15 December 2011
Have a hankering to escape to the great outdoors and tackle the rough terrain of the Australian outback this summer? You’ll need a sturdy car for that - a four-wheel drive to be exact. Luckily, we’ve got just the thing for you.
Look no further than the new Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, winner of Best 4WD in the prestigious Drive Car of the Year awards 2011. The new-kid-on-the-block diesel SUV came up trumps at this year’s awards for its value offering (electrically adjusted seats, rain-sensing wipers, auto headlights, tyre pressure monitoring system and full-colour touchscreen with Bluetooth phone connection - all for $50,000) and slinky-steering and handling, both on-road and off. The judges also applauded the Grand Cherokee for having reverse cameras and seven airbags as standard across all models.
The Grand Cherokee was recently updated with a new 3.0 litre turbo diesel engine that gives the model 10% more power and 19% fuel economy improvement over the previous engine.
Coming in at second was the Land Rover Discovery 4, last year’s category winner. What let the Land Rover down was its price, truly “premium” but still no reversing camera – a major auto-manufacturer misdeed in this day and age.
Just one thing to remember when you’re roughing it in your new Grand Cherokee ride – watch out for those leather seats!