When we first saw it, we had a sneaking idea we were looking at the future: a sport-ute with the off-road capabilities of a truck (since most SUVs were trucks) and the driving characteristics of a car. This 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 8,700 kilometres is part of Stellantis’s history collection. We came here to see if what we thought was true. Was the SUV of the future the ZJ from the 1990s? The irony is obvious: modern car companies try to make cars that look like SUVs, but the Grand Cherokee is an SUV that tries to look like a car. Even though the Grand Cherokee looks more significant than it is—today’s Honda HR-V makes an enormous shadow—it seems like it is pulling in its stomach to hide how heavy it is. The spare tire doesn’t hang from the tailgate; instead, it’s kept in the cargo area, which takes up an unacceptable amount of room. Even body-side cladding, now standard on crossovers that try to look harder than they are, is used as a visual trick to make the Grand Cherokee seem lighter. There isn’t much silver, and there isn’t much else, either. Like other stylish cars, the ZJ’s style comes from its appearance. When you open the door, you see it has strange proportions. The window frame looks ridiculously big, while the bottom piece is as short as a car door. The floor is as flat as a piece of plywood and not much thicker, so unlike in a current SUV, we don’t have to stoop down to get in. The heavy centre console on top of the tall transmission tube reminds me of how tightly the Grand Cherokee is built around its machinery. As we get in, the driving wheel is pushing against our chest. This is the first SUV with an airbag on the driver’s side. We can’t move it any farther because the driving wheel can only tilt, not telescope. This ZJ has a problem with its airbag, shown by a red light. Good. These old bags could pack a punch. The panel looks like it was made in the 1990s, with boxes that look like they were made in the 1980s. On the other hand, the top-of-the-line Grand Wagoneer has some gaudy plastic wood decorations. Compared to the materials used in the XJ Cherokee, the grey and black plastic may look cheap but pretty. We see miles of glass and columns as thin as toothpicks when we look around. Is this a greenhouse or a car? The backseats don’t have headrests, and the vast spare tire stands in the corner like an unwanted guest. This makes the cargo area feel like it’s part of the cabin. The key is now in the lock. The Chrysler starter sounds like a cat sneezing, but the old AMC 4.0’s mumbling idle sounds as if it came from a different time. It clicks into place when we reach out to grab the big gearbox shifter. We slowly open the throttle, and the ZJ speeds up with the typical American automatic gearbox ghost whine and rough grumble that can only come from a domestic straight-six engine. We don’t expect much from the Grand Cherokee because it weighs 3,650 pounds and has 190 horsepower, but that’s only because we’re used to high-revving four-valve engines. In late 1992, we timed the six-cylinder Grand Cherokee from 0 to 60 mph in 10.0 seconds. This is fast by today’s standards, but what’s more important is that it was just a bit faster than its main competitor, the Ford Explorer. This old cam-in-block two-valve engine has 225 lb-ft of power and isn’t afraid to use it. It has as much energy at mid-throttle as any turbo-four car made today. Who are we, though, to judge? The engine makes a lot of noise. It looks straightforward, like it was chosen because it was there instead of because it was the best choice. as it could have very well been. Before Chrysler took over in 1987, most of the work for the ZJ was done by American Motors. Because AMC’s finances were in bad shape, they needed an engine based on the 1964 Rambler American. We speed up because we expect to hear a truck from the 1990s, but it never comes. The Grand Cherokee’s ride is challenging but not rough, tight, or jerky. Our MotorTrend ancestors from the early 1990s loved this item, and it’s easy to see why. Even though the steering has a mile-wide dead spot in the middle, it has a nice weight and responds quickly. We have to be careful around the ZJ’s guards and in the Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, which looks like a mall built around the same time as the Grand Cherokee. We won’t be stopped from going a little faster, though, because these people love cars. When we give the Grand Cherokee more gas and turn the wheel, the engine responds with a guttural growl and rapid, flat changes in direction. We are amazed when we find out that we are riding on two solid wheels. What must it have been like for our modern test team to run through the slalom, check the numbers, and find out that this car was 0.5 mph faster than a Honda Accord wagon at the time? Even though it’s a common saying about SUVs, we are currently driving the SUV that made the saying popular. Even though the ZJ looks and sounds old-fashioned, we’ve seen more modern crossovers built on softer cars and less well-made ones. When we think the Grand Cherokee will also crawl over them off-road, our blood vessels almost burst. Let’s skip the fancy words and say it straight: This Jeep, which is 30 years old, was made to last longer than its rivals. We thought there would be a move toward modernization, the start of a path leading to the best SUVs on the market. We have found that the arc is not a set point in space. Thirty years ago, some SUVs drove like trucks, which made the industry start on a long trip to turn them into cars. The 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee waited for them with its engine running. Some of them made it, but some didn’t. When we saw the ZJ for the first time, we thought we were seeing things. We didn’t know how close we were.
