Anonymous

Reviewed a 2008 Jeep Overland on Aug 28, 2008

I love the new interior, it's almost perfect. However, the center console is cheap-feeling, and the plastic chrome accents are not solid and look really fake. The HEMI has more power over the 4.7L, however it's MDS feature is worthless, adding an advertised 15% better gas mileage, but in reality it's much worse than that. The car weights over 6,000 lbs so gas mileage is pretty crappy, but that's no surprise for a 5.7L V8. I get about 12 MPG average in city and highway driving. The seats are not 8-way power like my old 1999 Grand Cherokee Limited, with manual lumbar adjustment, the passenger seat only 4-way power (can't move up/down), driver is 6-way power -- but the front of the seat doesn't go up as high as I would like it to. The wood and leather steering wheel is a very nice touch, but where the wood meats the leather, big gaps are visible which make it look cheap. I hate how the door locks are in the exact same spot as where I like to put my arm while driving, and the window sill is too high. The 1999 GC Limited didn't have these issues. Sirius satellite, while free for the first year, sounds TERRIBLE, even when compared to standard FM. This is a known issue (google it), with XM offering slightly better quality. The Sirius real-time traffic is neat, but not very practical, as it only shows major roadways and sometimes nothing at all. Once my subscription runs out I will not be renewing. The navigation/radio system sometimes gets "stuck" and won't let you press a button unless you "refresh" it by going to another screen and then back again. I'm sure there will be a software update to address this problem. The last negative thing I can think of is that the seat doesn't offer adequate side support, and I feel that I need to hold on to the center console when making sharp turns. You can't hold onto the shifter like with the < 2005 models because you will shift the gear down/up -- pretty annoying, but not a big deal. OK, now for the things I like. There are waaaaay too many to list, but I will try to touch on the best ones. The 30GB HDD is absolutely great! It has about 16 GB of space for your own music/pictures, which is more than plenty. I recommend buying a 16 GB flash drive (~ $50 on Amazon), and use it to hold your music collection including playlists. The navigation is solid, and very useful. The LED-illuminated instrument panel looks very good and is very functional. Love the HID headlights with the SmartBeam and auto-leveling features. The exterior styling is superb, looks great at any angle. Gas mileage aside, I absolutely love this car.