2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee L vs 2023 Honda HR-V

Jeep is now a luxury brand. That's why the 2022 Grand Cherokee L can ask, with a straight face, that you pay up to $70,000 for the privilege of ownership. But because Jeep is a proudly American brand, a war veteran that helped Allied troops defeat fascism, the company has earned the kind of unvarnished reputation and universal praise given only to a handful of U.S. presidents.

As such, a $60,000 Wrangler or a $100,000 Grand Wagoneer doesn't seem snooty, while a Mercedes-Benz or a Lexus sure does. Jeep's heritage as a hardcore 4x4 brand and its newer image as a bougie city truck maker can coexist. We took a Grand Cherokee L Summit Reserve across Tennessee to prove it.

Honda’s subcompact SUV gets a makeover inside and out. Previously based on the Fit, the new HR-V shares the global architecture that also underpins the Civic.

Honda continues to narrow trim options: There were once as many as five, but the Touring trim level got the axe for the 2022 model year, and the EX has now left the lineup as well. The three remaining trims for 2023 are LX, Sport, and EX-L. We drove the top trim, EX-L, through the mountains of Washington's Columbia River Gorge.

New styling plus the newly standard Honda Sensing suite of safety features put this latest HR-V back at the front of the pack it led when it debuted in 2016.