/articles/2014/10/2014-jeep-cherokee-road-trip-warrior

Our long-term cars are used just like any car owners would treat their own vehicles. We drive them on the commute to work, runs to the grocery store and picking the kids up from school. They also serve duty on the all-American road trip, and we partook of many during the past few months in our long-term 2014 Jeep Cherokee.

Related: More Long Term Fleet Coverage

We’ve detailed a number of issues with the Jeep’s nine-speed automatic transmission, but on the long haul there are many important factors that make a road trip a great road trip.

Chief among them is comfort. There’s nothing worse than “butt fatigue” as News Editor Matt Schmitz calls it. Luckily, no one reported any severe cases of the condition. Schmitz, Assistant Managing Editor Bill Jackson and Managing Editor David Thomas all took trips of 500+ miles in the Cherokee — none together, however — and reported good overall driver comfort. Road Test Editor Joe Bruzek called the seats “sofalike.”

The seats are comfortable, but the Cherokee’s pleasant ride — repeatedly cited in our head-to-head comparisons — also helped all passengers enjoy their respective journeys. “The car tracks beautifully and rolls over road imperfections without much disturbance to the cabin,” Bruzek said. Schmitz also reported terrific handling on snow-packed highways during a trip early last spring.

The ride may be important but part of being comfortable is having enough room to stow all your luggage, snacks, charging cables, etc. The Cherokee does fall behind a lot of the competition in terms of sheer cargo room. Compared to the Toyota RAV4 or the Nissan Rogue, we found the Cherokee came up short. Most of our road trips, which were generally weekend jaunts, required less than a full load for packing with Jackson successfully stuffing it full of camping gear. However, Thomas definitely felt the pinch on a five-day family trip.

The cargo area (above) had to hold a kid-sized bike, a small scooter, two bike helmets, a full-size golf bag, two duffle bags and a cosmetics bag. To this day Thomas is not quite sure how he got them all to fit. And it turned out the kids didn’t even go riding the entire time.

In the cabin there are plenty of cubbies, cupholders and door pockets to store a wide variety of snacks, discarded wrappers and change for tolls. The UConnect system kept playlists flowing, and the navigation remains acceptable if not world-beating.

There’s also mileage to consider in rating road-trip acumen and while it isn’t the highest-rated SUV on the market, the Cherokee definitely delivered on its ratings of 28 mpg highway. Over the 266 miles to Thomas’ vacation the Cherokee returned 27.3 mpg, and while that is below the ratings, the car was weighed down with two adults, two children, two car seats and that very full cargo area. The return trip was also 266 miles, and the Cherokee’s trip computer showed 28.6 mpg.

The best mileage we’ve recorded over the Cherokee’s more than 11,000 total miles was 30.7 mpg.

While we still grumble about the Cherokee’s transmission, everyone who has journeyed far from home in the SUV has been pleased with the experience.

Cars.com photos by Evan Sears, David Thomas and Bill Jackson