How Many Miles Can A Jeep Grand Cherokee Last? We Checked It

Jeep Grand Cherokee is a legendary vehicle that is absolutely popular among American SUV buyers. If you are considering buying an SUV with a lot of off-roading perks, you will actually think about buying a Jeep. But there are also a lot of interesting options your can choose from. So, we decided to look at how many miles the Gand Cherokee can last. And this was an interesting experience.

A Jeep is not thought to be a very reliable car. It's an average vehicle with average potential mileage. But have you ever wondered how many miles it can actually go? We've investigated basically two things: forums with claims of owners and also salvage cars auctions that show Jeeps with engine damages, transmission damages, etc.

Here's what we'll be talking about:

1. Jeep Grand Cherokee expected longevity - how many miles can it go?
2. Grand Cherokee new generation - how many miles can it go?
3. What problems will you have with your Grand Cherokee?
4. Best and worst engines in modern Grand Cherokee SUVs.

Let's get started!

How many miles can you expect from a Jeep Grand Cherokee?

This question is impossible to answer without understanding the year and generation of your vehicle. The Grand Cherokee has been in production since 1993 when the company presented the first generation. Now, still, a lot of cars of the first three generations are on the road, but talking about their longevity is a hard task. They all have age problems and even if they haven't gone a lot of miles, they are not reliable anymore.

But the fourth-generation Grand Cherokee is one of the most interesting for us - it was produced from 2011 to 2021 and we'll be mainly talking about this generation today. We'll also touch the fifth generation (2021-now) and will try to estimate its longevity.

So, here's what we should say about this vehicle's longevity:

1. The fourth-generation Grand Cherokee is quite a good car, although it has some special drawbacks to talk about. Unfortunately, it wasn't rated by the owners as the highest-quality SUV and it still has a lot of problems.
2. Some wonderful engines like the 3.6 Pentastar, 5.7 Hemi, 6.4 Hemi, 6.2 Hemi supercharged, and also diesel engines are pretty good. All engines are durable if you don't look at any other equipment like starters, alternators, electronics, etc.
3. The average longevity of this generation Jeep Grand Cherokee is about 200,000 miles. And it's bad compared to 400,000 miles of the second and third generations. So, we see that the vehicle has deteriorated in quality a little.
4. The Grand Cherokee still has a lot of good things. For example, the body is very durable and doesn't need a lot of attention. If you replace the engine and transmission, you can drive your Jeep for at least 500,000 miles without body problems.
5. The interior is also of very high quality. Even if you aren't a very careful person, you will not break anything here. After 200,000 miles, this vehicle still looks new. Unfortunately, it's not the same with the other parts of the vehicle.
6. The Jeep Grand Cherokee has a wonderful suspension. It's very durable and helps you travel on any road. The vehicle is not afraid of off-roading at all and it can go a lot of miles with no need to repair the suspension.

So, some good and some bad things can be said about this car. And still, the overall longevity is only 200,000 miles. It doesn't mean that the SUV is the worst in the class. No, we know a lot of worse vehicles. But still, there are SUVs like Mercedes GLE, Ford Explorer, Toyota Highlander, and also some other models that will be better in the long run.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is also not cheap. It's about both initial price and maintenance costs. So, Jeep sells a lot of Grand Cherokee cars only because it has a great reputation as a real American vehicle. But, in our opinion, you should look carefully at the market and you will find a lot of wonderful alternatives. Maybe, after test-driving them, you will change your opinion about the Jeep.

Jeep Grand Cherokee new generation - will it be more durable?

In 2022, Jeep started selling a new generation Jeep Grand Cherokee. This vehicle has changed a lot in design. But will it be more reliable and will it go more miles than the previous-generation Grand Cherokee? Let's check it out and see whether this car is good or not.

The new SUV has basically the same engine in the cheapest trims - the 3.6 Pentastar V6 engine. It's durable and reliable. The 5.7-liter Hemi is also there - it's available for the Trailhawk version. The engine is wonderful, but it's extremely expensive now. Also, they have a new 2-liter turbocharged engine, and this one is going to be the most problematic.

Here's what we should say about the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee:

1. Its 2-liter turbocharged engine is not going to go for a lot of miles, but we can't even estimate the longevity.
2. The 8-speed automatic transmission is not bad at all, but it hasn't changed a lot, so it will not be the most durable automatic transmission in the world.
3. The basic trims will have much less interesting options for off-roading which is bad for their longevity.
4. The interior has changed and we believe it will not be as durable, though it became more beautiful and up-to-date.
5. The body protection may have also changed. We don't know for sure, but some first reviews say that the new Grand Cherokee is easily scratched.

The vehicle is new, so we don't know a lot of information about it. But we see that technically the car became even worse in terms of longevity. They don't offer the 6.2 and 6.4 engines now, they don't offer any diesel engines. The durability of a turbocharged 2-liter unit is very arguable.

So, we predict that the average longevity of the new 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee will be around 180,000 miles. Again, you will get more miles with a Trailhawk version powered with a Hemi engine, but you will get much fewer miles with a 2-liter turbo engine.

What are the main problems of a Grand Cherokee?

In this section, we'll get back to the fourth generation of the Grand Cherokee. We still don't know much about the new generation and we don't want to just predict some problems. But we have a lot of information on the previous generation and we will use this to tell you about possible problems of the Grand Cherokee.

You may apply this information to most of the trims of the new Grand Cherokee, too. Here are some of the most common problems:

1. Valve corrosion in Pentastar and Hemi engines. Well, this is not a very popular problem among Jeep engines, but we've seen quite a lot of claims and decided to include this strange syndrome in the list of problems.
2. Diesel emissions. Unfortunately, diesel engines weren't problem-free. They were durable, but they caused a lot of different minor problems.
3. Problems with uConnect. Jeep set a record with the number of problems its new infotainment system caused. It's still thought to be one of the worst solutions on the market.
4. Electronic modules failing. We've read reviews about many different electronic modules including engine and transmission electronics that fail and cause big problems.
5. Front axle problems. If you drive your car and feel some kind of wobbling, you can just call your mechanic and arrange a meeting. This is going to be expensive.

We can't describe all of the minor problems with the Grand Cherokee because there are tons of them. Nearly every time you are at the regular maintenance, your mechanic will tell you about some new problems that need to be solved right now. It's not a very pleasant thing because Jeep Grand Cherokee is not the cheapest car to repair.

We hope that the 2022 Grand Cherokee will not be as problematic. But we guess that new problems will be there to torture owners. And still, Jeep has a lot of advantages and that's why a lot of people still buy it.

Final words

The Grand Cherokee is one of the most interesting SUVs that can go on any road and even go off-roading. It's a good car that doesn't need a lot of your attention. But closer to 150,000 miles, it will start showing first problems. At 200,000 miles you will need to think about a new vehicle because your Jeep is about to fall apart.

Once the Grand Cherokee starts failing, repairing it is not a simple task and it's going to be very expensive. We have no idea whether you should buy the Grand Cherokee or not. If you find a good used Jeep with less than 100,000 miles on the clock, or if you want to buy a new vehicle - why not?