GRAND GESTURE: JEEP TAKES SUMMIT TO HIGHER LEVEL

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Like a sprinkling of fresh snow, Jeep has topped off its Grand Cherokee premium SUV range with added features for the Summit. At the peak of the Jeep model range, the maker says the bolstered Summit Platinum will satisfy drivers who demand luxurious comfort and supreme refinement.

Exterior styling has been built upon by Platinum Chrome detailing. The premium finish features body-colour lower body trim, mirror caps and door handles, complemented by Platinum Chrome accents on the grille, lower fascias and side sills, foglamp bezels, rear step pad and badging.

Interior upgrades include illuminated ‘Summit’ doorsills and a deluxe Berber carpet cargo compartment floor mat. Cabin refinement is improved with the addition of an acoustic front and rear windscreen and acoustic second row door glass this is complemented by the standard Active Noise Cancellation.

At $78,000, plus on-road costs, the Platinum Summit is in the frame with some serious competition from the likes of Audi, BMW, Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz. Does it have enough to attract buyers in this market? It’s anybody’s guess.

STYLING
Jeep’s idea of giving the Grand Cherokee Platinum Summit distinctive exterior styling is to add chrome – lots of it – which only goes to emphasise the size of the vehicle: almost five metres long and two metres wide.

The symphony of chrome includes ‘Grand Cherokee’ driver and passenger door badges, front and rear ‘Jeep’ badge, grille inserts, front fog lamp outer bezel, lower fascia applique, rear boot step pad and rear tail lamp bezels. Oh, and 20-inch alloy wheels are finished in Platinum Chrome.

INTERIOR
Occupants are welcomed with illuminated ‘Summit’ door sill plates, while a deluxe Berber carpet floor mat gives the 782 litres of rear cargo space (with the rear seatbacks raised) an air of respectability not normally found in the boot of an off-roader.

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With room for only five in the cabin, there is plenty of room to spread out and long journeys are no chore. Occupants also have the benefit of Jeep’s CommandView panoramic sunroof, comprising two glass panels, providing a huge glass surface. The powered front panel opens rearward, while the rear panel, which is fixed, allows light and open viewing for second-row passengers. The system comes complete with a full-length power sun shade protecting against direct sunlight, the latter with limited effect in searing mid-summer Australian sunlight.

Premium touches include leather and timber trim, while the steering wheel design incorporates controls for radio, cruise control, telephone and voice commands. All Grand Cherokee models are fitted with paddle shifts mounted on the back of the steering wheel.

INFOTAINMENT
Comfort and convenience extend to an array of innovative advanced technology. A new Uconnect system includes an easily accessible 8.4-inch tablet-style touchscreen, combined with a customisable multi-view instrument cluster display.

The Uconnect 8.4 system is designed to facilitate a fully integrated infotainment experience within one solution, meaning all feature components including GPS, voice recognition and additional entertainment features are built into a single hardware platform, instead of being delivered as separate components.

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The star of the show, so to speak, is an Active Noise Cancellation system, resulting in a 10 dB reduction in interior noise, enhancing music clarity due to reduced engine clatter inside the cabin.

Developed by premium audio specialists Harman Kardon, it allows the Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum’s 825-watt, 19-speaker audio system to be heard clearer and appreciated better. This state-of-the-art system features a 12-channel amplifier, three sub-woofers and surrounds the occupants in high-definition sound.

ENGINES / TRANSMISSIONS
Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum is available with an Italian-made 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine, which produces maximum power of 184 kW at 4000 rpm and peak torque of 570 Nm at 2000 rpm. The latter is 20 Nm more than the previous model and accessible almost 30 per cent lower in the rev range (previously 550 Nm at 2800 rpm).

Combined with the new eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, fuel consumption for the combined cycle is a claimed 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres, a 10 per cent improvement on the previous model, despite the increases in power and torque.

Compact and lightweight, the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine features a 1800-bar common-rail fuel injection system, a compressed graphite iron 60-degree block with aluminium cylinder heads and a two-piece structural aluminium oil pan.

Additional emission controls include a close-coupled diesel oxidation catalyst and standard diesel particulate filter. The engine compels with Euro 5-plus emissions regulations.

SAFETY
Summit Platinum weighs has Forward Collision Warning with Crash Mitigation, Adaptive Cruise Control, ParkView rear back-up camera with guidelines, ParkSense park-assist and new Selec-Speed Control with Hill Ascent Control and Hill Descent Control, helping the driver when climbing and descending steep grades in off-road driving.

DRIVING
Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum has a range of features including state-of-the art 4WD, electronic limited-slip differential, air suspension and a multi mode traction control system.

