Jeep Cherokee (XJ series) Wagoneer Limited review. Is this the world's first Sports Utility Vehicle?

Welcome to a new video from Harry's Garage and today's car is quite different from the normal cars that I have in the garage because the Jeep Cherokee and

this

one in particular is the

limited

Wagoner version of the Jeep Cherokee, which I will go into details in a moment. The reason I have

this

is because I recently posted a

review

of the BMW a fascinating story behind this car. I can't wait to tell the story because it was lost when the

sports

truck hit the market in 83 84 in America it didn't come to the UK until 93 and It was a complete change from what Jeep was doing before this, it's known as the

series

Cherokee XJ.

Before there was the SJ and the change was extraordinary because it basically shrunk the car, it has a unibody construction instead of having a separate chassis and then. I took a little more about a D because it was actually an MC who developed this. I didn't realize it wasn't a car developed by Chrysler in the early days, it was an AMC car that AMC had bought a Jeep in 1970, where's my? Crib sheet in 1970 they had bought the Jeep brand and Renault had bought AMC where they had 22% in 1979. This designer they started in 78, so it was a European flavor because Renault was involved in the development of this car and could also.

I don't believe in the backstory of this car so I thought it was worth a feature and what this car meant so let's take a closer look now. The key difference with this car when it arrived was the size, it has really shrunk. It came before, it was 31 inches longer than this and this reduced it, but the interior space was 90% of what that car offered. They did a fantastic packaging job on this car, it was a four liter inline six in this one. one, they were actually original designs, it was a two door and then they went to the four door model like the Land Rover Discovery and I think it's a very stylish boxy design, it does what it says on the tin and I also love the way it comes. this is also the rack and rails on top and this particular example, like I said, is the Wagoneer

limited

and that makes it very special because it's like the ultimate spec on

cherokee

lat and we're Wagoneer limited, you lost the

cherokee

badges. you have stepped headlights on the front and you have this extremely distinctive wood veneer molding on the side of your car and as a lever and there are limitations on the seats.

I love the backstory of this real example of a car because this car was originally ordered by a very enterprising car enthusiast in the UK who also had a beautiful ski chalet in St. Moritz and wanted someone to drive around St. Moritz and When this car was lost in the late 80's, that's the car I want in my ski chalet and I ordered it. through Bromley back in the 80s and was basically the

first

example to come to Europe, how cool is that, so having this at a sound pace makes the story even better because apparently it was an underground garage, the next part al side of this one, which is Monteverde coupe for summer motorsport and the friend in the ad used to visit these Porsche 959 quite frequently, a big garage, so there is a real story about this car and that's why it was actually a of the exploits of this one instead of just a regular Cherokee, so this is actually a 1988 car.

I love the original decals. The Bramley decals are on the rear so it is the original plate but it says Bramley and it is an '89 model. The wood continues here, nicely trimmed on the rear as well and it also has a fold down seat. so there is a lot of space in the back, so is that right? Yes, it is a practical reason for this car. I was told it is a fiberglass reinforced plastic. Metal tight tailgate rod. This is all metal on the back. There is a small bench. Yes, it's a bit. shrunken in the rear there is no headrest and in this example there are only seat belts.

I think when it arrived in the UK it had proper seatbelts, but everything about this car was much lighter than the previous generation of cars. in the UK this is competing with them, I suppose, Range Rover and also the Discovery, and they are tipping the wrong side of 2 tonnes. I weighed this car before, 15:58 kilos. This car is about half a ton lighter than the comparative SUVs of In its day, it's a little cramped, but the interior space isn't bad at all and that means it performs pretty well, so I've dug into my usual search trick some old car magazines and who is this car?

I timed this car and here we go cries, a limited four liter, did nine and a half to sixty eight point eight seconds, thirty to fifty, that kind of performance is way above a normal SUV compared to a 320 i Touring that way. faster than discover I think they've tried a discovery here and yes the gas v8 got 13.4 30 and 70 so five seconds slower is a completely different benchmark. Now I have this car magazine, so it's June '95 and I love your kind of summary of the Cherokee, they say it's like a car, but with a price you like, compared to a PC older than your owners think, a dazzling summer PC and proud of it because it was an American icon.

