Friday 6th May 2016

Shed of the Week: Jeep Grand Cherokee

All the car you need when 'that big brown chomps on your hopper'

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Orvis sounds like something you might have jam on as you're kicking an empty bean can disconsolately up a cobbled Northern street. This week, however, Orvis refers to the name chosen by Jeep for a limited edition Grand Cherokee that has just lumbered clumsily into SOTW territory.

That name came from a manly marketing tie-up between Jeep and (can you guess?) Orvis, a US-based megastore for all kinds of outdoorsy stuff, including SuperStrong™ Tippet.

What kinda tippet now? Shed is not a fishist, but apparently tippet is a kind of fishing string. It says here that "the wet knot strength of SuperStrong™ is higher than any other polyester material, meaning when that big brown chomps on your hopper, you can finish the fight without fear of breakage". Few would disagree with the idea that big browns chomping on one's hopper should be dealt with in a firm and decisive manner, and Shed himself dreams of the day when he might finish his 30-year fight with Mrs Shed once and for all.

Back in Shedland, the fear of breakage is something that will never be far from your mind should you decide to blow your big brown grand on this Grand Cherokee Limited Orvis.

Shed's not sure whether this really is an Orvis. His confusion about a 1998 example of a special edition that only ran for two years between 1995 and 1997 can perhaps be explained by the UK market taking the unbought dregs from the US market after the partnership between these two companies came to an end.

What's not so easy to explain is the black paint. Orvi only came in Moss Green or, er, Light Driftwood. Who knows what colour that is, but the word Light suggests it's not a type of black. An Orvis is also meant to have "unique beige-and-green luxury leather seating surfaces with red piping and matching door panel accents". Ulp.

If it is an Orvis, and let's say it is, it might have an electrically operated rear glass, which is actually quite a nice feature if you have dogs or relatives that you're not particularly fond of and an unfortunately jerky throttle foot. Even if the rear window doesn't have power, there's no shortage of electrical assistance for just about everything else in a Grand Cherokee. Nothing you wouldn't expect in a standard supermini these days, but back in the 90s GCs were seen as wonderfully packed with labour-saving electrickery. Well, maybe not wonderfully so much, as Jeep electrics are famed for their flakiness, but certainly extensively.

Americans have always had a love affair with wacky misspelt names. They're usually mash ups of two words squashed into one, with the capital letter of the second one retained. Jeep used plenty of these to help it remember which of its many and various 4x4 systems were on any given car. Best known were Command-Trac, Selec-Trac, and the permanent all-time four-wheel setup that should be on this Shed, Quadra-Trac. Other niche-market 4x4 systems were available, including a lowered Race-Trak (with enhanced Quadra-Link suspension) for sportier drivers, a jacked-up Ha-Trac for offroading milliners, and a Hi-Slush single-geared Bak-Trac option for politicians. None of that last sentence was true.

The one thing this particular Grand Cherokee doesn't have is a 5.9-litre V8 motor. Instead, you get Jeep's lounge-mungous 4.0-litre straight six. Compared to everything else on the Chero this pushrod unit is pretty reliable. It can easily top 200K miles without major attention, as long as some passing attention is paid to it along the way. Failing to match up the tyres nicely will brew up tranny trouble. Busted air-con is dear to mend.

Frackers will like it though as they'll very likely be striking some oil on a daily basis. The rear main seal is known to leak, though not catastrophically. The air filter can get a bit gloopy too, usually as a result of blow-by from worn rings or as a by-product of clogged vacuum/PCV pipes. Instead of hating the oiliness you could embrace it as a sign of how messily jovial things were in the good old days. To the Cherokee's list of old-school quirks you can add rear axle whine, screen leaks and less room in the back than you might think. As noted, Jeep's Powr-Klik electrical switches are fairly horrid quality-wise but not too onerous to fix.

On the positive side, a pre-2000 car like our SOTW won't have the new-and-not-so-improved No-Krak manifold that turned out to be anything but. Rust is definitely a potential issue, but this car looks like it's spent most of its time in a rather posh garage.

Get it out on the road and you might enjoy its pillowy EasyBoy seats, if not so much its FauxWood™ dash panelling and generally vile build quality. You'll enjoy its relatively compact dimensions (compared to a Range Rover). You may even be vaguely impressed by its off-road abilities.

There it is then. As they say, a lot of car for the money. How much car you might want for your money, in tonnage terms, is a question only you can answer.

Here's the ad.

A really lovely example. Good condition for year and mileage. MOT December 2016. Recently fitted Catalytic converter and new front brake discs and pads. Air conditioning. Heated seats. Automatic. Cruise control. 6CD player.

[Spannerski]

These things can run for many thousands of miles without attention.
30K + between services is not unheard of.

Personally - I'd stick it out back with the trash or turn it into a moonshine still.