Jeep Grand Wagoneer

Jeep has carved out an incredible amount of interior room in the Wagoneer. The driver and passenger have plenty of leg, hip, and headroom, and the center console doesn’t cut into kneeroom. The second-row is quite spacious for the two passengers back there in the standard captain’s chairs. But it’s the roominess of the third-row that impresses the most. The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer have a wheelbase of 123 inches, which falls in between that of the Chevrolet Tahoe (121 inches) and Suburban (134 inches), yet its third-row feels roomier than either. This seat is fit for two adults to take a long trip without feeling relegated to a penalty box. The bottom seat cushion is also high and nicely angled, providing plenty of leg support while also giving occupants a place to put their feet. There’s still a decent amount of room behind the raised third row for luggage and other items.

The Grand Wagoneer’s big rectangular windows do wonders for side and rear visibility. It’s easy to quickly glance out over either shoulder and take in what’s around the Jeep. The rear window is immense, making it easy to see straight back even if the second- and third-row seats are raised. Add in the surround-view camera and active safety systems like blind spot warning and rear cross traffic warning, and there’s little worry when changing lanes or reversing out of a parking spot. Visibility to the front isn’t quite as good, with thick windshield pillars blocking the view, and it’s a challenge to know where the front bumper is when looking out over the long, tall hood. The parking sensors and front camera help when pulling into a short or narrow parking space.

It’s great that many tasks and operations are easily accessed and not buried in multiple levels of menus that are difficult to find. The main screen is simple to navigate, with big text and buttons, while the 10.25-inch lower screen for the climate and seat massage controls is easy to view at a glance. The new Uconnect5 system adds many new features but remains logically organized and keeps much of what has made the system great since it first arrived in the 2004 Chrysler Pacifica. Unlike some automakers, Jeep didn’t try to “luxurify” the system to make it distinct to the Grand Wagoneer, a result that often makes an infotainment system cumbersome, distracting, and frustrating to use. It’s essentially the same system you will find in other recent Jeep models.

We noticed a distinct boominess from the big 22-inch wheels and tires when going over bumps, which feels out of place in a luxury vehicle like this. In addition, there was a distinct and noticeable sound when the 6.4-liter V8 would go in and out of four-cylinder mode. At low-load situations, the engine will deactivate four cylinders to save on fuel. This generally causes a resonance, which automakers (including Jeep) will often counter by running “white noise” through the stereo system, effectively washing out or muting the sound with active noise cancellation. The resonance occurred at low speeds, always when the system was moving in and out of four-cylinder mode. We’ll look to see if the Wagoneer with the 5.7-liter V8, which also employs this system, exhibits the same in our testing. Since we last drove the 2022 model, the standard and only engine has changed to a 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six-cylinder that produces 540-hp. We have not driven the updated model with the I6 engine. 

But some of the Grand Wagoneer's controls are overly complicated for no apparent benefit. The touch controls for the seat heating/ventilation and steering wheel heat are one issue. Not only are they slow to respond when “pressed”, they’re also pretty small, making it too easy to hit the incorrect choice. This is worsened by the slow/no response problem, because the driver ends up overly focused on them, which can become distracting. Similarly, Jeep has placed the controls for the seats on the door, and they’re a mix of physical levers/sliders and capacitive-touch controls.

The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer come with a full complement of active safety and driver assistance systems standard—and at this price, it should. Not only is there forward collision warning (FCW), automatic emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, and blind spot warning (BSW), but the Grand Wagoneer has adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance. These two combine to form a well-implemented active driver assistance system. It even has a slight edge over the Super Cruise system on the Cadillac Escalade that, for good and for bad, is limited to marked highways. Jeep’s system is able to be used on all roads with proper lane markings.

However, in some ways it isn’t nearly the equal of Cadillac’s system. Super Cruise uses a driver-monitoring camera to make sure the driver is actually looking at the road while the system is active. The Grand Wagoneer doesn’t have a driver-monitoring camera system, instead relying on sensors in the steering wheel to ensure the driver is holding the steering wheel. Real-world driving data show that the steering wheel sensor approach is insufficient to ensure drivers are paying attention. Oftentimes drivers only look toward an interior display while tugging the steering wheel, never even glancing at the road.

Overall, the safety and driver-assistance systems worked well, but they could be improved with the addition of a driver monitoring camera. We’re looking forward to spending more time with these systems in the Wagoneer we buy.Jeep loaded up the one we rented with technology, including the optional rear-seat screens that make the second-row captain’s chairs the place to be during a road trip. That’s in addition to the standard—and unique—front-passenger multimedia setup that lets that person watch videos or adjust the navigation system without having to mess around with the 10-inch main touch screen on the center dashboard. It’s overwhelming at first, though manageable.