Since my wife didn't want me driving the CX-5 until the recall was fixed, I was given a loaner car while it waited to be fixed. Please hold the commentary about getting a loaner for the recall, my wife didn't want me driving around the little ones, she worries a lot, I didn't care, but want to make my wife happy. I was given a 2015 Jeep Cherokee Latitude 2wd I-4 for the day to drive around. I had the vehicle for a little over 24hours and I thought I would share my thoughts about it. First, off I always like the idea of the Cherokee, specifically the Trailhawk version with the V6 and the ability to tow 4500lbs, but I have never liked the front end styling of the vehicle. Having it in person just confirmed my distaste for the front end. It looks like someone squished the front end down and the headlight placement in the bumper separate from the daytime running lights and blinkers is just strange to me.
The jeep came equipped with the Multiair 2.4L 4cyl rated at 184hp with 171ft/lbs of torque and 9 speed transmission. For the most part the engine was smooth and responsive and the transmission felt strong but with 9 speeds the revs remained low and there was quite the event when accelerating to pass. I checked via switching into manual mode a few times and I was never able to get the tranny to shift into 8th or 9th gear even at highway speeds. I tried to force it into those higher gears and the programing would not allow it even doing 70mph. The 171ft/lb of torque was decent but I could definitely tell it didn't have the same pull as the CX-5 with 185ft/lbs. Even on damp roads, with traction control off, the engine was not able to spin the wheels from a stand still during a hard take off. Verdict: there's just too many gears in the tranny for this car or the gearing is wrong and it doesn't utilize all the gears like it could. It's not a bad engine but Mazda has the better 4 cyl between the two.
Cabin and road noise were at minimum and engine noise was not obtrusive at all. I would give the upper hand to the jeep in quietness of the cabin at speeds. I don't mind the CX-5 cabin noise but the jeep just seemed quieter to me. I enjoy the sound of the mazda when Zoom-Zooming and I felt the Jeep felt a bit numb in that aspect.
The 13" rotors in the front and the 11" rotors in the back stopped the jeep just fine but there was much more forward dive when coming to a stop and there was a slight vibration that I felt under braking. the car only had about 950miles on the odometer. I give the win to the CX-5 in braking performance. I had to adjust my driving style because of the forward dive and was not as confident feeling in the corners.
The steering in the Jeep felt numb. In a straight line the steering wheel was nicely weighted and responsive when twitching from side to side but during cornering there was a lose of feel thru the wheel. The jeep felt much heavier then the 3655lb curb weight, which is only 66lbs more then the CX-5. The CX-5 feels much lighter on it's feet then the jeep did. I had no complaints about the suspension of the jeep other then it added to the numb feeling when turning but it handled bumps and uneven road comfortably and smoothly. Maybe more so then the CX-5 with 19" wheels but pretty on par with the way the roads feel with my 17" blizzaks on the CX-5 currently.
Where I feel the Jeep really shined was the cabin! Even though is was the Latitude trim which is second from the bottom there was many nice and well thought out features the Mazda doesn't have. The Cloth seats where comfortable and the manual adjustment on them where easy to use. It felt like there was more cushioning in the jeep then in the CX-5. I did not like that some controls on the steering wheel where on the back side where I couldn't see them but that is a minor complaint. One very nice feature the Jeep had was back seats that both reclined and slide forward and back. This made installing the Car seats a breeze, and with the rear seats all the way back there was slightly more leg room available for the front occupants. The passenger seat also had some nice features to it that I wish Mazda would have incorporated into the CX-5. For one, the cushion section of the passenger seat tilted forward revealing a large storage compartment under the cushion. Also when the passenger seat was titled all the way forward it would release and the back would lay flat. A feature I could see very useful for carrying longer items in the cabin with the rear seats folded flat as well. There was, however, no 40/20/40 split rear seats or pass thru in the middle so one of the car seats would have to be removed for carrying anything longer then what would fit in the rear. Speaking of the rear, the cargo hold volume is not as large as the CX-5 but still seemed very usable. The floor is flat with the rear entry point due to the storage tray that lives under the floor above the spare wheel. I nice feature to organize all the things one might need in the back of a vehicle such as jumper cables, ice scrapper, bungee cords, etc. I felt it was better thought out then Mazda's foam insert around the spare wheel. There is a rear cargo management system for the jeep that includes a metal bar in the shape of an oval on one side that various clips and bags are designed to attach to and hang off of. I didn't use it and didn't think it was really anything special.
