  2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited vs 2014 Subaru Forester XT. Click image to enlarge |
Review and Photos by Jeff Wilson
This just in from the Department of Redundancy Department: compact sport utilities remain a popular choice amongst Canadian consumers.
If this information is news to you, well, just where have you been hiding for the past couple of decades anyway?
This popularity breeds a robust market, rich with choice for customers looking for a fashionable and practical vehicle that blends just enough comfort, efficiency and space to meet the needs of everyone from active urbanites to busy families to energetic retirees.
And there’s a cute-ute to suit everyone’s style and tastes too, whether the preference leans toward sporty and nimble, large and spacious or rough and tumble.
After being on hiatus for a dozen years in North America, the Jeep Cherokee nameplate is back and replacing the rugged Liberty. Now instead of being a body-on-frame beast that could be thrown into off-road hell and emerge on the other side grinning, the new Cherokee has a more delicate unit-body structure more in line with the rest of the CUVs on the market. Despite this, Jeep still claims it’s a true Jeep and one worthy of the storied Cherokee name.
The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada writers think the Cherokee is the real deal too, voting it the Canadian Sport Utility of the Year, so this is indeed a ute worthy of our time and consideration.
Needing a familiar yardstick to measure the Cherokee against, we’ve brought out one of the Autos.ca team’s favourites: Subaru’s Forester XT. What we’ve found is that two very different approaches have resulted in two almost-equally good compact utility vehicles.
  2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited & 2014 Subaru Forester XT. Click image to enlarge |
