Thanks guys, even if I sometimes have difficulties to tell if you are making fun of me or not.
I like the SRT8 front a lot but the rear look is debatable, not really my cup of tea. I also don't understand why Chrysler would blacken the front lights (the standard Grand Cherokee has the same lights but clear) and the rear lights but keep the window frames in chrome or offer chrome rims for that matter. This is remaining an American designer mystery to me.
My wife likes this car a lot, she says it looks very "manly" (I have to be careful when women use this word because sometimes they mean something else than men ). Only my daughter is a little bit opposed (she always loved the Cayenne) and she says this car reminds her too much of the US and being on vacation (not sure why this is bad but...hey...kids... ).
If the quality is right (build and feel quality seems that way), this is an amazing deal. In Germany, Chrysler offers now a 10500(!) EUR deduction from the new car price (78500 EUR) instantly, for businesses. Then, they also offer a 1000 EUR cash back because the car was ordered from Chrysler before the price hike(?). This means a 11500 EUR saving instantly. Then, there is the special lease offer for businesses, which is also very attractive. I pay 450 EUR per month (incl. VAT). 450. This is ridiculous. Car has two years full warranty and then...surprise surprise...Chrysler offers an additional two years...for free. A special offer from them. So four years new car warranty, meaning that the full lease period of three years is completely covered and if I want to keep it another year, no problem (incl. the warranty). Amazing deal. This is a 2014 car, same as Lars' car and he got the same good deal, so this is no exception and we both are very very happy.
Also Lars is right: Only 70 German cars for this year, the others are grey imports from the US/Canada. The difference is in damper setup and tire setup, the German cars come with a sportier damper setup and Pirelli PZero tires, the US/Canada cars, depending on the location, sometimes with Pirelli Scorpion Verde All-Season tires. Also the German cars have DAB (digital broadcast radio), the US/Canada cars come with Sirius/XM which is not usable in Europe. There are a couple of things which make a grey import senseless in Germany, the price difference is only 5-8k EUR, so I would always prefer the cars officially imported, no grey imports.
Most fascinating is the standard features list:
- heated seats (front and rear)
- ventilated seats front
- Bi-Xenon front lights with curve assist
- tire pressure monitoring system
- sport chassis with adaptive dampening
- lane change assist
- adaptive cruise control
- Harman Kardon 7.3 Surround Sound System with 19 speakers incl. subwoofer and a 12 channel class-D amplifier
- bluetooth audio streaming, two USB ports in the rear, one USB port in the front, one SD card slot in the front (for playing music or updating entertainment system software
- carbon interior package
- Command View Panoramic glass roof (similar to Cayenne glass roof, I actually think this is the same), electric with shade
- uconnect navigation and entertainment system with 8.4 inch touch display
- park assist front and rear with rear view camera
- LED interior ambient light
- keyless go
- rear hatch electric (automatic)
- cruise control
- tinted windows (privacy glass)
...and many many things more. A Cayenne Diesel with the same options would be over 90k EUR. Ouch.
The 8-speed automatic tranny is from ZF, the chassis dampening system is from Bilstein (actually the whole suspension) and looking at the quality of the carbon package, the panoramic roof and many other things, I'd say that Chrysler uses the same suppliers as Porsche and/or other premium manufacturers.
Of course I do not want to compare the SRT8 to a Cayenne Turbo or Turbo S but like Lars said, you get a lot for your money and still have fun with this car. From 0-100 kph, there aren't many trucks out there to beat the SRT8 and you get the sound of the Cayenne GTS (a bit louder even), almost the same drive and steering feel of a Cayenne Turbo and an amazing 6.4 l engine which has an amazing throttle response in Sport and especially in Track mode (throttle response beats the Cayenne GTS in Sport mode, no kidding).
This car has only three downsides:
- Fuel consumption seems to be always around 18-20 liters and if you drive at Vmax (257 kph or 160 mph), expect something close to 30 liters and more (no kidding, this is what the dealer told me).
- Part availability (if repairs need to be done) can be a challenge. Dealer told me that this is no problem but I read on some Jeep forums that it can take up to four weeks to get specific parts from the US, which is quite long. Usually however, Chrysler Germany has the parts in stock and they are available within 24-48 hours.
- The reputation of US cars in Germany isn't the best (people may say that you can't afford something better...but I couldn't care less, especially since most people over here don't have a clue what a SRT8 is).
So if you can live with it, the SRT8 is the hell of a deal.
Oh...the AWD system of the SRT8 is not the same used on the other GC models. This is not an AWD for serious off-roading and there is no lower gear (however the new 8 speed ZF automatic offers a much lower first gear to accomodate off-roaders as good as possible, which may be one of the reasons why this heavy truck is so fast from 0-100 kph).
Also last but not least: Those living in colder climates need to be aware that there are no snow chains officially available from Jeep (which is another mystery to me). For my 10'' wide 295/40 20'' wheels, I need wheel spacers (front and rear) to be able to use snow chains with this car. This also means that the car gets aprox. 30 mm wider on each wheel and aerodynamics get f.cked up but I use this setup only once a year when we drive to a certain ski location in Austria where snow chains are very likely to be mandatory. Just wanted to remind you of this issue, just in case you would be interested in this car. Some may argue that the wheel spacers make the car look better (meaner) but while this may be true to some point, driving at very high speeds is not recommended because of the probably increased fuel consumption (not that it can get much worse than over 30 liters / 100 km ).
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Turbo S, Porsche Boxster S (981), BMW X3 35d (2013)