This car did come equipped with the cold weather package which includes heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated side mirrors, windshield wiper de-icer, engine block heater and remote start on the OEM keyfob. I didn't use the block heater as it wasn't cold enough but the rest of the features are quite nice and had me wishing that Mazda would offer a similar Cold Weather package. The remote start could be set so that when the car was started it would read the outside temp and automatically turn on the heated seats, heated steering wheel, heat mirrors and wipers as well as turn the heat on in the car. The heated steering was very nice and got warm, never uncomfortably warm but made grabbing the leather wrapped wheel a treat. The seat heaters were incredibly warm! On high, I felt as if the seat was roasting my back side within 1min of driving. I am one of the few that like the fact that the CX-5 seat heaters aren't as strong, I don't like my rump roasting! An minor annoyance was that there was no separate button for the seat heaters and you had to select them via the climate button on the 5" touch screen system.
As for the cockpit, it was well though out with controls easy to reach and an attractive layout to the gauges. The center section of the gauges could be customized to show what info you wanted such as speed, temp, compass, etc. I do prefer the CX-5 layout much better and like having an analog speedometer in the center rather then off to one side. What really shined in the cockpit were the accent lights, pun intended. There were several little accent lights aglow when the headlights were on. There was a little one up near the sunglass holder and doom lights that cast a faint white light down onto the gear selector and one that illuminated the storage area in front of the gear selector that also housed a 12v supply, SD card slot, and 2 USB ports. All of those ports also had a glowing ring around them. The two cup holders had a rather cool looking ring around them that glowed the same faint white as the dash and rest of the accent lights. The front windows had one touch up and down and all switches were back side lit. There was also a small light that illuminated the pockets for the door handles. Footwell lighting was also present but only for the drivers side. Over all the accent lights were a very nice touch and did detract from the driver at all and looked pretty cool. Our Audi A4 has similar little accent lights that add a nice touch to the cabin at night. I wish Mazda had done something similar. The one aspect of the cockpit I did not like was the reflection of the dash stitching in the windshield. It's very similar to the reflection of the left dash vent in the rearview mirror on the CX-5 but with the jeep it was right in my line of sight thru the windshield and bit distracting.
So what's my final Verdict of the Jeep Cherokee? Well, simply put, I'm glad to have my CX-5 back. Although the Jeep and several interior amenities that I would welcome in the CX-5 the driving dynamic just wasn't there. I enjoy driving and driving for enjoyment. The jeep felt like it was just to get me from point A to point B and didn't offer a whole lot of fun on the journey. Perhaps that's why I am drawn to and am a fan of Mazda in the first place, they focus on the drive and the enjoyment of driving. It's also, perhaps, why Mazda does not have the volume as it's competitors. I imagine most consumers look more at things like cup holders, accent lights and storage bins then they do corning dynamics when they buy car. Because, lets be honest, a vast majority of people with drivers licenses don't actually know the first thing about how to drive a car!
The jeep came equipped with the Multiair 2.4L 4cyl rated at 184hp with 171ft/lbs of torque and 9 speed transmission. For the most part the engine was smooth and responsive and the transmission felt strong but with 9 speeds the revs remained low and there was quite the event when accelerating to pass. I checked via switching into manual mode a few times and I was never able to get the tranny to shift into 8th or 9th gear even at highway speeds. I tried to force it into those higher gears and the programing would not allow it even doing 70mph. The 171ft/lb of torque was decent but I could definitely tell it didn't have the same pull as the CX-5 with 185ft/lbs. Even on damp roads, with traction control off, the engine was not able to spin the wheels from a stand still during a hard take off. Verdict: there's just too many gears in the tranny for this car or the gearing is wrong and it doesn't utilize all the gears like it could. It's not a bad engine but Mazda has the better 4 cyl between the two.
Cabin and road noise were at minimum and engine noise was not obtrusive at all. I would give the upper hand to the jeep in quietness of the cabin at speeds. I don't mind the CX-5 cabin noise but the jeep just seemed quieter to me. I enjoy the sound of the mazda when Zoom-Zooming and I felt the Jeep felt a bit numb in that aspect.
The 13" rotors in the front and the 11" rotors in the back stopped the jeep just fine but there was much more forward dive when coming to a stop and there was a slight vibration that I felt under braking. the car only had about 950miles on the odometer. I give the win to the CX-5 in braking performance. I had to adjust my driving style because of the forward dive and was not as confident feeling in the corners.
The steering in the Jeep felt numb. In a straight line the steering wheel was nicely weighted and responsive when twitching from side to side but during cornering there was a lose of feel thru the wheel. The jeep felt much heavier then the 3655lb curb weight, which is only 66lbs more then the CX-5. The CX-5 feels much lighter on it's feet then the jeep did. I had no complaints about the suspension of the jeep other then it added to the numb feeling when turning but it handled bumps and uneven road comfortably and smoothly. Maybe more so then the CX-5 with 19" wheels but pretty on par with the way the roads feel with my 17" blizzaks on the CX-5 currently.