When the time came, they actually sold extremely well. I remember seeing them and it was a real temptation. I didn't actually choose one because I needed the towing capacity with the Range Rover we were farming and very often we did three and a half tonnes behind and this is about 2.3 tonnes of towing capacity or something like that. That's basically because they are a lighter car but they were Jeep type for what they were, this one was priced at four liters, it was twenty three five nine five when this arrived, if I look at what a Range Rover was, it was a 4.6 HSE.

The yield was forty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds and almost double the price. Well, this is a Range Rover for half the price. Think of it as if that discovery also came out at the same time and if you wanted one of those, it was something like that. of an es was 27 375, but it was much slower and unruly and didn't handle like one of these at all and these had Jeeps were famous for their reliability and this four liter lump is basically in bursts of all automatic gearboxes , they had a great reputation. Regardless, they came with excellent warranties.

I'll take him outside. Now we can't do a full lap because we're still in this lockdown situation, but the surroundings of the farm just give you a better idea of ​​what this car is all about. The sound when you leave a key in the ignition is how this car starts, so what you get is a very American style dash switch on established roads or what you would expect to see in this old Jeep. all very simple, all the connections that didn't really exist in UK cars at the time. I also have cruise control here. I have all power windows locking the rear windows or central locking is here too.

I can do it. that adjustable wheel, fun little lever here, I can do that cruise control, air conditioning, stereo, etc. so yeah, also familiar and a removable light switch that used to be on 911s and stuff like that obviously a six-cylinder engine that you can hear, but it's the appearance of visibility I'm right on the roof and my immediate thought is that I'm in a reduced role, a reduced Range Rover, very typical here, controls a large T-bar for the gearbox automatic shift and that's it, the

first

thing you notice if you get out, they admit it was a little rough and they always were, they just moved a little quickly now, this is an era, this car is a registered '88 model year 89 car, like this that there are no airbags or anything, I just think it's It's funny, it actually has the Allen keys exposed in the lawsuit involved which was kind of a signature of the L range three to two that they liked that we put the bolts exposed, but here it is in the Jeep in 1980, whatever when this 84 85 car came out, so yeah, well, another notable thing is its comfort, this is a little eroded, we are at the moment, really rubbish.

I tried to never record, it's so bumpy, this is pretty good down here, let's say lease and when Look at me, it's surprising, it's because yeah, leaf springs in the back, pause in the front, but yeah, it's cool the way that can absorb those blows. I'm guessing the tallest tires are around 570 tires. 15 days tires that also helped, but Yeah, I'm really comfortable right now. I'm going to do my usual sprint along the way. It is an important thing to do in all safe cars. I have an ignition switch on the transmission gearbox on the. I'll increase the power and do it.

Just step on the accelerator and see what happens. I should add that there are 80 clicks of deceleration to get out of the house and up to the farm. Yes, after that initial bite, the performance is fine, but it's already been 3040 years since this car was first released. came out, but for an SUV, wow, it's a little tight, it's a little advanced, so it really changed our perception of what an SUV was because up until this point, the separate chassis tied the Range Rover together, the things that were missing from the patrols were number some things that rolled around corners nor discovery, oh my god, it's a giant sail in the wind it just wasn't a stable it wasn't made to attack a

series

of curves or even on the highway it was just a big It's not like that with this car, and that's why all the initial buyers of this car were tempted to abandon their 3 Series Touring.

There were state cars of various types in this, where you could have an SUV with a car-type handling film and the The reason it squeals off the line like that is because, actually, in the normal configuration, it's all-wheel drive. two wheels for all-wheel drive. I actually have to pull the lever down here, you can have four wheel drive all the time if you want, but really. in normal mode it will drive and that also adds to its appeal because there is no sporty nature attached to this family car which actually had two wheel drive and it seems silly not to do it while it's here so take it off a bit. walk around the farm, another note, look at that turning circle, it's like a minis holding the turning circle and then as we go down here you really notice that smooth ride again, handle these saw bumps, there's no problem.

