The domestic sales of free light is actually the foreign Cherokee, now selling the fifth generation of mid-term facelift models, the appearance and power have changed to a certain extent, the most obvious change in the appearance is that the split headlights in the early stage are changed to integrated headlights, the power is from the self-priming engine to the turbocharger engine, but the nominal still retains the 2.0L self-priming engine, gearbox, the early model is less than 9 gears within 120km/h, and the final reduction ratio is enlarged after the facelift, Can be used up to 9th gear.
 
The engine adopts the GME series of FCA Group, which has been installed on several FCA models, such as Alfa Romeo's Giulia and Stelvio, Jeep's Wrangler and Grand Commander, but the specific models are different, the one used by Alfa Romeo is codenamed Giorgio, which is produced in Italy, and the Wrangler and GAC FCA are called Hurricane, which are produced in Michigan and GAC FCA.
 
In the early stage, the free light has 2.0L self-priming, 2.4L self-priming, and there is a set of 3.2L self-priming abroad, which retains 2.0L self-priming after the facelift, and at the same time adds a 2.0T engine, which is divided into high and low power tuning, with a maximum output of 234 horsepower and 265 horsepower respectively, which corresponds to the previous 2.4L and 3.2L, the low-power version is front-wheel drive, and the high-power version is four-wheel drive.
 
If you usually just commute in the city, the front-wheel drive plus low-power version is enough, and the potential users of Jeep generally have an understanding of Jeep's off-road ability, so most of them will choose the four-wheel drive version, and the free light is also a rare four-wheel drive model with higher sales than two-wheel drive.
 
The most obvious defect of free light in terms of powertrain comes from ZF's 9AT, compared with the version used in FCA models before, the above version of free light has been improved, and the improvement mainly comes from the smoothness, but the disadvantage is that the shift is more lazy, whether it is automatic mode or sports mode, there is a lag problem in shifting, there will always be a difference in power output time and subjective expectations, even if you change to manual mode, the shift speed will not become faster.
 
Due to the enlargement of the final reduction ratio, the power in the low-speed range will be fuller, in the off-road process, the tuning is very advantageous, but when driving in the city, sometimes there will be a feeling of being pushed at low speed, it is difficult to master the appropriate throttle opening, smooth output of power.
 
There is a certain void in the steering, but for an SUV that takes into account off-road performance, this setting is normal, and there are not many slots in the positive torque and damping feeling. The suspension adopts the front MacPherson rear multi-link, although there is also an ESC suspension on the high configuration, but the feeling effect is not obvious, because the free light itself is close to 1.9 tons of dead weight, and it must take into account the off-road needs, so the suspension tuning is hard, in order to ensure the stability of the body. It does a good job of dealing with fine vibrations, but once you go through a few potholes and need to use the mid-to-rear suspension stroke, the stiffness is obvious.
 
There are two kinds of free light four-wheel drive systems, one is the time-sharing four-wheel drive used in high-end models, based on the EcoTrac four-wheel drive system of the American Axle Company, the PTU (power take-off) and the gearbox are connected, and it decides whether to disconnect or connect the RDM (rear drive module), and in the four-wheel drive mode, the torque distribution between the front and rear axles is realized by TTD (torque manager). The other is the TrailHawk version, which adds a transfer case, a low-speed four-wheel drive mode that can support 2.92 times the torque amplification, and a mechanical rear differential lock that can achieve 0-100% torque conversion between the left and right wheels.
 
NVH is a relatively good aspect of free light, the noise in the car is 1-2 decibels lower than Envision and Tiguan L on average, which is an excellent level in its class, and the slight shortcomings are tire noise and engine noise, although the noise of both is not very obvious, but it often appears, and it is always felt.
 
The interior is the part with the least change in the free light facelift, after all, it is a 5-year-old model, the central control design is not fashionable, but it is much better than the Pajero Jinchang, the functional partition is very clear, the button layout is very reasonable, after the facelift, Apple CarPlay and Baidu CarLife have been added, CarPlay optimization is much better than the system of the car machine itself, and the daily use of CarPlay is very smooth.
 
The rear seat space is not at the level of a mid-size SUV, and it is not even as good as some Japanese compact SUVs, and the headroom is abundant for passengers of 175 or below, but above 180, you should pay attention to it, because the slide rails of the sunroof occupy the space on both sides of the roof, so a slight deviation to both sides will rub the hair. The front center armrest takes up the knee room of the rear center passenger, so the middle passenger is more uncomfortable. If you only look at the seats on both sides of the rear row, the angle is more reclined, and the length of the cushion is also appropriate, but the padding material is hard, and the sitting lacks wrapping.
 
The main reason is that the 2.4LTigershark engine used before has had a serious phenomenon of burning oil, and there have been many cases of stalling while driving, and there is no direct correlation between the flameout case and the burning of oil, it may appear separately or at the same time, ZF's 9HP gearbox has also had a variety of failures, oil leakage, shaking, and jitter have all appeared, and it is not a set of worry-free gearboxes. In addition to the powertrain, there are also various problems with the body accessories and electrical appliances of the free light, the most common being a leak in the sunroof, and the rest are a variety of minor faults.
 
Safety is one aspect where free light performs well, and Cherokee received a 5-star rating in the 2013 E-NCAP crash test and a 5-star rating in the 2016 A-NCAP. In the 2014~2018 IIHS evaluation, Cherokee's performance in the "frontal 25% overlapping collision" was "average", but in the 2019 test, the main driver and co-pilot received "excellent" evaluations in the small-area collision test.