Video: 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee

The big thing about this car is it's a diesel, and I say a big thing because when you drive it or when you're idling it, you don't really notice the fact that it's a diesel. And that's a good thing. Now, as you can see, we have this Jeep Grand Cherokee in the middle of winter. So I did a lot of snow driving. One thing I can say that's nice about this compared to anything else I've driven in the snow is it feels very heavy and very planted in a good way. Now, like a lot of SUV's, it has kind of the standard styling, two box rectangular. But one thing I like about the Grand Cherokee is it really looks like a Jeep. Now that's most obvious upfront with the grill and the roundish headlights. Now this is a 2008 model, but really there's not much difference between the 2008 and the 2009. One of the differences though, is that there's a different leather package that you can get on this trim level, the Overland trim. And as you can see, we actually have leather here. It's not the color I would choose. I generally like darker interiors, but that's personal preference. That's not a big deal. One thing though that I do point out as a big deal is the wood trim. Jeep says, this is real, but they finished it in such a high gloss finish that it looks plastic. And it's really a shame because when you look around the rest of it, the metal trim, the brushed and the shiny chrome, both look pretty good. Now our Grand Cherokee came with a navigation system and it uses a touch screen, which I'm not a fan of. That's normally not a big deal, but with this Jeep, it was, it rides pretty firmly. And so it would never have failed, whenever I wanted to touch a button, I'd hit a pothole and then my finger would grab a button that I didn't want to grab. Also, if you want to switch between the navigation system and the radio, it's always a two button, press this, press that, to get it to do what you want it to do. And I don't think you should be looking here when you're driving down the road. What saves it for this trim level is it's got a steering wheel controls that actually make it quite easy to skip between the various menus. And I really recommend you to do that when you drive. Now, one thing to consider if you have a family is the backseat area is quite tight, especially if you have a taller driver. Now, since I don't have kids, I actually don't mind that because while you lose space here, one thing you get is a cargo area, that's really pretty large. So overall I'm not really sold on the Jeep Grand Cherokee. There's a lot of things I like about it. Again, the weight and the feeling of how substantial it is, that's something I really enjoyed in the snow, but I don't know on a sunny day, if I wouldn't want something that was lighter and a little faster. Also the interior things that we pointed out, they do kind of annoy me. So it would be something that I'd really have to think about before I was going to buy this car. (soft beat) <v Narrator>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog kickingtires.net.