"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/17/2015 at 14:31 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/17/2015 at 14:31 • Filed to: None | 0
| 2 |
My winter vehicle is an '05 Grand Cherokee Limited. I live in Wisconsin, so I see my fair shair of snow, but I just drive around town. While I'll have a hard time getting stuck with the Hemi, 3 eLSDs and bigass General Grabber AT2 all-terrain tires with the severe snow duty rating, this is all quite overkill.
I love my Jeep, except for one thing: it gets terrible gas mileage. With the big heavy tires, permanent 4wd with no ability to shift into 2wd mode, the gas-sucking Hemi coupled to a not-particularly-smart 5-speed automatic, cold temperatures, and winter-blend gasoline, I'm averaging 11 mpg in mostly city driving with ~9 miles of highway cruising on my round-trip commute.
Many people who are serious off-road types, or people who fancy themselves serious off-road types even if they're not, don't like the Cherokee. It's not a real Jeep. It doesn't have a real transfer case, it just has a power transfer unit. You can't put a big lift on it. All true, but I'm not a serious off-road type. I just want something very good in the snow with some room in it. Which makes the Cherokee a pretty solid choice for me. Let's let Jeep say why.
Or if you don't feel like watching a 6 minute video, some key points.
1. In snow mode, the 4wd system sets the default torque split at 60/40 front/rear. Which means that you don't have to wait for the fronts to spin before the rears engage. It'll vary the torque split depending on wheelspin (and other factors).
2. It has a 4wd low mode. Even though there's no real transfer case, 4L will lock the two axles together with a 50/50 torque split.
3. It has a locking rear differential.
I'm pretty sure that with some properly decent tires on a Cherokee in snow mode, that'll take care of the vast majority of the snow driving I see. Plus it'll go into 4L with the option to lock the rear diff for the bad stuff. No, it's not going to have the absolute maximum capability of my Grand Cherokee, but there's also this:
So...give me a few (or more) years until they depreciate into the $10k-or-less bracket, if I'm still in Wisconsin, I'd definitely pick one of these guys up.
MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
> Textured Soy Protein
02/17/2015 at 14:33 |
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I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Trailhawk, I think they're pretty cool little SUVs.
themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
> Textured Soy Protein
02/17/2015 at 14:45 |
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I want a renegade 4x4 sport for my next vehicle for similar reasons. I'm too lazy somedays to fight the snow every time Michigan decides lake-effect blizzards should happen. I don't drive like an animal when it's bad out and I can still have my 6-speed manual. It has a bit more ground clearance but it isn't sky high. Just have some good winter/snow tires on it and I have the 4x4 for those odd hills and days where the plows don't come. When I'm NOT in 4x4 mode, I could probably average well over 25mpg. Maybe get near 30mpg average?