Throughout its history,
Jeep has stood for toughness and versatility - in more ways than one.
The Jeep brand has survived numerous changes of ownership. It has created new markets when existing ones dried up. And it goes almost without saying that the vehicle itself has changed - a lot - as times have changed.
The first Jeep went into production in 1941, and Jeeps distinguished themselves throughout World War II. When the war ended, Jeep needed a new market niche and found one as a civilian utility vehicle, primarily for agriculture.
Jeep survived several ownership changes - first Willys-Overland, then Kaiser, than American Motors, which sold out in 1987 to Chrysler. But a more interesting measure of just how far Jeep has come is to contract the 1995 Grand Cherokee Limited with the World War II edition. They couldn?t be further apart.
The saying goes that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and nowhere is that more apropos than in the auto industry.
The new ?95 Chevrolet Blazer/GMC Jimmy and the ?95 Ford Explorer now feature flowing lines in the same vein as the Grand Cherokee. But when the Grand Cherokee Limited made its debut back in 1992 wearing its smooth new civilian clothing, Jeep competitors and critics accused the old soldier of going soft. They said the Grand Cherokee didn?t have the brutish look Jeeps have been known for throughout their more than 50-year history.
Well, maybe it doesn?t. But the design formula obviously worked, and others have since followed.
One area where the competition hasn?t followed is beneath the sheetmetal. Most sport/utilities are body-on-frame designs. The frame is fabricated in one part of the factory and the bodywork is assembled in another. They don?t meet until the late stages of the assembly process when the finished body is bolted to the frame.
Like its Cherokee progenitor, the Grand Cherokee takes a different approach. It?s a unit-body design, which means the body and the chassis are all one piece. This is pretty much the standard approach in today?s passenger cars, but it?s unusual in sport/utility cars.
Conventional wisdom says that body-on-frame construction is inherently more rugged, which helps it stand up to rough duty better than unit-body cars. The advantage of unit-body designs is weight-savings, which improves handling, performance and fuel economy.
Which concept makes more sense? That?s up to you. We can only say that the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee have done their share of rough stuff without falling apart, and that Jeep knows its business when it comes to durability.
Construction issues aside, there?s no question that the Grand Cherokee Limited is as handsome and sophisticated as sport/utility cars get. Available for ?95 in three trim levels - the basic SE, Laredo and Limited - and a new Orvis Edition (Jeep?s answer to Ford?s Eddie Bauer packages), the Grand Cherokee is a suburban status symbol. It?s just as much at home at the country club as it is at the hunting lodge. Maybe more so.