It is debatable how many owners will take their prized Grand Cherokee into extreme territory, but the systems are there to make the going as pleasant as possible.

On the street, the Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum is a big vehicle and needs to be treated as one, with parking a problem in limited space.

SUMMING UP
With more than five million sales worldwide in two decades since, as Jeep claims, the Grand Cherokee reinvented the premium sport utility vehicle, the Platinum version represents the new peak of the range.

AT A GLANCE
Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Platinum 3.0-litre CRD diesel 8sp automatic: $78,000
Note: This price does not include dealer or government charges. Contact your local Jeep dealer for drive-away prices.
FEATURES
20-inch alloy wheels finished in Platinum Chrome
Platinum Chrome ‘Grand Cherokee’ driver and passenger door badge
Platinum Chrome front and rear ‘Jeep’ badge
Platinum Chrome grille inserts
Platinum Chrome front fog lamp outer bezel
Platinum Chrome lower fascia applique (front, side and rear)
Platinum Chrome rear boot step pad
Platinum Chrome rear tail lamp bezels
Body colour mirror caps
Body colour door handles
Summit badge
Body colour lower fascia (front and rear)
Body colour sill cladding (side)
Active Noise Cancellation
Acoustic laminated windshield
Acoustic laminated rear sunscreen glass
Acoustic second row side door windows
Illuminated ‘Summit’ door sill plates
Deluxe Berber carpet cargo compartment floor mat

SPECIFICATIONS:
(3.0-litre V6 DOHC turbocharged diesel engine)
Capacity: 2987 cc
Bore and stroke: 83.0 mm x 92.0 mm
Compression ratio: 15.5:1
Maximum Power: 184 kW @ 4000 rpm
Maximum Torque: 570 Nm @ 2000 rpm
Emission rating: Euro 5+

DRIVELINE:
Drivetrain: Automatic 8-speed with driver-interactive manual control via steering wheel paddle shifters and electronically-modulated torque converter clutch. Quadra-Trac, Jeep Quadra-Lift air suspension and the Selec-Terrain and Selec-Track traction management systems.

DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 4828 mm
Width: 1943 mm
Height: 1792 mm
Wheelbase: 2915 mm
Track: 1628 mm (front); 1634 mm (rear)
Approach angle: 25 deg
Breakover angle: 18 deg
Departure angle: 23 deg
Wading depth: 508 mm
Gross vehicle mass: 2949 kg
Towing capacity: 3500 kg (braked)
Seating capacity: 5
Cargo capacity 782 litres (rear seat backs up) / 1554 litres (rear seat backs folded)
Fuel Tank Capacity: 93.5 litres
Turning circle: 11.6 m

SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Suspension: Short- and long-arm independent, coil or air springs, gas-charged twin-tube shock absorbers, upper and lower control arms (‘A’ arms) and stabiliser bar (front); Multi-link independent rear suspension, coil springs or air springs, twin-tube shock absorbers (including load-levelling for towing), aluminium lower control arm, independent upper links (tension and camber) plus a separate toe link and a rear stabiliser bar (rear)
Brakes: Power, single-rate, tandem diaphragm vacuum, ABS, Electronic Stability Control. Four-channel, four-wheel anti-lock with active wheel-speed, vehicle-speed, steering wheel-angle, yaw-rate and lateral acceleration sensors, vehicle stability management with two-stage activation switch, All-Speed Traction Control, Brake-Assist, Electronic Roll Mitigation and Electronic Brakeforce Distribution.
Steering: Electric power assisted rack and pinion
Wheels: 20-inch alloy wheels finished in Platinum Chrome. Full-size spare

PERFORMANCE
Acceleration 0 to 100 km/h: 8.2 sec
Top speed: 202 km/h

FUEL CONSUMPTION:
Fuel type: Diesel
Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 7.5 litres per 100 km. CO2 emissions 198 g / km

GREEN VEHICLE GUIDE RATINGS:
Greenhouse Rating: 6.5 / 10
Air Pollution Rating: 6.0 / 10

About Derek Ogden

On graduating with an honours degree in applied science in London, Derek Ogden worked for the BBC in local radio and several British newspapers as a production journalist and writer. Derek moved to Australia in 1975 and worked as a sub-editor with The Courier Mail and Sunday Mail in Brisbane, moving to the Gold Coast Bulletin in 1980 where he continued as a production journalist. He was the paper's motoring editor for more than 20 years, taking the weekly section from a few pages at the back of the book to a full-colour liftout of up to 36 pages. He left the publication in 2009.
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