The Jeep Grand Cherokee has been a popular SUV in America for a while now, and recently, Jeep decided to give the model a redesign. This long overdue redesign gave the Grand Cherokee and the new third-row Grand Cherokee L a lot of much-needed updates, and overall, the car is an improvement over its last generation. That being said, despite the redesign, Consumer Reports still doesn’t recommend the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee or the Grand Cherokee L, and here’s why. 

Why Consumer Reports didn’t like the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee

According to Consumer Reports, the Jeep Grand Cherokee scored pretty average overall, which is why it’s not recommended. One of the reasons why the Grand Cherokee isn’t highly-rated is because of its braking distance. It did not perform that well during the braking tests, as it took the car a lot of distance to come from a complete stop during dry and wet road testing.

Another issue that Consumer Reports had with the car was its controls, which Consumer Reports called “oddly designed” in some cases. For example, the car’s digital instrument cluster was called “cluttered” and “distracting.” Another example of these poor controls is the car’s climate control system. For some climate control functions, Jeep makes the driver fiddle with the car’s touchscreen, which test drivers didn’t like.

Here’s why the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L didn’t score any better

Meanwhile, the Jeep Grand Cherokee L is essentially the same car but longer and larger. As a result, its issues are very similar to the regular Grand Cherokee, and in some cases, the Grand Cherokee L’s problems are larger as well. For example, like the standard Grand Cherokee, Consumer Reports had similar issues with the Grand Cherokee L’s long braking distance and confusing controls. 

However, since the Grand Cherokee L is a larger car, its braking distance is slightly worse than the regular Grand Cherokee’s. This extra size and weight also put extra strain on the car’s engines. The Grand Cherokee L shares two of the same engine options as the Grand Cherokee does, and the standard 3.6-liter V6 engine, which gets 290 hp, performs worse with the larger Jeep. 

It’s why Consumer Reports wrote that the Grand Cherokee L has weak acceleration while the Grand Cherokee has decent acceleration. This V6 engine was also noisy when it was being pushed hard, and due to the car’s size, it needed to be pushed hard often. As a result, the Grand Cherokee L is not recommended and has a worse overall score than the Grand Cherokee on CR.

Consumer Reports did like a few things about the new Jeep SUVs

That said, Consumer Reports did have a lot of positive things to say about the two Jeep SUVs. The Jeep Grand Cherokee has a “smooth powertrain” and a quiet and roomy cabin. Additionally, Jeep offers a third, more powerful powertrain option exclusively for the Grand Cherokee. This new powertrain option turns the SUV into a plug-in hybrid, and it’s currently unavailable on the Jeep Grand Cherokee L. 

The larger Jeep SUV has a lot to love, too. The Grand Cherokee L’s transmission is nice and smooth, but more importantly, it’s a larger SUV capable of doing more things. When equipped properly, it can tow up to 7,200 pounds. On top of that, its third-row seats are roomy, just like the first and second rows are. Additionally, the car’s extra space means it can carry a lot of cargo if owners want it to.