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2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited 3rd day ownership review

9K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  limey-g 
#1 · (Edited)
After a few days of ownership I thought I should post an update on my wife’s White Limited Active Drive II Cherokee with blue brown interior.
Its just really nice, of course what I’m comparing it to is my 2012 Compass FDII, but they aren’t really in the same league.
This Cherokee has every options with the exception of the wireless charging pad.
You can see my review after the initial test drive here.

We have had some snow lately here along with some icey roads, which made for a good opportunity to test out the Active Drive 2 system.
Overall if you are just driving normally and accelerating at a normal rate it is very difficult to tell when the Cherokee is slipping it is VERY composed on slippery roads, it’s honestly like the roads are dry and normal, it just feels very planted.
In auto mode at extremely slippery intersections, there is maybe a split second of spin from the front tires before the rear kicks in and you take off. You really only notice this if you give it lots of throttle and try to spin the tires, the transition though is very smooth.
In Snow mode no slipping detecting at all, it does start in second gear, if you really try to get the tires to spin the traction control is very aggressive at preventing wheel spin, but it doesn’t prevent you from going anywhere.
Sport mode is pretty fun on icey roads you get some spinning and allows you to drift a bit if you chose, due to the less aggressive traction control programming.
Sand/mud mode feels like everything is locked in 4x4 no slipping at all while taking off from a start, but if you try hard enough all 4 wheels spin at the exact same time. It also seems to hold gears longer almost like sport mode.
We did have a chance to go somewhat off road and try to climb a snowy hill and up onto a ridge. Tried out 4 low in sand mud mode. 4 Low engages very quickly, maybe 1.5 seconds and throttle response is MUCH more pronounced, jeep feels pretty jumpy in this mode, probably due to the low crawl ratio.
Since the Active Drive 2 Lacks the rear locker, the Brake Lock differential Programming works great. Anytime the wheels on one axle spun, the BLD would kick in and cause the other wheel to get spinning at the same speed. Allowed us to crawl up the ridge where an open differential unit would fail. It was at night so I didn’t have any videos, but I will be making videos comparing the different 4x4 modes.
I run winter tires on my Jeep and haven’t decided what route I’m going to go with the Cherokee. I”d like some trailhawk rims at somepoint. The continental Procontact Tx tires that came on it are quite good in the snow, obviously not as good as a dedicated winter tire but they have impressed me so far even in the realy slippery intersections.
The lane departure works very well as does the parking assist haven’t had any problems there. One interesting thing I tried out was set the cruise and had the lane departure on. While going around a long sweeping corner I could actually take my hands completely off the steering wheel and it drove itself around the corner, in fact it basically will drive itself down the road providing the lines are visible. Keep in mind I was just playing around and would not ever recommend someone relying on this, but it was rather entertaining.
The HID lights are very nice on the highway at night, they are pure white with no blue tint whatsoever. I have found the foglights to be very weak and you can barely even tell they are on as the HID’s drown them out.

Overall I think this is a great vehicle for my wife, she traded in a 2011 Chevy Cruze, and immediately said how driving this jeep around it is less effort in the winter weather. It just goes and stops and does everything easier according to her. She does a lot of highway driving in the winter and I will feel way better with her in this vehicle vs a car now.
Here are some pictures (the interior pictures show the blue very pronounced its probably just from the flash, it isn’t that blue in person.)










 
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#2 ·
Very nice post. Thanks for sharing!
 
#6 ·
Great post & pictures - very informative. I really wanted that interior colour in my ordered TH, and actually considered the Limited because of it, but couldn't get tow hooks & skid plates on the Limited. Finally settled on the TH with Brown interior - life is full of compromises - LOL.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Excellent review under real time conditions.
I have not ordered my white limited as yet which brings up a question.
Given normal driving on wintery snow covered roads here in Canada do you feel the active drive 2 is worth the extra money or do you feel the active drive 1 would be adequate ?
Thanks Geoff
 
#13 ·
Excellent review under real time conditions.
I have not ordered my white limited as yet which brings up a question.
Given normal driving on wintery snow covered roads here in Canada do you feel the active drive 2 is worth the extra money or do you feel the active drive 1 would be adequate ?
Thanks Geoff
I wonder this too. I have Quadratrac 11 in my current JGC. As far as I can figure that's about the same as Active Drive 11 except priority goes to the rear wheels in mine, the front in Active. And both have 4 low. I'm in a snowbelt area and I find I only use the 4 low to play. The on-demand system works just fine on snowy roads and I only have Cooper Discovery tires on, not snow tires.

I've never used 4 low to drive somewhere I had to get to, only for fun on back roads and one road that is a snowmobile trail winter, in spring when it is part muck hole and part ice.

Mind you, I do have the option of simply not going somewhere if it's too bad out.

If conditions demanded 4 low wouldn't I have to be driving much, much slower than the posted speed limit? I have be barely moving, put it in neutral, just to shift into it. Same with Active 11?
 
#8 ·
Very nice was considering that color I actually wanted it but since it's my wife's Billet Silver is what she went with and got the black/grey interior. If they had had Winter Chill as a color choice I might have had a chance since that's the color she would have gotten.
 
#11 ·
Great post! Thanks for sharing.

Crazy that you guys have snow already!

You going to get some floor liners for it, to protect the carpets?
I would love to get a set of weathertech mats, I have them in my compass, however they do not list any available for the 2014 Cherokee. In the meantime I got some tarantula antislip floormats that seem to do the trick right now.

Limey-G

If you are only talking about staying on the road with snow, i'm not sure that getting active drive 2 would be worth it, that said, it does come with more ground clearance which is a plus. If you were taking back roads that were unplowed a lot of the time then the 4 Low might come in handy.

So far though even though we have used 4 low we haven't really needed to use it. I think it's probably only going to get used if my wife ends up getting stuck somewhere, and based on her expected driving habits, she probably won't get stuck. Even in the auto mode I would bet even in say a foot of snow most people would never have to switch out of it to get where they are going.

It is a 1250$ option, and you only loose 0.3l/100 kms on the highway so it might be a good idea to get it, just to know you have it in case that one time when you might need it.
 
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