Jeep Grand Cherokee Gas mileage comparison

I am a statistical person. Or as my wife says when I'm bragging to her about some of my stats, "You are a sick man." I keep stats on everything. A few of my ongoing stats are minimum and maximum temperatures for every day for the past six years so I can compare the average to the current day's minimum and maximum -- the amounts of each snowfall and rainfall -- the days I mow the lawn -- the miles, gallons of gas, and miles per gallon for each fill up for my vehicles. That means I can compare the mileage I am currently getting with my Jeep Grand Cherokee to the smaller, sportier car I had before the Jeep.

My previous car had a V-6, 3.0 liter engine. My Jeep Grand Cherokee has a Straight-6, 4.0 liter engine. I am averaging 18 MPG overall driving about 35 miles per day with a lot of in-town driving. Using the average cost per gallon for the year, the difference comes to $1.00 more per day with my Jeep Grand Cherokee. So I have extra power plus all the benefits I've mentioned in previous posts on this blog. I consider the extra $1.00 per day well worth it.

Jeep Grand Cherokee Rear Cargo Door

Most vans and SUVs come with rear cargo storage space. The access to that space varies depending on the type of rear door on the vehicle. Some have the spare tire on the back and open to the side. Others open from the bottom. My preference is opening from the bottom.

On my Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo the rear cargo door has a window at the top. That window can be opened by itself to place items in the cargo space. It could be left open to allow loading a long piece of wood, for example, that does not fit completely inside. The rear seats fold down easily to allow for even larger items. The cargo space can then be accessed from the rear passenger doors as well as the rear cargo door. If an item is still too long, it could stick out the top of the cargo door with the window open. In this case, I would suggest tying the window down so it doesn't get damaged by bumps or the wind. And make sure to tie a flag on the end of the item as a warning if it sticks out very far.

The entire back door also opens from the bottom to allow full access to the cargo space. This gives a large open area for loading items of all sizes. It is a very convenient way to access the cargo space. If items are too long to fit, the entire door cold be left open. Again, I would suggest tying it down so as not to get damaged by wind or bumps.


If you look closely inside the cargo area, or click on the picture to enlarge it, you will notice my jumper cables in a leather case. It is part of my "being prepared" and organized. See my Organizational Tips blog for more organizational tips.

Jeep Grand Cherokee Dash

A dash of salt is sometimes all it takes when cooking. However, when it comes to the dash in my vehicle, I want a little more than that. While dashes come in many shapes and sizes, most seem to be there just to hide the ugliness of the nuts and bolts, wires and cables underneath. Once in a while a dash can actually be functional. That is the case in my Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.

It has two flat surfaces which are depressed about 1/2 inch and serve as storage trays. The one in the center is 6 x 9 inches. The other is 6 inches wide on one end, 4 inches on the other, and 18 inches long. These trays can hold papers, sun glasses, a book, or other items which are temporary in nature. If one wants to stay neat and organized, things would be put back where they belong at the end of the journey. And objects which might cause problems in the event of an accident should not be stored there while driving. Those things taken into consideration, it is a very handy dash. I commend the Jeep engineers for this feature. The console also has a similar space in front of the shift levers. There is also another little space just above the console below the heater controls. It is handy for storing my wallet while I'm driving. I hate sitting on the wallet-lump for long drives.

All in all, I really like the dash in my Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. It is very functional beyond just hiding the mess we wouldn't want to see.

Antilock Braking in a Jeep Grand Cherokee

One of the many good features and a great safety feature on my Jeep Grand Cherokee is the 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system.

As I was growing up, I had the opportunity to participate in Boy Scouts. Their motto is "Be Prepared." I've practiced that in a lot of areas of life. And I've projected that into many areas to be ready for unexpected events, like auto accidents. When I see an accident, or a narrow miss, I think about how it would be best to react in that situation, like pump the brakes instead of just slamming them to the floor. So I thought I was prepared.

