all I see in the compass is 4 bangers. the grand Cherokee comes in a 6 but its full time 4WD. gas mileage blows. still its a nice looking machine
Dunno....I have a Grand Cherokee Limited with a 4.7L V-8.....it will consistently deliver 21 mpg on the highway at 70 mph, and around 17 in city driving (on gasoline....deduct 5 mpg if using ethanol). The 6-cyl. will not provide any better mileage due to the weight of the vehicle, and decidedly poorer performance.
I've never been a great fan of AWD, as opposed to FWD (Front wheel drive), primarily due to the fact that it only gives you a very slight traction advantage on slick surfaces, and that comes at the expense of stability.. With AWD, you STILL will only have power applied to rwo wheels at a time, and in 99% of the driving conditions those two wheels will be the two with the engine mass hanging over them (i.e. FWD). If you need to go in the snow, ice, mud, and occasionally off-road, there is no substitute for 4WD. Modern transfer cases and drive axles really don't affect mileage nearly as much as the older designs did, 3 - 4 mpg tops.
If you get a Jeep, get one with a 6 cylinder (straight six). That engine is almost indestructible. I had an 88 Jeep Cherokee with a straight six in it. It wasn't TRUE 4WD, but it did pretty good in the MN snowy winters. All I ever did to the engine was change the oil & the air filter.
That engine was designed by International Harvester in 1951, for use in combines and other large farm equipment. It was purchased by Jeep when IH stopped making motor vehicles, and farm equipment had largely changed to diesel. It IS indestructible, it's the ONLY straight six in 70 years built with SEVEN main bearings, and a 150 psi oil pressure system.......it'll run forever........I put a quarter of a million miles on one in a company Cherokee, and it never required anything other than oil changes, and replacement of a cracked exhaust manifold.
Sadly it's gone.......replaced by a V-6 which has, so far, questionable reliability.........an "Americanization" of a Mitsubishi design.
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