2012 JEEP Grand Cherokee

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a line of SUVs manufactured and marketed by Jeep over five generations. Originally marketed as a variant of the Jeep Wagoneer, the Cherokee has evolved from a full-size SUV to one of the first compact SUVs and into its current generation as a crossover SUV. Named after the Cherokee tribe of North American Indians, Jeep has used the nameplate in some capacity since 1974. The most notable difference between the Cherokee and the Grand Cherokee is size. The Jeep Cherokee is considered a small crossover SUV, and the Grand Cherokee is a midsize SUV. Top competitors for the Cherokee over the years have been the Subaru Outback and Ford Escape. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says the Jeep Cherokee earns Good ratings in all six of its crashworthiness categories. As far as reliability, its Reliability Rating is 4.0 out of 5.0, which ranks it 9th out of 26 for compact SUVs.