zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Trucks
/
British Land Rover Nerd Drives A Jeep Cherokee XJ And Realizes Its Greatness
British Land Rover Nerd Drives A Jeep Cherokee XJ And Realizes Its Greatness-November 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:07

Image for article titled British Land Rover Nerd Drives A Jeep Cherokee XJ And Realizes Its Greatness

A dozen folks have sent me a recent video showing legendary British car journalist realizing—ostensibly for the first time—just how incredible the Jeep Cherokee XJ is. It’s a beautiful moment caught on film, and you should all watch it.

To many Americans, it’s a well known fact that the Jeep Cherokee XJ—the AMC-designed unibody SUV that launched for the 1984 model year and played a huge role in shaping the modern car market—is such a great SUV that it may be the very best of all time (and in my view, there’s no question). It’s lightweight, powerful, spacious for its compact size, reasonably comfortable, quick, relatively nimble, incredibly off-road capable, and the list of positive attributes goes on and on.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a video of someone truly discovering the joys of the XJ on their own, free from outside influences—it’s just them and the boxy vehicle whose praises the world has been singing. Will it live up to the hype?

Harry Metcalfe, , and also a farmer and YouTuber, got his hands on one of the most fascinating examples of the Jeep Cherokee XJ: The Wagoneer Limited. (That’s the one from the 1980s that came with the faux wood trim, wacky grille, amazing stacked headlights, and nice leather interior). And not just any Wagoneer Limited. As Metcalfe tells it, this 1989 vehicle was chosen specifically as a runabout for a rich guy’s ski chalet in St. Moritz, Switzerland. “It was basically the very first example to come to Europe,” the Harry’s Garage host says, before saying the Jeep, which actually wasn’t officially sold in Great Britain until the 1990s but was sold in Europe in the mid 1980s, used to sit next to a Swiss Monteverdi Coupe sports car.

Look at the Harry’s Garage YouTube channel (see screenshot below), and you’ll see that Metcalfe tends to focus primarily on European cars. So in many ways, this Jeep XJ is a bit out of his usual wheelhouse. But I think that’s what makes the video so great.

Clearly, Metcalfe isn’t particularlywell-versed on the Cherokee, calling it the “Wagoner” in the beginning, and expressing his interest in the fact that the transfer case offers a two-wheel drive setting (which was pretty normal on Jeeps since the beginning of Jeep-dom in 1941). But that means Harry can look at the Cherokee with a truly fresh set of eyes, and tell us how he—someone extremely knowledgeable about cars, but still new to the XJ world—feels about a vehicle that has gained legendary status, especially in the U.S.

Image for article titled British Land Rover Nerd Drives A Jeep Cherokee XJ And Realizes Its Greatness

The Jeep wins Metcalfe’s heart. He loves the fact that it weighs only ~3,400 pounds—he actually weighed it himself. He applauds the small SUV’s decent quickness, noting that the Jeep was measured by Autocar in 1993 to do zero to 60 mph in 9.5 seconds compared to 12.9 seconds for a V8 Land Rover Discovery. Metcalfe also loves the Jeep’s ride comfort, he’s a fan of its visibility, he likes the handling, and finds the interior to be roomy enough. Plus, of course, the Jeep’s off-road chops impress the auto journalist as he bombs through the green fields of the rural Cotswold Hills region of England.

“It feels like a mini Range Rover. That’s the only way to describe it,” he concludes.

This story initially echoed Harry’s point that this vehicle was the first XJ sold in Europe. Per my knowledge, there were XJs sold in Europe in the mid 1980s. XJs weren’t, however, sold in until the 1990s.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Trucks
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
Those who saw the meteoric rise of through the 2010s and onward probably associate the badge with the . The was Chevy’s halo midsize truck when it was released in 2016, but the ZR2 badging goes all the way to the when Chevy made the S-10 ZR2. It’s gnarly....
Nov 3, 2025
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
No car has ever driven at higher altitude than this 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S with portal axles. On Saturday the Porsche crew, led by racing driver Romain Dumas, reached the highest peak of the west ridge of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile, . That’s the tallest...
Nov 3, 2025
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
By definition, a big truck like a or struggles to be small. Even in its smallest, most trucky configuration — a two-door single cab — a full-size truck is relatively large and comes with a sizable bed for hauling cargo. But a small truck like the third-generation can do...
Nov 3, 2025
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
In addition to the all-electric , the truck brand announced this week that it will also release a engine gasoline-powered hybrid version of its electric pickup, called Ramcharger. The goal here is to use the V6 engine as a generator for the electric powertrain when the 92 kWh battery...
Nov 3, 2025
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
No square inch of the Northeast is safe from deer, as video out of New Jersey shows. A deer, tearing through the suburbs, managed to leap over a Pontiac Vibe and Honda CR-V before landing on the bedside of a 2007 Chevy Silverado — just as a prospective buyer arrived...
Nov 3, 2025
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
gets dunked on for letting models like the languish for years. But, the truck saw a model update well before the release of the , which is mechanically much like an with a design. Outside of the U.S., the successor to the second-generation Frontier came in 2014 with the...
Nov 3, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved