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2016 Ford Explorer vs Jeep Grand Cherokee

JCrew7384

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2016 Ford Explorer Platin
Hi. I am in the market for a new SUV. I have always been a Jeep guy, my last 4 cars have been Jeeps, most recently a 2004 Grand Cherokee and a 2009 Grand Cherokee.

I love the look of the new Explorers.

Does anyone have any input on the new Explorer vs the soon to be released 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee? With exception of the obvious, one has 3 rows vs 2.
 



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Hi. I am in the market for a new SUV. I have always been a Jeep guy, my last 4 cars have been Jeeps, most recently a 2004 Grand Cherokee and a 2009 Grand Cherokee.

I love the look of the new Explorers.

Does anyone have any input on the new Explorer vs the soon to be released 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee? With exception of the obvious, one has 3 rows vs 2.

Explorer's power train is way more reliable in recent model years.
 






Following this great as I am looking at the same 2 options.

Have narrowed down to a 2016 Explorer Sport or a Jeep Grand Cherokee a high altitude package.

Chris
 






Following this great as I am looking at the same 2 options.

Have narrowed down to a 2016 Explorer Sport or a Jeep Grand Cherokee a high altitude package.

Chris

I can get u the best deal on a explorer send me a PM
 






I have been following some of the comments from Jeep owners and have been hearing a lot about the 9 speed transmission having issues.. I would research that first. As said above, the ford power train is much more reliable.

With that said, I really do like the looks of the GC.
 






It all depends on what the 2016 GC model brings. Still don't know when it will be released and can find stuff online about it. The Explorer might be at 2017 model year by then!
 






I looked hard at the 2 when I bought our 2016 explorer. the explorer seems to have a tick more useable room but the bigger thing was the extra seats.

it was cheaper

and it got better MPG

not sure about the new, new GC but I'd suspect some of that is still the case. Had I been able to however - I would have tried to get into a dodge durango, which is on the same chassis base as the GC.

wifey didn't want it, because that's what my mom drives.
 






We wanted a 3rd row so it was between the Ex and the Durango. The 6 in the Durango felt weak even with the 8 speed auto. They still have it geared way too high in 1st gear so it is a total dog off the line. My wife hated the way the one drove that we tested, but to be fair it was a beat up prior rental. I wanted to test the Hemi, but my wife loved the looks of the 16 Ex Sport and I could not pass up the power. It is much quicker than an Durango RT and gets better mileage. We both feel that it is a better looking vehicle as well. Now, the one thing that I definitely do like better about the Durango is that it is RWD biased, instead of FWD. If you are not getting AWD, get the Durango. Even the Sport has a little torque steer, but that is only when you put down all that torque. We drove a FWD 4 cyl Ecoboost and it wandered all over the place when accelerating down an uneven road. My wife hated that too. We both love the 16 Sport. However, on a long road trip I was having a hard time finding a comfortable position for my right leg. I had to keep using the cruise control so I could move it to a more comfortable location. Test drive both of them but also research reliability. I didn't get that far with the Dodge. That 8 speed is still fairly new. My friend's GC with the old auto and 3.6 is a real dog until about 4000rpm. I think that you won't look back if you drive a 3.5 ecoboost. My loves the hands free lift gate and got accustomed to using the keypad on our 02, so she really wanted the Ford for both of those features.
 






We purchased a Ford Explorer limited about a month ago. Over I love it, but we seem to be having an adaptive cruise control error that ford is attempting to fix. The rental they gave me is a Jeep Grand Cherokee which is also very nice. The explorer definitely has more room in the back while the 3rd row seats are stowed, seems to be about 30-40% larger. The jeeps screen seems similar to sync 3 while the explorers is MFT. One thing I don't like about it, (as in the older explorers (2011-2015) is that you need to access the climate screen to make adjustments vs hitting a physical button.
 






The JGC uses two different transmissions - one for th hemi and one for the gas v6. The one with the gas v6 has been a bit troublesome; the hemi powered 8 speed trans has been around for several years and has proven to be a very good transmission.

The hemi sounds way better than the ecoboost v6. The ecoboost v6 equipped explorer is a fair bit faster than a hemi 5.7L v8 equipped JGC.

We have the sport ex and love it but I'm considering replacing my car with a JGC with th hemi (summit or High Altitude) or possibly a used SRT. And the SRT....another league of its own.
 






I just came out of a 13 Durango RT, and into a 16EX Sport.
The Durango was slow and heavy feeling, but sounded great.
The EX is a lot quicker and feels lighter, acceleration and steering feels effortless in comparison.
 






