US models will start with the Laredo from US$31K).
But considering Chrysler would be pushing up daisies if not for the assistance of the presumably libidinous, moped-riding Italian types at Fiat, these seem minor points. They're making a statement: Jeep's survived, and they're trying not to cut corners. It's not perfect, but they're improving fast.

Ben Smithurst