As some of you may have noticed, I got a new family ride...a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (2014)...my first US car.
The car is equipped with a flap operated sport exhaust, hand made in Germany and with TÜV. This exhaust is based on the australian Varex exhaust but has been adapted with an electronic flap control to meet German sound emissions regulations. I won't go into details but if you ever heard the typical SRT exhausts like Borla, Corsa or others, this one is sounding better. The typical V8 blob blob blob at idle and if you accelerate, well...like the typical V8 deep growl muscle car, just 3x louder. 
Amazing sound, this is half of the fun. A little pricey though...at 4200 EUR (incl. install).
Otherwise, the truck is stock, a German 2014 SRT, officially imported by Chrysler and officially sold by an officially approved dealership. So no grey import.
I picked up the truck at my dealer last Saturday and now I have over 600 km on it.
Here are my impressions (they may be a little bit different from what I wrote earlier because I only had driven a dealer car for a short period of time).
POSITIVE
- Nice looks (people actually turn their heads, this is not a car you see often in Germany)
- Good quality look and feel
- Engine/exhaust sound (even with the flaps closed, the sound is nice...a bit less loud than Cayenne GTS sound though)
- Engine feels powerful and torquey, especially in Sport or Track mode
- Launch control works very well and is very simple to use (press button, press brake pedal, fully accelerate, release brake pedal)
- Oil consumption, despite dealer cautioning that some engines may eat up to 1 liter / 1000 km, so far almost nonexistent (oil level the same as in the beginning, car has over 600 km now)
- Acceleration up to 220 kph without taking a sweat, over 220 kph a bit slower
- Excellent high speed stability (even at 240 kph, car feels rock solid), despite the wide tires (295s on all four wheels)
- Driving noise (wind, exhaust, engine) surprisingly low, excellent comfort, talking to passenger at 220 kph without having to raise the voice is easily possible
- Automatic transmission (ZF, 8 speed) shifts very fast in auto mode, always keeps the right gear for optimum performance
- Fuel consumption not as high as expected, 23 liters / 100 km on average (120 km Autobahn at 240 kph, 180 km country road at 80-100 kph), during the first 300 km (break-in), around 18 liters
- Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow tires excellent for the SRT, very good setup on dry pavement (even at speeds up to 240 kph), feel almost like summer tires
- Brembo brakes have a very good braking performance, no fading, good response
- Ride is stiff (in Sport/Track mode) but still comfortable
- Steering feels direct (but unfortunately not as direct as on the Cayenne GTS) and doesn't show any nervousness at 240 kph, excellent setup
- Uconnect (entertainment/navigation system) works very well, could be a bit faster though. Large touch display a pleasure to use.
- Digital speedo cluster very nice, good visibility even when the sun shines
- Truck feels rock solid, almost like a tank but when driving, the weight is only felt in curves
- Very loud alarm horn (oh boy...), excellent alarm system (very sensitive)
- Rear seats can be adjusted (rear cushion), which make them very comfortable
- Lots of luggage room, incl. some additional storage room next to the spare tire (18'')
- Harman Kardon sound system with 19 speakers and 11-channel amp sounds absolutely amazing, very close to Burmester, maybe even better sounding (no kidding here)
- A/C even in lowest setting powerful (cold and heat)
- Steering wheel has very nice grip (it is quite thick)
- Lots of standard options (adaptive cruise control, ventilated seats, panoramic roof, etc. etc. etc.)
- Very good visibility due to high seating position, easy to park
- Excellent rear view camera and park sensors
- Huge sun visors which are excellent and work even for kids sitting next to you in the front seat with a seat cushion
- Excellent chassis (active dampers) setup, almost no side roll and very stable drive feel, even at 240 kph in Autobahn curves
- Very good seats, comfortable and with satisfactory side grip. Very well adjustable.
- Uconnect offers a high quality DAB (digital audio broadcast) radio (instead of Sirius XM in the US/Canada)
- Fuel tank capacity 93.5 liters and easy to fill up to the max (when the fuel nozzle stops, the fuel tank is really full)
NEGATIVE
- Steering feels a little bit sluggish in tight curves and you can feel the weight of the car (feels a little bit like the steering on my former Cayenne Turbo S type 955). This may have something to do with the very wide 295 front tires and the fact that they are winter tires but still.
