Future shock for SUVs

Diesel in Cherokee makes it really Grand

Brian Early FOR THE TORONTO STAR

The Brian Early family visited the Big Nickel during a week-long trip in the Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel.

Brian Early

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

The Best: Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel

There were several pleasantly surprising vehicles this year: Honda's Fit, the impressive Saturn Aura and its Chevy Malibu twin, Volkswagen's Passat 2.0T, even Ford's Taurus X crossover – but the vehicle that impressed me the most was Jeep's turbo-diesel powered Grand Cherokee ($54,470).

The Jeep's Mercedes-sourced V6 engine wowed me with its remarkably civilized and effective power production, while returning appreciably greater fuel economy – 30 per cent better by my experience – than the gasoline-burning Hemi V8.

How good is this motor? Good enough to make me overlook the Grand Cherokee's lack of interior room (for its size), odd seating position, and the diesel's additional cost to rank it "best" amongst the other vehicles I've mentioned.

The recent Mercedes/Chrysler breakup all but assures that this motor's use will stay limited to the Grand Cherokee and Dodge Sprinter within the Chrysler lineup, and that's a shame. Just think how good a Dodge Dakota would be with this motor under the hood; I'd bet that once word got out Chrysler would sell as many as it could make.

The Worst: Audi Q7

For 2007, with my backside planted in the driver's seat of dozens of vehicles, a couple of cars and trucks failed to make a connection. Toyota's Camry Hybrid did little to excite, despite having thoroughly enjoyed the company's Prius and Lexus RX 400h hybrids in the past.

Similarly, a week in a Honda Element SC contrasted poorly with an enjoyable stint I'd had in an Element a couple of years ago. I chalk it up to the SC tester's joy-killing automatic transmission and uncomfortably lower and stiffer springs; skip the SC package and the Element's funky goodness remains.

I expected to like the bright blue Mini Cooper Soho when I picked it up, and several factors were working in its favour: its nimbleness, a manual transmission and better yet, the iconic small car in modern form – built by BMW.

But by the end of the week its smaller-than-expected (and more cheaply finished) interior, underwhelming engine, and premium price tag (for its size and abilities) turned me off.

But the loser for 2007? I was most disappointed by Audi's seven-passenger Q7 SUV (base/as tested $59,800/$72,950). It's dynamically fantastic (even with the smaller V6 engine) and beautifully finished, yet it's somewhat overwrought; this vehicle even has two sets of taillights that alternate depending on whether the tailgate is closed or not – my mechanic side cringes at this kind of unnecessary complexity.

At least Audi's MMI – Multi Media Interface – twist-knob controller system is easier and more intuitive to use than BMW's iDrive unit.

Two issues sealed the deal: The 3.6 Premium tester occasionally flashed false "low oil pressure" warnings, and it had a power operated full-width tailgate that would deform itself as it closed on objects in the cargo hold – the latter unforgivable in a family oriented vehicle.

Ultimately, I wanted to like the Q7 as I have liked many of the other Audis I've driven, but if you can make do with just five seats, I'd recommend the slightly simpler and smaller Volkswagen Touareg 2 upon which the Q7 is based. Sometimes less is actually more.

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