How I Test Drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee Eco Diesel and Said Good-bye to Winter!

While the Jeep Grand Cherokee has been around  for more than 20 years, I’ve only really paid any attention to it in the last couple of years.

Don’t miss the video review below!

Reason being is that the big, luxury off-road 4×4 had usually come with big engines and bad fuel numbers.  That changed though when the current 4th-generation edition went through a mid-model refresh in 2014, and in doing so added a new 3.0L V6 Eco-diesel engine.

But hang on you say!  Can you really put the words ‘Eco’ and ‘Diesel’ together in the same sentence?  Well…yes.

Diesel has always had about a 25 to 30% advantage on average where fuel economy is concerned when compared to regular gasoline.  The ‘knock’ on diesel apart from the distinguishable knocking sound made by the engine, has been that it was full of sulphur and other harmful emissions that created a dirty and smelly legacy coming from the tailpipe as an end result.

Enter technology…

I suppose someone in engineering land figured that if we can project GPS coordinates onto a pair of nerd-glasses, and if we can program a mobile phone to play Justin Beiber tunes whenever someone’s annoying sibling calls (of which I do neither), they can probably improve the emissions of diesel fuel.  So they did.

The combination of new ultra-low sulpher diesel fuel as well as improved and cleaner burning diesel-engines have elevated diesel-engine technology to where we can now speak of the true benefits of dramatically increased fuel economy, while not having to turn a blind cheek to other, less-environmental attributes.  So in other words yes, it now qualifies to be included amongst the other reviews found in the Enviro Dad Test Drive.

The new Italian made eco-diesel which is also found on the new Ram 1500 Eco-Diesel provides solid performance, great torque and excellent fuel economy, all while doing so with far cleaner emissions performance than ever before.

As my time that I had booked with the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Eco Diesel came towards the end of a long and difficult winter in my neck of the woods, and as spring was finally starting to show signs of its pending arrival, I decided to shoot this review as part of a seasonal send-off.

I found the right terrain to shoot located on the grounds of Windreach Farm, which is located in Scugog, Ontario – about 90 minutes northeast of downtown Toronto.  The farm is a wonderful facility specially designed to be accessible to all individuals, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.  From sensory walking trails, to horse riding for the blind to a host of other activities, Windreach is a wonderful place with full charitable status and I was more than happy to showcase the property while driving around their snow-covered corn fields.

As you’ll also see in this video review, I decided to add a touch of symbolism to the review as I allowed the 4 x 4 capabilities of the Jeep to clash head on with a lone snowman.  The end result was entertaining to watch and satisfying to ingest.

The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Eco-Diesel is available on the Overland and Summit trim editions only.  This is about the only area where I feel disappointed as it essentially means that you can’t enjoy superior fuel economy in this vehicle until you start getting close to $60K.  If the folks at Fiat/Chrysler would consider making this engine also available in the lower down Limited or Llaredo editions, I think they’d see even more sales than they do.  On that note, I did try to find out what percentage of Grand Cherokee sales came with Eco Diesel engines but representatives at Fiat/Chrysler said to me that they were not allowed to divulge those figures.

Nonetheless, if you are looking for a luxury off-road SUV that’s great on gas, and you have the financial resources to go into the upper trim levels, then you’d certainly do no wrong by considering this fun and fuel-efficient Jeep.

BY THE NUMBERS (Out of 10):

LOOK/DESIGN:

EXTERIOR                                            7.5

INTERIOR                                             8.5

DRIVE:                                                                  7.5

GREEN FACTOR:                                               9.0

FAMILY FACTOR:                                              8.5

TECHIE STUFF:                                                   8.0

VALUE:                                                                 7.0

(MSRP AS TESTED

‘Overland’ – $70,875)       

OVERALL:                                                            8.0