[SS-Traveller]

290 brake horse power.

347 Newton-meters of torque.

Six-cylinder 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine under the hood.

All four wheels driven through an 8-speed automatic transmission.

Ground clearance is a ground-hugging 167 mm climbing up to 287 mm at the touch of a button, resulting in an approach angle of 35.8*, departure angle of 29.6* and breakover angle of 23.6*.

2260 kg of kerb weight rides on Kumho 265/50R20 V-rated M+S tyres, distributed almost perfectly in a 51:49 ratio.

Comfort inside is of 7-star levels. Heated and vented electrically adjustable seats in front, heated seats in the back - all in Nappa leather.

Heated steering wheel, dual-pane panoramic sunroof, 8.4" touchscreen with built-in navigation, acres of wood all around.

But back in India, not many would buy it.

Kitna deti hai will kill half the interest. It goes ~10.5 km/l on the highway while maintaining a steady 100-110 km/h, and ~8 km/l in the city.

And it's an SUV with only 5 seats.

But if you are a committed (read: car crazy) BHPian and your name is rideon, you drive this car - and a bike too. And then you make a statement through your numberplate, saying I 'AV' BYK.

[SS-Traveller]

Inside the car, everything looks much like what a modern-day high-end car should. There's the Uconnect system with an 8.4-inch touchscreen, with a plethora of buttons and dials below it. That's only until you turn on the car and the screen comes to life.

Along with a 506-watt audio package that sounds amazingly good (there are supposed to be some 20 speakers hidden inside the car) and a GPS device built in, that touchscreen provides so many controls, information and options that it would keep you engaged for quite a while just standing still.

How much you can play around with the various features of the car via that touchscreen is self-evident in the following series of pics:

And if you think this is entertaining, wait for a view of the speedometer console! (coming up in the next post)

[SS-Traveller]

Looks quite the regular speedometer console, eh?

The speedometer, RPM meter to one side, fuel and temperature gauges on the other. A few telltale lights, some more bits of information here and there, par for the course, isn't it?

Now watch it transform and give you information. A mindboggling quantum of information!

Enjoy! Pardon the dusty state of the dashboard though.

[SS-Traveller]

No, we didn't take this very capable off-roader off the road. But we did test out the fun bits just to see how things work. And this is where all the technology comes to your fingertips.

Look at what the rear suspension does...

...and the front suspension too.

Time to take out the GCO for a long, long drive. Gimme the Cherokey!

[SS-Traveller]

This, then, was the car we drove from Melbourne to Sydney, and back, covering around 2100 km. The route was thus: http://goo.gl/DIyMY0

A point to remember here: Australian, and especially Victorian, laws regarding vehicle standards in terms of safety and emissions are one of the most stringent in the world. So, a manufacturer cannot sell a car without ABS, EBD and ESC as standard fitment.

But the Jeep GCO takes safety a few steps further. So we have this:

and this:

and this:

The first pic shows the forward sensing radar, part of the adaptive cruise control system (ACCS). The fine net you see around it is the bug mesh that rideon and I installed ourselves over the grille before our drive - very effective, as you can see from the number of bugs it trapped.

The same radar is also used for the GCO's forward collision warning system. Approach another object too rapidly and the **Forward Collision Warning+ (FCW) with Crash Mitigation** alerts the driver with an audible and visual warning, and automatically engages the brakes if a collision is imminent. Wow! Never got around to trying it though!

The second pic is of the cruise control system buttons on the steering wheel - the three lower buttons allow one to adjust the gap from the car ahead. The system automatically brakes and slows down the car as it comes up behind a slower-moving car, and revs up again as you pull out to overtake. Simply fell in love with the system!

The third pic is of a little warning triangle that lights up on the ORVMs, known in Jeep-speak as Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM). A couple of radar sensors inside the door / side panels monitors the presence of vehicles in your blind spot. Too close (or if you turn on the indicators on that side for a lane change, with another vehicle - even a motorcycle - sitting in your blind spot) and the system starts to ping and these triangles light up. Very effective!

