2016 Jeep Cherokee - any good?

FYI not the Grand Cherokee

SWMBO wants a small SUV for her next vehicle. We had a Cherokee loaner for 3-days while her Fit was awaiting an air bag, and she loved it. I liked the 4500lb tow rating...that's 1000lbs more than our current T&C.

Are the current Cherokees decent, or steaming piles of crap? I have no allegiance to FCA, so if there's another small SUV with equal/greater towing capacity, and better long-term quality, I'd like to check it out.

I've heard that in Trailhawk guise they're decent off-road. They aren't rock crawlers by any means, but they'll go plenty of places.

I've heard that the 9-speed transmissions are weird and sometimes problematic. I usually recommend the Mazda CX-5 over those (and anything else in the class) but I'm not sure if they are capable of towing anything.

My mom and her sister both have one, but they are still pretty new so nothing to report. I've also heard that people can't get the transmission to go into 9th gear.

I know in the 200 rental I had with the 9 speed it required very specific conditions to get into 9. It was like level highway, cruise set >72mph for more than a few minutes. If the car tried to accelerate at all it would stay in 8th or downshift to 7th.
On the Cherokee a few people at work have them and don't complain. When I went to the Chicago autoshow they were pumping these pretty hard and they went everywhere on their mud trail that the Wranglers did. I didn't realize they could tow 4500lbs thats pretty good.

In reply to nocones:

FCA states that, whether the vehicle would be comfortable to drive with that much weight behind it, or how long it would pull it before spitting pieces all over is probably a question without enough data yet to answer.

Isn't that the trans that slips out of park? The guy who played Chekov in the Star Trek movies got killed by his rolling back and pinning him against a wall. I believe it was a Cherokee

Iusedtobefast wrote: Isn't that the trans that slips out of park? The guy who played Chekov in the Star Trek movies got killed by his rolling back and pinning him against a wall. I believe it was a Cherokee

I'm pretty sure that was a Grand Cherokee with the rotary knob for a gear selector, or something like that. The regular Cherokee loaner we had used an actual shifter lever.

I have a friend who has one, it's the Trailhawk. She really likes it but it's only 4 months old, so nothing really to talk about from a reliability standpoint.

Well if the complaints and stories in this thread are legitimate I'd want some documented proof from FCA that the problems were resolved in the 2016/17 models before I put my money on one.

Daughter has the Trailhawk , I'm not a Mopar fan but I do like it. Don't know if I'd tow 4500lbs with it tho.

The zf 9 speed as used in the new Honda Pilot, the Cherokee, and Pacifica has massive teething issues. If you get a good one, yay for you. If you don't. Ohh man.

Yeah it's ge tensmission that killed Chekhov. http://autoweek.com/article/recalls/zf-recalls-505000-vehicles-9-speed-automatic

I has one as a rental for a week and I wasn't a fan. The problem I had was the transmission was really aggressive to upshift but very lazy to down shift so it always seemed like it was 2 gears away from where it should be. Combined with an engine that was pretty gutless at altitude, and it wasn't the best drive. I liked the escape a lot more.

It was between a 2015 cherokee loaded to the gills (not trailhawk) or the Lincoln MKC for us. 4500 tow rating and the cheaper price would have been nice, but the 3000 rating of the MKC was enough for my needs and it's a lot nicer place to be than a cherokee. Pretty sure the CX-5 only has a 2k rating, but you can get an escape rated for 3k. May be worth cross-shopping a loaded one. The 2.0 ecoboost in the MKC handles a 3k load very well.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: The zf 9 speed as used in the new Honda Pilot, the Cherokee, and Pacifica has massive teething issues. If you get a good one, yay for you. If you don't. Ohh man. Yeah it's ge tensmission that killed Chekhov. http://autoweek.com/article/recalls/zf-recalls-505000-vehicles-9-speed-automatic

You didn't read the article well enough, they're referring to a different problem that occurred with a different vehicle, and a different transmission. I should know, I have one! 2014 Grand Cherokee with the 'monostable' shifter and the ZF 8 speed.

Yes, the whole killing Chekhov thing was actually a shifter issue on a vehicle with a totally different transmission that doesn't have that issue in other vehicles with other shifters and isn't relevant to the 9spd at all as far as i know.

FCA states that, whether the vehicle would be comfortable to drive with that much weight behind it, or how long it would pull it before spitting pieces all over is probably a question without enough data yet to answer.

Ive towed that much with smaller vehicles with far less power and been fine. In fact i'd probably rather tow 4500 with a 2016 Cherokee than with any half-ton pickup older than about mid-90s regardless of how it 'felt' when nothing was going wrong anyway. But if I had to choose between a Cherokee and an MKC, i'd 100% definitely get the MKC.. and then tow 4500 lbs with it in total disregard of its ratings.

Even if I were to have towed some stuff in the 3.5-4k range, I wouldn't admit it on a public forum, right??

unrelated note (really): flappy paddle shifters on an auto make staying in the power band on hilly highway routes pretty easy.

I rented one for a month after hitting a deer. It drove ok aside from showing off how many gears it had when you got to a hill and the radio/ hav worked different then what I'd finally gotten used to in my car. I put about 600 miles a week on it and it was plenty comfortable as long as I didn't have to look at it. They're not the prettiest cars and the color I had and the big chrome wheels did it no favors.

One of my coworkers had one for a couple of months. She drives an Escape now.

I just traded my 2015 Trailhawk in yesterday (for a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with a Hemi ). I had the Cherokee from new for 2 years on the dot. Transmission is definitely problematic. Mine never failed, so it was considered one of the "good ones" by the service guys. Nonetheless, horrendous 2->3 shift, and would often lag dangerously if you prodded it for passing/merging. I've had my GC for 2 days now (with the 8 speed), and it is light years ahead in smoothness...

I have a detailed thread on my Trailhawk experience on the Jeep Cherokee forums, and would be happy to answer any other questions about my experience.

On the used market where I see them, they have had trans issues(of course) and problems with the touch screen radio controls mostly(for the ones equipped with that option) most predominantly.

Otherwise they're little issues like EVAP problems(normally the ESIM valve, sometimes a bad purge solenoid), a window switch or two failed, typical Chrysler stuff.

Personally I dislike them. IMO the interior and whole car starts to feel "loose" and doesn't stay feeling nice and tight with age/miles like a Honda/Toyota product of similar year does. Like comparing a brand new Dodge Caliber to one with 70k+ miles. A lot of this is how the car is treated, which I can only speculate how that was. This is just my personal opinion though.

I'm not a fan of them. I'd recommend the CX-5 but looks like it doesn't tow enough for ya. How about a RAV4?

In reply to JAhmed:

Thanks for the input. It's a shame, as it ticks the right boxes otherwise, but it doesn't seem worth the risk - even under warranty.

A guy at work has one. He's gone through either 1 or 2 transmissions under warranty and has been horribly disappointed with it.

This is an old thread, but any update on the transmission issues?  I assume they were software related and not hardware?  Correct?  I also assume they've been resolved and all vehicles out there should have been updated? Is there a year/Vin cross over for good/bad?  Anyone had a KL for a few years now and willing to comment?