Jeep Commander Review

Jeep Commander Review

Jeep pretty much pioneered the four wheel drive market when under the name of Willys-Overland they produced Willys Quad for the American Army at beginning of the Second World War. The Army’s specification was for a four-wheel drive vehicle with a wheelbase of 80 inches which had to be light enough (1300lb) to be lifted by four soldiers.

There is fierce debated about how the name ‘JEEP’ came about with many people saying that it comes from the slurring of the acronym G.P. or General Purpose, the designation the Army gave the car. Another story about the source of the name is that a test driver referred to the MB as a ‘Jeep’, in reference to the cartoon character ‘Eugene the Jeep’. Eugene was a small, impish-looking animal in a 1936 Popeye comic strip that had the power to travel back and forth between dimensions and could solve all sorts of problems.

It was not really until the early 1960’s that Jeep thought about the domestic market with the introduction of the Jeep Wagoneer, the pre-cursor of the very popular Cherokee model.

The Jeep Commander was released in the UK in April 2006. Based on the Grand Cherokee, the main difference being that where the Cherokee can accommodate five people, the Commander has being designed to be a cross between an MPV (Multi Purpose Vehicle / People Carrier) and a SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle / 4x4) and can carry seven people in relative comfort off-road.

There is nothing really unique about four wheel drives that can carry seven for example the Land Rover Discovery 3 and Mercedes Benz M-Class have seven seat models.

For the United Kingdom the Jeep Commander is built at the Magna Steyr manufacturing plant at Graz in Austria, which also produces the Grand Cherokee model, which the Commander is based upon.

We drove the Jeep Commander 3.0 V6 CRD Limited.

How It Drove - Performance

Unlike the Grand Cherokee there is only one choice of engine, the Mercedes-Benz sourced 3.0 litre (2987cc) V6 diesel. This produces 215 hp @ 4000 rpm and delivers 376 lb/ft worth of torque @ 1600 rpm. We found the engine to be fairly refined. Of course you know it is a diesel but the sound proofing in very good and audibly it is not particularly intrusive.

Performance wise the Commander is quite quick both on paper and in practice, Jeep quote a 0-62 mph time of 9.0 seconds and a top speed of 118 mph. There is a little lag from the engine but overtaking and pulling off can be surprisingly quite brisk.

Jeep Commander