[SS-Traveller]

Melbourne to Sydney took us about 13 hours on a drizzly winter day, driving in a very relaxed manner at or just under the speed limit along the Princes Highway, with a couple of stops.

The maximum speed limit is 110 km/h, and on the undivided sections it is 100 km/h.

Despite the single lane on the undivided sections, no one really dawdles. Everybody, including cars pulling trailers and even goods vehicles, drive at at least 90 km/h (there is a minimum speed limit rule that applies too, and one is likely to be warned by the cops for driving too slow and endangering other traffic). Overtaking lanes are set up every few km - no one generally crosses the unbroken lines otherwise.

What amused us no end was these signs everywhere. These deserve to be used and adopted just about everywhere in india! I was to find out later that with a large migrant population, especially people from countries where *Keep Right* is the rule, a lot of drivers do make the cardinal error of going on to the wrong side of the road in Australia, where traffic keeps to the left.

Speed cameras on the highways are very frequent, and motorists are warned well in time. It's either police cars parked to the side of the road, or automated speed cameras set up on a boom across the road.

Of course, there are other compelling reasons for reducing speed too - like kangaroos. Hitting a fully grown kangaroo at 100 km/h can write off your car, apart from more serious consequences! My co-trainee in our Low Risk Driver Training class reported having totalled his car in the process of coming too close to a kangaroo a few years ago.

It was a long weekend coming up, with the weekend combined with the Queen's Birthday (celebrated on the second Monday of June every year), and everybody was on the road, heading to the coast for their dose of fun on the water. Despite that, for us battle-scarred souls from India, the highways appeared almost deserted!

There's strong focus on preventing drink-driving on the highways, and signs such as these are frequent, as also are random breath check stops.

Also interesting is the focus on driver tiredness, with constant reminders through signs like these that a break and / or powernap is better than driving while drowsy. There are also plenty of well-appointed designated stopping points on the highway, with clean toilets in the parking area, even though there are no shops etc. there. The local council maintains these stops.

[Aditya]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Test-Drives Section. Thanks for sharing!

[rideon]

SS-Traveller, Thanks for the review. Hope you enjoyed the drive and stay as much as we did!

[NPV]

Wow, Dr.SS sirji, thanks for sharing your wonderful experience down under and the review of the Cherokee, that's one heck of a vehicle!
Look forward to more information from that drive and pictures if you have more.

[premjit]

Way to go Shamindra Da, Brought back fond memories of my North island to South Island (In NZ) sojourn a long time back, particularly the snooze zones and the overtaking zones. If only we could do even 10% on our highways, driving here would be so much more fun. Looking forward to more pics...

Regards
Premjit

[SS-Traveller]

Now that the Grand Cherokee Overland is on the move and running like a song, here are some more pics from the Princes Highway...

Advance alert of a road crossing with traffic lights. How thoughtful!

Bush fires are common in peak summer, and all along the way are these warning signs alerting motorists of the risk of a fire starting in the surrounding grasslands

Railroad crossing

We have seen more rainbows in Australia in 2 weeks than in a whole lifetime in India

Grasslands, farms and cows.

One more view of the road

Cars and boats washed here. Soemtimes, even pets are washed too

[khoj]

Lagey raho Doctor Bhai, rated 5 star, though the Jeep deserves 7 stars.

[drmohitg]

Lovely pics Sir. Although I am still desperately waiting for the actual driving impressions on the car.

One thing I noted and specially liked was that they are themselves warning the drivers about speed cameras and hence actually want to curb the menace than to just challan and make money. I think if you put 10 such boards on a stretch of 100 km of highway but keep only one camera ( location unknown) then most drivers would assume the worst and drive within the speed limit.

[amit_shimla]

Let me thank you for letting us peep inside the Cherokee. I can understand what a pleasure it must be to drive and the pics you posted are superb. Waiting for more pics and the overall review of the vehicle.

[bigron]

This brings back alot of memories. I did a Melbourne Sydney Gold coast return trip few years back and it was one of the finest long distance trips. The car does look the part and has all the basics well covered.