Jeep Grand Cherokee 2014 Review

Victoria's north-eastern alpine regions and the winter-holiday villages that populate them – Mount Buller, Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Dinner Plain, Mount Buffalo – are familiar to every Australian who heeds the annual call of the snowfields.

Not so familiar, however, are the remote valleys nestling beneath the snow-capped winter peaks. These lonely and largely forgotten areas are accessed only during the summer months, and then via basic gravel roads and primitive bush tracks.

Mostly, the vast forested areas are closed from early June because the roads and tracks are generally rendered impassable. Mud, snow and rising water levels in the rivers and creeks that thread through the region make access difficult, and it’s only at the end of the winter season that authorities unlock the gates to private vehicles.

But as summer approaches the gates are re-opened, and the region is descended upon by adventurers on foot, horseback, trail bikes or in four-wheel drives. Those keen to immerse themselves in the beautiful, pristine environment will find the wait well worth it.

One of the most popular destinations in the region is the historic Wonnangatta Station. Nestled in an extensive, grassy valley east of Mount Buller, and about 200km from Melbourne, this region has an exciting, if somewhat mysterious past.

Now a part of Victoria's Alpine National Park -- but long ago run as a cattle station -- this remote area is denied to those wanting to access their holiday destination quickly, easily or comfortably. Getting there is arduous, and time consuming, and it shouldn’t be tried in a regular, on-demand all-wheel drive SUV -- let alone a conventional sedan.

Whether you enter from the north via Myrtleford in the Ovens Valley, or south via Traralgon in East Gippsland, there's no fast way in. With a combination of freeways and country highways, followed by a long stretch of challenging offroad tracks, the trip to Wonnangatta Station in a four-wheel drive vehicle Melbourne can take as long as eight hours -- equivalent to a capital city interstate trip.

It is well worth the effort.

It is hard to imagine night skies more starry, or air more fresh. And, if you ignore the birdsong, the wind and the gurgling clear waters of the Wonnangatta River as it flows through deep pools and over stony beds, the silence is almost total.

Depending on your inclinations there is plenty to do once on the Station, provided you are able to accept the near-total loss of contact with the outside world.

Whether you prefer to chill-out on your campsite with a book, walk to the cemetery (established by the Station's owners in the 1880s), scramble up some of the slopes surrounding the valley, swim in the river, clip into your mountain bike or take a hike into the wilderness, there are a lot of experiences to be had -- not to mention the joys of sitting around a warming campfire at night.

Wonnangatta Station has a fascinating history too. As the little cemetery will attest, the early owners experienced joy and grief -- the latter often brought about by the remoteness of medical attention. During its early days, when it was established by the Bryce family in 1860, and in its later operational years, that continued through to the early 1900s, it was regarded as the most remote cattle station in Victoria.

There's also a murder mystery. The never-solved deaths in 1917 of the then Station manager James Barclay and his cook John Bamford add extra intrigue to the station.

Mind you, entering the Wonnangatta Valley in a modern four-wheel drive laden with the latest high-tech camping gear brings a certain amount of detachment from the past. The way out of the Station, in an emergency, is not short, and reaching a hospital in an hour or so is out of question, unless you have a satellite telephone and are able to call in a helicopter.

Station Master
Our chosen vehicle for the Wonnangatta Station adventure was a Pentastar V6-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. Essentially it is the most basic four-wheel drive model in the range, but is still capable in a way no Ford Territory, Toyota Kluger or Holden Captiva ever was.

On the road, the Grand Cherokee operates as a constant four-wheel drive like the all-paw versions of Territory and Kluger, but with a two-range transfer case for use when the conditions get really tough.

In company with a group of more-focussed offroaders -- two Mitsubishi Tritons, an old Mitsubishi Pajero and a Toyota LandCruiser -- the Jeep proved refined and close-to-luxurious on the road, but at times struggled to match the capabilities of its trip-mates across tougher sections of bush track.

Perhaps surprisingly, the 2200kg Jeep was compromised not by a lack of ground clearance, but by the reactive rather than proactive Quadra-Trac II four-wheel drive system’s electronics.

On steep, gnarly sections of the track climbing out of the Station the Grand Cherokee suffered as the system busily adjusted the torque split between all four wheels, scrabbling where the simpler 4WD systems on the other vehicles simply walked through.

The Grand Cherokee Limited's suspension travel was adequate for the purpose but we did loft the odd wheel way off the deck on more than one occasion.

We were of two minds about Jeep’s Selec-Terrain traction control system. Although we chose the low-range-only Rock setting as most appropriate for the purpose (there are also Sand, Mud and Snow settings), we finally ended up leaving it in Auto mode. The Rock mode focussed a lot on accelerator control, making the pedal slow and ponderous to react, which was frustrating for drivers experienced with offroad throttle modulation. All this meant the Grand Cherokee driver sometimes had a battle on hand in stretches where the other four-wheel drives simply rolled on without effort.

Next time we would choose the optional Offroad Adventure Group II pack that adds skid plates to protect the fuel tank, front suspension and transmission, meatier tyres on smaller 18-inch wheels (the standard Limited uses 20-inch alloys), as well as the more capable Quadra-Drive II system, which adds an electronic limited-slip rear differential and Quadra-Lift air suspension that is capable of raising ground clearance to as high as 287mm.

Quadra-Drive II and Quadra-Lift suspension are standard in the Overlander version of the Grand Cherokee which Jeep describes as having “industry-leading tractive capability and offroad performance”.

The offroad pack, at least, would be the obvious choice for anybody wishing to undertake serious adventures in a Grand Cherokee – as would the optional 184kW/570Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine.

Petrol and diesel Grand Cherokees come with sizable fuel tank capacities (93 litres) and guarantee a good cruising range, certainly more than enough for our Wonnangatta sojourn.

We were a little nonplussed about the load area. Although the load capacity of the Grand Cherokee is quoted at a sizeable 782 litres (behind the rear seat), we found that with four passengers – three adults and a child – on board, we had to pack a lot more carefully than others in our expedition. Cramming on board all the paraphernalia for a four-day excursion proved a challenge.

The point though was that our Limited-grade Grand Cherokee did the offroad work that many other SUVs would have found simply impossible -- at what can only be described as a remarkably competitive price. $56,000 (plus on-road costs) makes the Grand Cherokee Limited a rare choice in a segment where offroad abilities seem to be increasingly less important.

Back this up, like Jeep has, with excellent on-road behaviour that is amplified by the responsive and relatively economical Pentastar V6 and its standard eight-speed auto transmission and you have what could be described as close to an ideal compromise.

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