I also have this visibility and it's off-road capable, remember, yeah, when I was at Evo gp's to do these really good off-road events, they had no problem going on trails, etc., and you do these proper three-day off-road events with Jeep, it's They take it very seriously. It's in their DNA to go part time to pull the driver or four wheel drive while driving which is a nice feature, plus it's round, there's no such thing as an adjustable ride height and that kind of thing that was all Range Rover. Things are very tight but like I say everything is hidden in this, it's such a good design and the wheels in each corner mean I can disappear into deep holes at any thought of hitting something outside, in fact I feel completely like in house down here, but While we're here, there's one thing I always do when I take an operator down here, it's a hill test, it's a little unfair on this because these are not any type of tires that have off-road, mud capabilities and snow normal. tires etc, so here is the hill in question, proper steep grass, all against this car, can it get going properly?

I'm going to stop on the hill here and it's your hammer. I'm pretty impressed, I'm pretty impressed better than I thought I would be, but the other neat trick with its proper off-road DNA is also there as the gearbox drops so I can do every shift. I have to make this stationary, now I cut at low speed and have adequate feed. again, so it's feet away, I don't know what 45 degree slopes are, so yeah, locked first and it crawls properly downhill, feet away, nothing, nothing that touches anything going down a hill, very impressive, but it's actually what I would expect from Jeep because it takes this kind of stuff seriously, here we go now.

I'm going to select another little bit of a funny little gearbox in this car because I put it, put it here, I mean, I mean two-wheel drive and I have a field, be rude, be rude, not with such useless tires as part of the pill, that is, it has a sportier ride than other off-road SUVs, so that's how I'm going to return it, so I'm going to go back up the hill, you know, if not I've never seen four-wheel drive either skid, don't overdo it, I could handle it, it's just that lack of weight compared to the Range Road, there isn't that mass, it's not entirely controllable when it starts to drift.loosen up a little.

Yeah, push a little bit of the kit you can use off-road, this car here there are some noises here, don't worry, I think it's something in the glove box, it's a little annoying, but yeah, how does this curve sum up? No? I like it, interestingly, size is a love-hate thing, or it's not big enough and therefore you don't have good back seats, you don't really want to ride in the back seat of this thing and yeah, it's not . As big as we expect an SUV to be, they made diesel compared to this supposedly better economy back in the 90s in the UK we were just starting the diesel revolution but it was a bloody horrible v8 diesel, it was a four cylinder diesel , they made two. a liter and a half engine for this too just doesn't give the car good character, a bit light on the early Range Rovers when they did it, yes, pretty useless for four cylinder engines too, but the one liter 6 cylinder unit complete here works wonders.

It fits the car, that's what Jeeps are all about, so yeah, if you're going to have one, make sure you have to drop it, Lisa, but it obviously doesn't cover the miles per gallon. Are you hoping to get 18 or 20 mpg or something like that? but actually that's not so bad because the weight again is a matter of weight and the fact that it doesn't make a very big hole in the air, I guess there's something else against it, well, they rusted pretty quickly if you didn't watch your fortune , this one has had a properly pampered life and it's just lovely why I can see it but still the transmissions last quite a long time Rusty is a problem, let's move on to the positive and starting the first one feels like a harvest gene, it has that DNA , that usability, the off-road capability.

I love it. It has visibility and feels like a mini Range Rover. It's the only way to describe it. I don't know how they achieve that kind of commanding driving position in a smaller car like this, but they do it and give you all the benefits of the SU. Venus in a much smaller package is about a foot shorter than a McCann today and feels quite small. Well, it's significantly smaller than a can and it's narrow and it just works. It works on multi-story car parts on small off-road lanes. etc and obviously it also has a fantastic turning radius and then there's the design.

I wouldn't be brave enough to check the box to get those wood panels on the side for the limited edition Wagoneer, but somehow it now looks exactly how I wanted. It looks a lot like a Jeep for the outdoors. It's strange, it looks like a kitchen from hell, but somehow not, it's much more attractive now and I would actually order it with that having seen it and lived with it, so as an icon of the past I can't get over it. and it just appeals to the American outdoor life, that's what this car is all about, so I was delighted to meet it again, really quite impressed.

I loved all the toys it has and I love what it says about America and in this regard. smaller package than we generally expect from the United States, so there you have it, I hope you enjoyed this video. Watch Harry's farm and this channel. If you like these videos, please subscribe and keep watching because more videos will be coming soon.