It all depends on what size vehicle the OP has in mind for daily use, if it’s mainly one person and on occasion a full load of cargo than a new Cherokee might satisfy the Jeep need while being reasonably practical for daily use. A friend loves her new Nissan Rogue but it’s not that much bigger than her previous Kia. A Grand Cherokee would be the next size up.
Some buy Jeeps just for the off road image, like my co-worker who only really needs her Liberty for the snow weather traction but is madly in love with the Jeepster as she calls it. The Mercedes G wagon and the Range Rover are also extremely capable off-road trucks that are more likely to be seen kept shiny and on the paved roads but the image is what sells people on the truck.
There’s a lot of choices apparently. I don’t know much about most of those mentioned above. Me, I’d first probably check what Ford, GM, and Toyota have to offer. Besides Jeep itself, those used to be the big three for Jeep like vehicles. Does Ford still make their 4WD Bronco? GM their Blazer? Toyota their Landcruiser? If so, I’d at least want to price them out first for comparison.
GM makes the Tahoe which is the modern full size Blazer, or the Ford Expedition which replaced the Bronco. The Land Cruiser is still on the market with a small but very loyal following (Starts at $79,000+)
Assuming off-road ability because they glued a Jeep badge on it isn’t safe. The Compass and Patriot were based on the Dodge Caliber, a car with no off-road pretensions. Sure, Jeep may have raised it a little, but they’re still more car than SUV. The Grand Cherokee is a substantially different beast from the Cherokee. The GC is mostly a cushy highway cruiser (and very good at it) with better than average off-road ability. Nobody who always wanted a Wrangler to crawl over rocks in Utah is going to find the GC a reasonable substitute.
In this case the orginal poster wanted a road vehicle for travelling back and forth from LA and the family ranch. Even ordinary compact crossovers should do just fine at doing the highway miles, navigating LA, and driving maintained farm roads. A Grand Cherokee us expensive, gets poor gas mileage, and is no better at carrying 1-4 people to dinner than a CX-5, and only a little better on a dirt road.
OP here: thank you all for your insight. Wolyrobb hit the nail on the head - it’s all about image. I have no need for a Jeep - or any truly off-road capable SUV. We get snowed in maybe four or five days a year; and even when slick roads during daily driving are challenging, a crossover AWD vehicle would do just fine.
I’m just driven to Jeep for its image of capability, and my desire to either identify or be identified with that. And, after 15 years of “foreign” cars, I want to buy American. Logic leads me one way; my heart, another.
I’ll have to come clean and say - the Jeep I knew and grew up with was when Jeep’s lineup was the wrangler, cherokee, and grand cherokee. We had a white cherokee when I was a kid, and years later a Blue one. Both 4 door 4WD. Those Jeeps were great. In high school wranglers were very popular. Several friends had them, lifted and modified. Great fun. During that time I drove my parents 4WD 97 Ford Expedition (which is still going strong and looks great by the way!) and I loved that just as well. Now, the other crap Jeep has since released, including the new cherokee, are all basically crossovers. Cars with SUV clothing on.
To the OP, maybe you could convince the Mrs. to allow you to get a used Jeep as a side vehicle. I highly recommend the 4.0 Inline 6 engine and either the Cherokee or Wrangler. (I prefer the way the cherokee drives myself, especially with a little longer wheel base, but the wranglers ARE great fun with the top off in the summer).
I still see a variety of 80’s-90’s Jeep Cherokees used as daily drivers, a well maintained example would suit your desires while being reasonably comfortable for commuting.
I’m afraid for me Jeep = pretentious more often than capable. My hairdresser drove a Wrangler for years. He lives in the middle of San Francisco. Yeah, right. I have read good things about the current Durango, which is closely related to the GC. I would feel less of a fake driving one, but my family doesn’t own a ranch. The American roots of Jeep are getting weak, with current Italian owners, years owned by Mercedes, and even a stretch of Renault ownership. There were periods of American ownership after Renault and Mercedes had had enough, but it keeps ending up in foreign hands partly because Jeep is a brand that means something worldwide.
The interiors of both the GC and the Durango are nicer than anything I’ve seen in a largish Ford or GM. If you’re going to pay those prices, you should at least get a plush cabin. If you could see yourself in something less trucky, but still American, the Chevy Traverse is very decent and Chevy may have had enough time to get the bugs out. Even smaller, the Ford Escape is a beauty with a very nice interior, but like most new Fords of recent years it has had some reliability issues. Too bad, as it sure looks nice and is very comfortable.
wesw I agree with Cherokee. I think most of the problems were with Grand Cherokees and Durangos. The only drawback I can see for a commuter is the fuel mileage. Ours averaged about 17 city/22 highway but the thousands of dollars saved compared to some of the other suggestions would buy a lot of fuel.
Other than the difficulty of finding one with less than 130,000 miles for sale the Cherokee should be available in decent shape for way under $10,000 (at least around the NW) so there would be a little financial headroom to make a 90’s or so Cherokee into a reliable driver.
@db4690 she refers to her Liberty as the Jeepster as a nickname, I’m not sure she’s really familiar with the original. No disrespect intended she’s just so in love with the Liberty. It’s actually held up very well since she bought it new, with the possible exception of the silver paint on the wheels.
When I totaled my 1991 fully loaded option wise Cherokee in 2001 State farm gave me $6500+ which I considered generous. You should be able to find a decent Cherokee for around $3,000 to $4,000. I am in the NW. Which means no rust buckets unless they have been imported or spent years at the beach.
My Uncle is on his 2nd Liberty and last we discussed it he wasn’t very happy with how unreliable his was (many issues) so yes not all are as lucky as my co-worker.
The problem with the current Cherokee is that it is a completely new model. That and the peculiar front end. The interior also looks old school American truck, not a great thing unless you need easy cleaning. In a couple of years this may prove to be a reliable model. The Liberty it replaces never did, but the Dodge Dart has been quite reliable, something I never expected. New platform based on an existing Alfa platform, assembled by people unfamiliar with those platforms in plants extensively modified to make the Dart. It usually takes a generation of a car before all those pieces work together effectively. Good for Fiat and Chrysler. Now they just need to give it an attractive modern interior. Maybe they were trying for retro? Not much nostalgia for mid nineties Pontiac interiors. Or maybe there is in Italy, from watching US cop shows.
I would give the Cherokee at least a year. If the reliability is very good, with no obvious weak spots, it could be worth considering. If the reliability stinks, wait a couple of years before checking again. If they haven’t shown improvement in three years there is something basically wrong with it that will probably remain a problem (until the next major redesign.)
Almost all vehicles have few problems and it is not surprising to hear that someone has had success with a Liberty. Note that Consumer Reports gives any vehicle a much worse than a age rating if 4% of owners responding to their annual survey have problems. There has been a dramatic reliability improvement over results from 20 years ago.