Then, about 10 years ago, I had an opportunity to see if my preparation would help. It didn't. A car ran a stop sign at a snow packed intersection. My foot shoved the brake pedal all the way to the floor as I frantically tried to steer around the car. With the brakes locked, I slid straight forward into the front passenger fender of the other car, glancing off and sliding into a telephone pole. Fortunately the speed limit was only 35 on that road so there were no injuries, except to the cars. In spite of my preparation, I could not overcome my instinct to just slam on the brakes. I could have slowed down more if I had pumped the brakes with perhaps much less damage to the cars and I might have missed the telephone pole. Also, I may have been able to steer around enough to miss the other car.

Now there is an invention which overcomes the instinct to push the pedal to the floor. I have a 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system on my Jeep Grand Cherokee. A while back a pick-up truck pulling a huge boat ran the same stop sign as my earlier incident. My instinct again was to slam on the brakes. However, this time I was able to steer around the other vehicle without any damage to either vehicle.

The 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system automatically gives a pumping motion to stop more quickly as well as allow the driver to continue steering. No locked brakes causing straight forward sliding. What a great invention!

Some people to whom I've talked have complained that they don't like the sound or feel of the automatic "pumping motion." However, I'll take that feel and sound any day over the feel and sound of crashing into the fender of another car. Give me anti-lock brakes any time over a standard brake system.

You Wouldn't Understand

Being the owner of two Jeeps, it is hard to explain. These are my first SUVs after driving sporty cars most of my life with a few family cars thrown in while our son was growing up. So why do I feel so at home in a Jeep?

It is hard to explain. Driving in my Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, I like the sense of being "up there" where I can see what's going on around me instead of looking out and seeing pick-up headlights staring me in the face. It is more comfortable being able to see the truck driver rather than counting the lug nuts on the truck tires because they are at eye-level. I like the much improved traction of the on-demand 4-wheel drive system on snow-packed roads and parking lots. I like the added sense of security of the 4 wheel anti-lock disc brake system on my Grand Cherokee. I felt much more at ease when my wife was commuting 35 miles each way to work last winter in her Jeep Liberty.

While the gas mileage isn't quite as good as the cars I used to drive, the feel and functionality of the Jeeps more than make up for the 4-5 mpg I lost. I like the feel, the looks, the handling. I like it all.

I believe it is really true as the bumper sticker states:
"It's a Jeep thing. You wouldn't understand."

My Jeep Mistake

Back in my younger years, I never imagined driving a Jeep. I was into the classic cars. My 56 Ford Fairlane hardtop with glass packs and fender skirts got me through my High School days very well. Jeeps were for flying over sand dunes. There were no sand dunes anywhere around my central Nebraska farm community, so hence, no need for a jeep.

The “need” began to change a couple of years ago. The ads showing Jeep Liberties climbing the mountains began to appeal to me. Yes, I still live in Nebraska, and no, there are no mountains here. But there are snow storms, and most winters I had at least a few difficult run-ins with snow drifts in my road-hugging sporty cars. The 4-wheel drive capability of the Jeep Liberty had a lot of appeal. One day I broke down and took a very convincing test-drive in a 2002 Jeep Liberty. I immediately liked the responsive steering, the feel of really being in control of the vehicle, the feel of power from the V-6 engine, and the possibility of being able to haul something larger than a bag of groceries. The sun roof and excellent stereo system were just icing on the cake. So that day I became the proud owner of a Jeep Liberty.

Then I made a big mistake. I let my wife try it out. One time, one tiny little drive, and she wanted my Jeep Liberty. So exactly one week later, we were back at the same dealer looking at more Jeeps. This time I test drove a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. There were features I liked even better than on the Liberty – a little more comfortable ride, greater hauling capacity, electric seats, an information center to tell me the temperature, average gas mileage, if I left a door open, etc. I am a statistical person, so this is all fun information to know. So that day I became the proud owner of another Jeep. And I like them both. I hardly ever get to drive the Liberty, but when I do, I remember why I liked it so much the first time I drove it. I remain the proud owner of two Jeeps.