AMC’s last great gift was an SUV that would set standards for decades.
, and back then we had a strong suspicion we were looking at the future: a sport-ute with the off-road ability of a truck and the driving characteristics of a car.
Opening the door reveals odd proportions: The lower half is short like a car door, while the window frame seems absurdly tall. We step up to get in, but unlike a modern SUV, we don't drop down again, because the floor is as flat as a sheet of plywood and not much thicker. The chunky center console topping the tall transmission tunnel reminds us just how tightly the Grand Cherokee is wrapped around its machinery.We climb in, and the steering wheel seems to shove itself into our chest.
We turn the key. The sneezing-cat sound of the Chrysler starter is familiar, but the muttering idle of the old AMC 4.0 is straight out of a time machine. We lean forward to grab the massive transmission shifter and pull it into drive, which engages with a lurch. We ease into the throttle, and the ZJ takes off with the coarse grumble that only a domestic straight-six can make, backed by the ghostly whine unique to American automatic transmissions.
We pick up speed, bracing ourselves for the bounce and jiggle of a 1990s-era truck, but it never comes. The Grand Cherokee's ride is taut and responsive, firm but not hard. It's becoming obvious why our early-90s forebears atwere so fond of this thing. The steering has a pleasant heft and surprisingly sharp response, the mile-wide on-center dead spot notwithstanding.
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