We’re told that various suits along the line mentioned that if all Grand Cherokees weren’t overbuilt to survive the Rubicon Trail, they would tally fewer pounds than the hefty 4772 our lightly optioned V-6 Laredo weighed and, thus, return something better than the 19 mpg average we observed. The 2011 Grand Cherokee started development five years ago at DaimlerChrysler, continued during Cerberus ownership, and was finished under Fiat management. That fact has been discussed and debated over the years by the company’s various overlords. However, Jeep’s product planners admitted to us at the San Francisco introduction that no more than five percent of owners ever leave pavement. From the moment former Chrysler exec Bob Lutz drove the very first Grand Cherokee through a plate-glass window at the 1992 Detroit auto show-folks still talk about it-the GC (as compared with the iconic Wrangler) has amounted to five seats in an up-trimmed wagon that is equally ready for the mall or an off-road maelstrom. To see places and meet bugs you can’t in other vehicles. In other words, places where nobody who spends the same sum of money on a car will ever go.Īnd that’s the point of buying a Grand Cherokee. However, while driving our $38,785 Grand Cherokee Laredo 4X4 from San Francisco to Los Angeles, we did explore a few out-of-the-way places where green mountains thrust skyward and condors soar, where the ocean laps sand soft enough to trap wimpier SUVs, and where the pinyon pines and the purple nightshades hide ravenous ticks who like to crawl up a car photographer’s leg while he’s composing a shot.