at the top of your list, because its optional V8 makes 220 horsepower and

generates 300 pound-feet of torque, both class-leading numbers. The V8

in our test truck was a genuine tiger, ripping across intersections, pulling

snowy grades and performing highway passing maneuvers with ease and quickness

we weren't expecting. It is also rated to pull a 6500-pound trailer.

And if you don't need as much grunt as all that, we can recommend the

4.0-liter inline-six as one of the great SUV engines, with 185 hp and 220

lbs.-ft. of torque for hauling up to 5000 pounds of trailer, with an improvement

in mpg rating from 13/17 city/highway for the V8 to 15/20 for the six,

quite a lot in percentage terms.

We have been off-road many times with the 4.0 in the Grand and other

Jeep models, and it never let us down.

While the shift is on to rack-and-pinion steering in the sport-utility

world, the Grand Cherokee still uses recirculating-ball steering, and it

is a bit mushy and indefinite compared to other systems, though entirely

acceptable. It works with leading-arm coil-spring front suspension and

trailing arm coil-spring rear suspension and gas shocks all around to keep

the Grand Cherokee on the straight and narrow.

Ride quality is very good, all things considered, and ride control is

taut, with not too much body roll in fast corners. When it comes to all-around

handling, the Grand Cherokee is one of the most nimble performers in its

class.

We noticed while underway that the big outside mirrors and windshield

pillars seem to generate quite a bit of wind noise at freeway speeds, which

was doubly intrusive because the powertrain noise and chassis noise were

both so well subdued by tuning and isolation. We thought at first we hadn't

closed the left front door all the way, but the noise persisted at speeds

above 50 mph.