  2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. Click image to enlarge |
Review by Jacob Black, photos by Jonathan Yarkony
I love physics. Physics is cool. The Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT proves it.
“I reckon,” I grinned, “that if you revved this to the right point, and dropped your foot off the brake quick enough – that thing will pick the front wheels up.”
“As if!” snapped one of the technical boffins I was speaking to. I could see him doing quick arithmetic in his mind, “To do that, with a car that heavy, you would need to have at least 400 lb-ft of torque.”
Funny you should say that.
The Grand Cherokee SRT is fitted with Chrysler’s sensational 6.4L Hemi, which punches out a whopping 470 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. Oh, and a big chunk of it is available pretty much immediately – with 70 percent of it being sent to the back wheels. So theoretically, just maybe, perhaps – you could make it wheelie. See? Physics is cool.
Sure, it sucks juice like an Aussie at an open bar; sure it is big, brash, obnoxious and excessive. But this thing is just so cool. The styling is aggressive and purposeful, the engine note is sensational.
My goodness does this car sound good. Speaking on the phone via the super-easy-to-use Uconnect system I couldn’t help but rev the engine for my friend’s benefit. “Far out!” she exclaimed. “That sounds like a bloody dog barking!”
So if you’re asking about fuel economy, you are probably reading the wrong article. I averaged 21 L/100 km but I have to admit at least three of those litres were “you sound so good, let me hear you roar” litres rather than “actually moving” litres.
There is an “Eco” mode, but it is off by default – meaning you have to turn it back on every time you start the car. Ain’t nobody got time for that! The official rating is 16.6 L/100 km city, 10.7 highway – if there was a reason to use “ROFL” in print [umm, print? –Ed.], this is it.
    2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. Click image to enlarge |
The Jeep comes packed with features, like a fully automatic sunroof to delight the kids, Sirius XM radio subscription and cooled leather seats – cooled! Autos.ca Senior Editor Jonathan Yarkony dove for the button as soon as he entered the car, and let out a contented sigh once the cool air began to flow over his backside. I was more impressed by the concept than the experience.
The steering wheel is packed with controls, including those to turn on the radar-controlled Adaptive Cruise Control, and a neat behind-the-wheel-spokes setup for audio and media controls. Once I realized they were there I found them super-useful. All cars should have media controls there.
The steering wheel also has a voice-button to trigger voice commands and we found the GPS was able to understand our questions well enough – though we were stumped to find the right town name for the street we were trying to reach.