We have a '14 Sport and my brother picked up a 2016 JGC Summit edition with the Turbo Diesel. While not a super quick vehicle the TDi gets close to 28 mpg highway. My brother took a long trip on it and actually got slightly over 28 mpg during the trip.
 






Don't depreciate the shear size and volume difference between the durango and the explorer. Just saying, sure it's a dog because it has so much mass and surface area.

I liked having the more room. At 6'3 I actually don't like driving the explorer for long times because of the lack of leg/foot room in the drivers seat. It's not horrible, but it's not the same as say the acadia/enclave or the durango, or the pathfinder if going there. It is a minor issue for me since the vehicle is mostly the wifeymobile.

But its not a fair comparision to put a durango against the explorer as opposed to putting up closer up to an expedition. meh
 






I would say Expeditions are way bigger than Durango's. The Explorer and Durango are pretty close to eachother as far as size. I did want to drive a Durango again to see if the ergos were better, but it is the wife's car and she loved the Ex and I loved the looks and power. Obviously, I do like the sound of the Durango R/T better. The Expeditions are faster than a Durango R/T as well. They get the F150 version of the Ecoboost. They are as quick as the Explorer Sport because they have more torque and hp.
It all depends on what is more important to the OP. The 16 Durango's and JGC's will be much quicker than Jeff's Machine's 13 he had. The new trans keeps the motor in the sweet spot a lot longer.
A tuned Explorer Sport will be within a few tenths of a SRT JGC in the 1/4. The SRT's sound badass and look pretty sweet though if you don't need the extra room and don't care about mileage. If my daily was an SUV, I would probably have to get that one if I could afford it! They are a lot more money.
 






The 2016 JGC Summit is sweet. The Third row from the Explorer is pretty handy and useful.
 






The Durango and EX are very similar in size and weight, but the Durango RT with the Hemi is a dog ,because Dodge de tuned the hell out of it with torque management. If the Durango RT ran as quick as the other RT's , it would be a keeper. I realized it was time to dump it , when other people on a Durango RT Forum were striving to get into the 15's after 93 octane performance tunes, and full bolt ons.
I was interested in the JGC SRT, but wanted better gas mileage , and a tuned EX Sport can get pretty close to the SRT #'s
 






That's the reason I picked the Explorer over the Grand Cherokee.
I wish we could get the QuadaLift II system on the Explorer. :D

I have been following some of the comments from Jeep owners and have been hearing a lot about the 9 speed transmission having issues.. I would research that first. As said above, the ford power train is much more reliable.

With that said, I really do like the looks of the GC.
 






I was in the same situation a few months ago. Look at a website called CarComplaints.com. It shows the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee with a lot of transmissions troubles. I understand the 3.6 pentistar v6 has also been changed so first year changes throw up a read flag for me. We went with the Explorer mostly because of the lesser drivetrain problems and it being a 7 passenger. We absolutely love it. It rides great but coming from Jeep Liberty most anything would be a better ride. We started having problems with the 3.7 in the Liberty having lifter problems due to engine sludging issues. I'm a little cautious of Chrysler products since being bought by fiat.
 






We just traded my wife's '03 3.7 jeep liberty ltd for a '16 sport. At just over 100k miles the jeep was starting to suck cash, so off it went.

I've had a number of jeeps and other chryslers in my life and frankly all of them started having issues with transmissions eventually.
 



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I traded my 2014 Jeep Cherokee for a new 2015 Explorer 4wd back in July. Best thing I ever did. The Cherokee had the infamous nine speed transmission in it. The drive train on my Cherokee was always having issues and had to have numerous software updates to work properly. It never did shift smoothly so we thankfully got rid of it with only about 6,000 miles on it. Our new Explorer shifts great and has not had any problems for the few months we have had it. The Cherokee was back and forth to the dealer numerous times for various issues including the transmission. I did not want to get stranded somewhere off road in the middle of nowhere so I traded it in on the Explorer. We've had our 4wd Explorer off road here in AZ and have not had any problems. It is quite capable driving on dirt, mud, and rocky forest roads. I do wish it had higher ground clearance and the option of skid plates though. That would make it the complete package in my opinion. The Explorer is not a rock crawler like a Wrangler but it takes us anywhere we need to go off road. This is my opinion based on my experience with my 2014 Jeep Cherokee vs my 2015 Explorer 4wd. My Cherokee had the Active Drive II 4wd system and in theory would have been a very capable small SUV but turned out to be a big dissappointment to me. As far as the Explorer vs the Grand Cherokee, based on my Jeep experience I would not trust the reliability of another Jeep vehicle. Glad to now have two Fords, a Mustang GT and an Explorer.
 






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