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The Cherokee is back; no, not the Grand Cherokee, the smaller one – the Cherokee.

Slow as it was coming off the starting line, the 2014 Jeep Cherokee’s timing was near-perfect in rounding my corner.

Dressed in its rugged Trailhawk garb, the Cherokee was pitted against the snow and zero temp weather which fell upon us.

At 6 above, with wind chill of -2 and snowpacked roads when we left for Denver Wednesday morning, I dialed in “snow mode” for the Cherokee’s Selec-Terrain settings. With 2nd-gear takeoffs and increased control of throttle and shift points, the system aided us across the icy paths of Two Rivers Road past the buffalo ranch, along Colo. 60 to U.S. 85. It was somewhat slow going, though with minimal slipping from the 4-by-4.

Speaking of shift points, the Cherokee is equipped with a 9-speed automatic transmission, the first for an SUV. It is matched up to a 3.2-liter Pentastar V-6 engine of 271 horsepower and 239 torque. The terrain settings, in addition to the snow mode, are automatic, sport, sand/mud and rock.
The Trailhawk is one of four levels for the Cherokee; the others are Sport, Latitude and Limited.

Of three available four-wheel-drive setups, the Trailhawk had the most capable, the Active Drive Lock, with locking front and rear axles, low range and means of transferring up to 100 percent of torque to the rear.

The Cherokee replaces the compact Liberty in the Jeep lineup. Its model name, though, goes back to the 1970s. It dominated the SUV market until the Ford Explorer arrived in 1991. Jeep introduced the bigger Grand Cherokee in 1993, and continued to produce the standard Cherokee until 2002.
The return of the model name cheers many longtime Jeep devotees, and more than 10,000 Cherokees were sold in its first month in November. It appears poised to challenge the segment’s sales leaders, the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4.

Standard engine in the Cherokee 4-by-4 is a 184-hp, 2.4-liter 4-cylinder Tigershark engine, with an EPA estimate of 21/28 city/highway mileage. V-6-powered models with four-wheel drive are rated as high as 19/27.

The heavier Trailhawk with the 3.2 power carries an estimate of 18/25. My overall average, split between city and highway and including the snow and ice conditions, was 21.7 miles per gallon.

The V-6 with the 9-speed is smooth in acceleration. The 3.2 block is a reduced version of the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 which was introduced in the Dodge Dart and is used in many other Jeep vehicles.

A distinguishing feature of the Trailhawk are bright red tow hooks, two in front and one at the rear. They’re for pulling others out of troubled situations, or, heaven forbid, when a Jeep driver ventures too far offroad.

Flared fenders, skid plates and an extra inch of ground clearance (8.7 inches) also mark the Cherokee Trailhawk. With the V-6 power, it will tow up to 4,500 pounds.

The look and feel inside is vastly improved over that of the old Liberty. The Cherokee is dressed up near equal to the impressive Grand Cherokee, including stitched leather seats and dash, as well as an 8.4-inch navigation/audio display touchscreen. The cushion of the passenger seat up front will lift, revealing extra storage space, and the glove box is one of the deepest of any.

Rear seats slide fore and aft and can expand rear cargo space from almost 25 cubic feet to 29.7. A power liftgate adds easy access at the rear.
Taking a cue from the Ford Escape, the Jeep offers ParkSense, which assists the driver with parallel or perpendicular parking. In testing it, I turned loose of the steering wheel; the Jeep does the steering into the empty space, the driver accelerates and brakes.

Base price for the low-end Jeep Cherokee Sport 4-by-4 is $25,990.

The Cherokee Trailhawk review model was base-priced at $29,495 and, with a long list of optional items, climbed to $38,315 in sticker price. Among the options, other than those already mentioned, are remote start, rearview camera, heated front seats and steering wheel, blind-spot and crosspath detection, adaptive cruise control, rain-sensitive windshield wipers, exterior mirrors with turn signals, automatic high-beam headlight control and a black hood decal.

New suspension for the Cherokee includes independent front with MacPherson struts and rear independent multilink suspension. It provides a smooth ride, relatively quiet.

Production of the ’14 Cherokee was delayed several times in past months, as technical glitches were corrected.