Jeep Cherokee Turbodiesel 2002 Review

Chrysler Jeep first became known for building 4WDs for Uncle Sam in dubbya dubbya two. In fact that's how it got the Jeep name, building General Purpose vehicles, or GPs. Since then it's become known as one of the world's foremost builders of off-road vehicles, and the mid-sized Cherokee's always found plenty of buyers.

Australians have a choice of two engines in the Cherokee, a 3.7-litre petrol V6 or a 2.5-litre, four-cylinder turbodiesel. Prices start from $43,490. The turbodiesel we tested here includes a special incentive package Chrysler is offering to promote the diesel - $4500 worth of extras, including CD changer, bonnet and headlamps protector, side steps, towbar, roof racks, moulded cargo bay liner and nudge bar, at no extra cost. Availability of this pack is limited to existing stock and is expected to run out in November.

Chrysler's 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine is no ripsnorter. It's rated at 105kW of power and 343Nm of torque, and while the former is no groundbreaking revelation, the torque peak is impressive for such a small capacity engine.

There's no other way to describe it - the Cherokee is painfully slow off the mark. Acceleration wouldn't best a snail below 2000rpm, which is when the turbo really starts to spin, thrusting the Cherokee forward at a decent clip. But, like all diesels, the rev range is shorter than Danny DeVito, and she's all over by 4000rpm. Time for the next gear.

You'll get plenty of practice shuffling gears to keep the Jeep in its power band - it takes the first three gears to hit 60km/h, four to reach a 100km/h highway cruise.

Diesels are supposed to be frugal on fuel, turbos not quite so, but still better than their petrol equivalents. Jeep claims the Cherokee turbodiesel will drink just 9.0l/100km in city driving and 7.4l/100kmh on the highway. Even without a boat on the back, we were unable to get within 50 percent again of these claims, and suggest that the driver's need to be brutal on the throttle just to get some acceleration may be the culprit.

For the record the Cherokee is rated to tow a braked trailer up to 2250kg, while unbraked trailers are limited to 600kg. If you're planning to tow a boat over a tonne, don't bother with the turbodiesel Cherokee - it doesn't have the engine for the job. Sure, it'll move the trailer, but you'll be frustrated by the further degradation of straightline performance, and will probably frustrate the queue of drivers behind you also.

It's unusual for us to take issue with a vehicle of the Cherokee's size, because mid-sized 4WDs have really grown up in terms of towing ability recently. Combine that with their relatively compact dimensions and it makes them a great choice for those who drive as much without a trailer as they do with.

Perhaps the Cherokee's other main weakness is rearward vision, thanks largely to the spare wheel mounted on the cargo door. The cargo door itself is quite clever: the one lever popping the window up and swinging the door out for easy access. But having that big 16-inch wheel square in the middle of the rear window makes life more difficult that it should be when reversing. The wing mirrors, on the other hand, are very big and useful.

When the time came to take our Cherokee back, we weren't sad to say goodbye - and that's a shame because we're quite fond of the V6 petrol variant. Both petrol and diesel offer a good level of equipment for the price and come with plenty of useable interior room in the front two rows and an adequate amount of cargo space behind the seats.

But we could never live with that diesel engine, which is not even adequate for day to day driving, let alone serious towing. If your heart's set on a Jeep, take the petrol one. Even though the petrol's only available with an automatic gearbox and the vehicle weighs an extra 130kg, it's still vastly superior to its oil burning stablemate.