TOWING a caravan off-road across a Welsh mountainside is not what the average holidaymaker gets up to.

Aug 18 2008 Chris Russon

TOWING a caravan off-road across a Welsh mountainside is not what the average holidaymaker gets up to.

But when the towing vehicle is Jeep’s new Cherokee, anything goes.

According to Jeep, the third generation of its legendary off-roader has a class leading towing ability of 2.8 tonnes.

It’s also moving upmarket to confront the likes of Land Rover’s Freelander, the Nissan X-Trail and even the BMW X3.

Priced from £24,595 for a six speed manual or £1,000 more for a slightly higher specification automatic model, all Cherokees now come with leather trim, climate control, automatic headlamps and wipers and electronic stability controls.

Options are limited to special paint at £400, deep tint windows at £300, a 20-gig hard drive satellite navigation, entertainment and communications system for £1,500 and a £950 fabric sunroof which runs the whole length of the vehicle.

At less than £28,000, a fully kitted new Cherokee is competitively priced compared to the opposition – but it’s also significantly more expensive than the previous model which could be had for a basic price of around £21,000.

The shift is largely due to additional systems which make the Cherokee a hard core off-roader – hence the caravanning exploits.

Operation of the four wheel drive system is totally electronic and is now done at the flick of a switch while hill descent control is available on the automatic versions. Hill start assist is standard on both manual and auto models.

The new Cherokee has lost none of its mud-plugging attributes and remains one of the best off-road vehicles to be had.

Only a 2.8-litre diesel engine is available. The days of gas-guzzling petrol powered Jeeps is gone and the new Cherokee can average a claimed 33.6mpg as a manual or 31.4 for the auto. Nevertheless CO2 emissions are high at 222g/km and 242 respectively.

With a 0 to 60mph acceleration time in the region of 11 seconds, on-road performance is what you would expect for a vehicle weighing around two tonnes – and if you are watching fuel consumption it can take some time to wind up the Cherokee to cruising speed.

Handling has been greatly improved with stiffer suspension but there’s a trade off which has made the latest Cherokee quite bumpy off-road.

Classic Jeep features such as the seven slot grille and round headlamps are retained on the new model, albeit the lamps now being housed in a rectangular frame, and there is plenty of chrome.

Rugged body lines are also back and the new model owes more of its looks to the original Cherokee than the last one.

Cargo space is 419 litres with all seats up and 1,404 with the back ones folded. There’s also an underfloor compartment for wet or muddy clothing while the front passenger seat can fold to become a makeshift table.

If you go for the options, the MyGig hard drive uses a 6.5-inch colour touch screen and as well as the navigation system it can store some 1,600 songs and offers Bluetooth phone connections.

The sunroof, which Jeep calls the Skyslider, retracts electrically either rearwards or forwards in 18 seconds opening out the whole roof area. The fabric lies on an aluminium grid, a security feature which prevents access to the inside of the car even if the roof is tampered with.

As a utility vehicle the Cherokee remains one of the best – with the extras fitted it now becomes a very practical family machine.