Tough Love: Jeep Commander

To tell you the truth, SUVs bore me. I see their value every time I’m confronted with a fender-deep flood and I’m praying my car’s computer-box doesn’t drown, and I love how I can pack a ton of my junk for my semi-weekly out-of-town trips, but I’m a car guy, dammit. I love the sound of a well-tuned engine as much as the next motorhead, and I’ll take a rock-hard ride over a Cloud Nine cush-mobile anytime. Well, at least until my back gives out. So, in this increasingly SUV-hungry environment, where it’s getting pretty hard to see through traffic thanks to all you SUV drivers out there (Hi, mom!) I guess I’m just a little bit jaded with every new 4x4 or 4x2 that rolls out to populate our overpriced parking lots.

And then there is the Jeep Commander, a 4,829-lb mother of an SUV that has nearly the bad-mofo appeal of a Hummer H1 but with far more comfort than your average La-Z-Boy. Slamming its doors shut reminds one of an armored car’s. Seeing it loom in your rearview mirror compels you to move aside. The Commander I drove for some 400 kilometers had a 235-horsepower 4.7-liter V8, a 5-speed automatic, full-time four-wheel drive, and enough attitude to make the Desperate Housewives blush.

This is no soccer mom SUV, and in fact Jeep markets it as “Trail Rated”. Meaning, it is as tough as it looks. Approach angle is 34-degrees, departure is 27-degrees, and ground clearance is 8.3 inches. The suspension travel of the front double wishbone, rear solid axle system is a Dirk Diggler-esque 13 inches, the upper control arms are forged, and if you really see yourself busting up some poor rock garden, a skid plate group can be had. Climb inside and the testosterone is evident in the chunky 4-spoke steering wheel design, the exposed Allen screws on the dash, and the pimped up gear lever that looks like Tupac’s cane stolen from the grave.

Yet for all this overt manliness, the Commander is not a pain to drive. Far from it, because aside from the predictably numb steering and the gun-slit view of the windshield, everything else is sweet. The upholstery of the Commander is an intriguing, copper-red “Yuma Leather” that has shades of 60s style, there’s a power moonroof, and the driving position is excellent for an SUV – a rarity these days. Even backseat drivers – our steamed, sorry, esteemed Motoring Editor included – can bask in the sunshine just like the front-row people because of the Commander’s rear-area Dual Skylights fixed above the 2nd row seat. As Jeep’s first 7-passenger SUV, it has a foldable 3rd row that’s livable just like any other, and it easily folds flat to accommodate the more pressing needs of weekend warriors and overloaded families.

Taking the Commander to Subic and back, it took 10 minutes to figure out all the controls and switches, and after that it was pure butter. The V8 is hardly ever stressed schlepping us lightweight Asians around and it gathers speed smoothly and silently. Cruising at 120-130kph, the only clue that you’re flirting with the radars on the NLEX is the wind noise as the truck pushes through the air with its Frigidaire aerodynamics. The transmission has a manual override function you activate by slapping the shifter left or right from “D”, but there’s so much torque all the time that the only times you’ll use it is when you’re furiously overtaking someone or want to hold a gear in the curves. Body roll is a little firmer than the average SUV, but the price of this kind of suspension tuning seems to be a few shakes and quivers through the body over pavement ripples.

I averaged 6.2 kilometers per liter of mostly highway driving; not bad for such a heavy SUV with a large displacement engine. Among the Commander’s other attributes was a healthy allotment of shelves, cupholders, and pockets in the cockpit, a powerful stereo, and a driver’s seat that had the right support in all the right places; after six hours of driving, I felt like I could drive another two. Well, okay, maybe one. Backseat passengers, on the other hand, liked the theater-feel of the seats, slightly raised than the preceding row, and with lots of room to move around.

There was one miscue with the drivetrain, though. After an hour of crawling through Pampanga traffic, the engine mysteriously stalled, but immediately restarted after I’d gotten over the initial panic. Maybe it just fell asleep.

In any case, the Jeep Commander ranks on my personal list as one of the most desirable SUVs yet. It’s ugly, it isn’t cheap, and it’s a guzzler if you’ll use it for the city, but it’s oozing with character. And that, I think, will make even the car guys among us pretty happy driving this one.

The Good:

Retro styling.

Take-no-prisoners underchassis.

Genuinely comfortable cabin.

Looks bulletproof, even if it isn’t.

The Bad:

Poor aerodynamics.

Numb steering feel.

Gun-slit view from the windshield.

The Verdict:

A hairy-chested SUV that’s more accommodating than you’d think.