- Chassis "jumps" a little bit on bad roads when in Sport or Track mode
- Driving fast through curves is not really fun due to the sluggish steering feel, the Cayenne (incl. the Diesel) does it much better. This may be related to the wide 295s winter tires, so we need to wait and see how the summer tires feel.
- Climate control A/C is not very accurate. A change of 1°C only already makes the air much hotter or much colder. Apparently there is some sort of automatic temperature adjustment going on, which cannot be turned off.
- Brembo brake works great but the initial pedal feel is a bit sluggish, until you press it further. Not really a problem though because they work great.
- Voice recognition (Unconnect) not really working well, maybe it has something to do with the German language?!
- Some illogical inconsistencies in car design and technology: Great and bright white light color bi-xenon front lights but fog lights are yellow. Great LED ambient light illumination but standard light bulbs for the interior lights. Great luggage room and adjustable rear seats but no "hole" in the middle to put a ski bag through. Black front lights, black tail lights, black exhaust pipes but chrome window frames.
- Great digital speedo cluster but with polarized sun glasses, the "analogue" speedometer (you can switch between analogue and digital readout) is a little bit difficult to read (the red arrow is almost invisible).
- No digital oil level readout, only the old school dip stick. Kind of surprising on a car with so much technology.
- Front lights partially fogged from time to time (don't have a clue why)
- Tire pressure values not mentioned in the car manual, pressure values on door panel not in bar (Germany) and only one single value, no special values for winter or summer tires or for different loads. Weird.
- Uconnect doesn't have any online capabilities on the German SRT. Sad and...surprising.
- Uconnect has only one app, the SRT performance app. Download or installation of other apps not possible.
- Onboard computer always shows higher fuel consumption than in reality (which is kind of weird). The onboard computer showed 27.1 liters / 100 km but the real fuel consumption was 23 liters. Funny. 
- At a speed of around 240 kph, the tires (I think) start to make a squealing noise from time to time. Not really a problem but weird. First, I suspected the side view mirrors but the noise changes it's pitch with asphalt compound.
Overall, I am very impressed with the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, a great value for the money and apparently an excellent high performance SUV too. There are a couple of things which could have been done better but overall, this SUV is clearly a good start. If Chrysler works on the quirks and puts a powerful supercharged 600+ hp engine into this truck, it will be a huge success. I am surprised that the SRT doesn't have more success in Europe, it is worth every single cent.
Regarding fuel consumption, I am (positively) surprised: I heard horror stories about over 30 liters (36 liters exactly) at Vmax and an average fuel consumption of over 26 liters / 100 km.
So far, I managed to do 23 liters / 100 km after driving 240 kph for over 120 km and 80-100 kph over 180 km. This is not much different from the Cayenne GTS I owned. When driving relaxed, 18 liters and less are possible, so the fuel consumption is really not that much different than the one on the Cayenne GTS or the Cayenne Turbo. Just as a friendly reminder. I also never switched to "Eco" mode, so there is another possibility to save fuel if you really want to.
Oh, regarding performance: I used launch control once at 600 km and managed to get 5.4 seconds from 0-100 kph in Track mode (fuel tank was almost full, I had my son as a co-passenger). Not very impressive, I know but from what I can tell from SRT experiences in other car forums, the engine starts to deliver it's power at around 3000-5000 km. Factory claim is 5.0 seconds but apparently Top Gear magazine managed to get 4.8 seconds with the 2014 car. Keep in mind, these are 0-100 kph (62 mph) values. The best US values (0-60 mph) I've seen so far on other car forums are values between 4.4 and 4.6 seconds. I've also seen 4.1 seconds but I don't think this is credible. This would be 4.4 seconds from 0-100 kph, this just doesn't sound right. Still...even 5.4 seconds are impressive...for such a big truck.
When I got the car, I forgot to measure the height. I was lucky but the distance between the car's antenna (shark fin) and the garage door is only a few millimeters. Ouch.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Turbo S, Porsche Boxster S (981), Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (2014), BMW X3 35d (2013)
Re: Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (2014 model) - Short Review
