Learn me: Jeep Commander

Cousin is looking at buying one for his wife. He asked me about them and I know nothing, do I figured I'd ask you guys.

Go!

Larger body and larger rear overhang placed on the chassis and running gear of the Grand Cherokee.
Has a third row but if you use the seats you are left with zero cargo space. When not using the third row, the folded third seat steals a lot of cargo space.
Generally the vehicle offers much less rear cargo room than its exterior dimensions would suggest.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Generally the vehicle offers much less rear cargo room than its exterior dimensions would suggest.

Proving, yet again, that a minivan is the correct answer unless towing or unpaved roads are involved.

Yes the practical side of me says this is purely a waste of money but I can see how some people love the look and may take it off road here or there. It is basically a Grand Cherokee. A Dakota quad cab or current model Durango would be much better buys of hauling or towing. But if just people the Minivan still rules (Stop hating).

If off roading is in the plans then make sure to get the correct version of the AWD system for what your family will use it for.

The windshield rake will cause a severe drop in MPG on highway use. I towed with one, my aunt's, for a while and it handled it well. Almost got stuck in a muddy field with the trailer and the quadradrive pulled me out no problems.

3.7 people hate but is an ok engine. I think the 4.7 is a nice engine but some hate on it for reliability issues. Then the Hemi 5.7 built in Mexico is solid with only harness and wiring issues causing headaches in that era.

The third row is a joke. UI worried about the minivan thing for a long time when we were shopping. I went to Carmax and played with every three row SUV I could find, thinking I would have an easier time of DIYing an inevitable transmission failure.

The Flex and the Acadia were the only ones close to hanging with a minivan on the inside.

I literally had difficulty figuring out how I supposed to get to the third row in the Commander, besides the already-mentioned awful cargo room behind the rear seats.

I recently saw a new Highlander, with the 3rd row in. It was a lot like that Commander. Useless. And 'Yota built it on the same platform as the Sienna, only gave it a touch more ground clearance and made it a bit shorter.

But it doesn't have a sliding door, so, you know, it's manly...and stuff.

If you want a 3 row SUV, because you tow or drive in the mud, buy a Suburban. Otherwise, the answer is minivan.

The Commander will carry a couple hundred pounds more than most minivans and will definitely tow better, although it does have less space on the inside. And the drivetrain will be more durable than the minivans too (the W5A580 trans used behind the 3.7 is basically indestructable and the 545RFE used behind the 4.7 and 5.7 is very solid as well). If you need the extra space, I'd agree, get a Suburban or similar. It'll do more than any of the others.

If you have the third row up, don't expect to use the rear view mirror. Even aside from the lack of cargo space, when I saw that I got out and went back to my suburban. Terrible visibility!

Couldn't pay me enough to own one of those.

The FIL had one for a few years and it was just not a fun car in any way. The biggest problem with his was the just a series of electrical faults. It was so bad it finally got bought back from them because it was in the shop constantly and it never got fixed.

They are notorious for sucking down fuel at an awful rate. Might want to check fuelly.com for info.

The 3.7 was capable of being reasonably efficient, but you had to be absurdly light on the throttle in order to do so. It took me a few years in my mom's 3.7L Liberty to figure it out. The car will accelerate almost as fast if you barely touch the throttle than if you give it solid partial throttle but burns a lot less gas. People coming out of other cars were used to having to give vehicles a solid amount of partial throttle to accelerate from a stop at normal driving speeds and therefore got far worse than advertised mileage in the real world.

Gas hog

I rode in and drove a rental Commander a few years back. I even rode in the third row. The problem for me comes from what JohnRW said - it's a longer rear overhand with a third row tacked on. So you're sort of out there wagging on the tail of the car when you're in that third row. Everyone that rode back there reported some amount of car sickness. Ugh.

I like mine. Tows great but the Hemi is THIRSTY.