Where I feel the Jeep really shined was the cabin! Even though is was the Latitude trim which is second from the bottom there was many nice and well thought out features the Mazda doesn't have. The Cloth seats where comfortable and the manual adjustment on them where easy to use. It felt like there was more cushioning in the jeep then in the CX-5. I did not like that some controls on the steering wheel where on the back side where I couldn't see them but that is a minor complaint. One very nice feature the Jeep had was back seats that both reclined and slide forward and back. This made installing the Car seats a breeze, and with the rear seats all the way back there was slightly more leg room available for the front occupants. The passenger seat also had some nice features to it that I wish Mazda would have incorporated into the CX-5. For one, the cushion section of the passenger seat tilted forward revealing a large storage compartment under the cushion. Also when the passenger seat was titled all the way forward it would release and the back would lay flat. A feature I could see very useful for carrying longer items in the cabin with the rear seats folded flat as well. There was, however, no 40/20/40 split rear seats or pass thru in the middle so one of the car seats would have to be removed for carrying anything longer then what would fit in the rear. Speaking of the rear, the cargo hold volume is not as large as the CX-5 but still seemed very usable. The floor is flat with the rear entry point due to the storage tray that lives under the floor above the spare wheel. I nice feature to organize all the things one might need in the back of a vehicle such as jumper cables, ice scrapper, bungee cords, etc. I felt it was better thought out then Mazda's foam insert around the spare wheel. There is a rear cargo management system for the jeep that includes a metal bar in the shape of an oval on one side that various clips and bags are designed to attach to and hang off of. I didn't use it and didn't think it was really anything special.
This car did come equipped with the cold weather package which includes heated seats, heated steering wheel, heated side mirrors, windshield wiper de-icer, engine block heater and remote start on the OEM keyfob. I didn't use the block heater as it wasn't cold enough but the rest of the features are quite nice and had me wishing that Mazda would offer a similar Cold Weather package. The remote start could be set so that when the car was started it would read the outside temp and automatically turn on the heated seats, heated steering wheel, heat mirrors and wipers as well as turn the heat on in the car. The heated steering was very nice and got warm, never uncomfortably warm but made grabbing the leather wrapped wheel a treat. The seat heaters were incredibly warm! On high, I felt as if the seat was roasting my back side within 1min of driving. I am one of the few that like the fact that the CX-5 seat heaters aren't as strong, I don't like my rump roasting! An minor annoyance was that there was no separate button for the seat heaters and you had to select them via the climate button on the 5" touch screen system.
As for the cockpit, it was well though out with controls easy to reach and an attractive layout to the gauges. The center section of the gauges could be customized to show what info you wanted such as speed, temp, compass, etc. I do prefer the CX-5 layout much better and like having an analog speedometer in the center rather then off to one side. What really shined in the cockpit were the accent lights, pun intended. There were several little accent lights aglow when the headlights were on. There was a little one up near the sunglass holder and doom lights that cast a faint white light down onto the gear selector and one that illuminated the storage area in front of the gear selector that also housed a 12v supply, SD card slot, and 2 USB ports. All of those ports also had a glowing ring around them. The two cup holders had a rather cool looking ring around them that glowed the same faint white as the dash and rest of the accent lights. The front windows had one touch up and down and all switches were back side lit. There was also a small light that illuminated the pockets for the door handles. Footwell lighting was also present but only for the drivers side. Over all the accent lights were a very nice touch and did detract from the driver at all and looked pretty cool. Our Audi A4 has similar little accent lights that add a nice touch to the cabin at night. I wish Mazda had done something similar. The one aspect of the cockpit I did not like was the reflection of the dash stitching in the windshield. It's very similar to the reflection of the left dash vent in the rearview mirror on the CX-5 but with the jeep it was right in my line of sight thru the windshield and bit distracting.
So what's my final Verdict of the Jeep Cherokee? Well, simply put, I'm glad to have my CX-5 back. Although the Jeep and several interior amenities that I would welcome in the CX-5 the driving dynamic just wasn't there. I enjoy driving and driving for enjoyment. The jeep felt like it was just to get me from point A to point B and didn't offer a whole lot of fun on the journey. Perhaps that's why I am drawn to and am a fan of Mazda in the first place, they focus on the drive and the enjoyment of driving. It's also, perhaps, why Mazda does not have the volume as it's competitors. I imagine most consumers look more at things like cup holders, accent lights and storage bins then they do corning dynamics when they buy car. Because, lets be honest, a vast majority of people with drivers licenses don't actually know the first thing about how to drive a car!
