Jeep Cherokee (KL) review: a discontinued compact SUV that needs a discount to make sense
3.4/5motorssouq Editorial Team
There is no scenario where a Cherokee is the smart used buy at the same price as an equivalent RAV4 or Tucson — resale is weaker, parts are scarcer, and the nine-speed automatic has a documented history of rough early shifts. It only makes sense if you find a well-documented, low-mileage FWD example priced meaningfully under its Japanese and Korean rivals, in which case the ride quality and cabin design are genuinely a step up.
Pros
- Softer, more absorbent ride over broken city surfaces than RAV4 or Tucson rivals
- Distinctive, still-contemporary cabin design with good material quality on Limited grades
- 3.2-litre V6 Trailhawk offers genuine Active Drive Lock four-wheel drive when found
- Discontinued status means motivated sellers, if you are patient
Cons
- Nine-speed automatic has a documented history of hesitant early shifts
- Weaker resale than the RAV4 and Tucson it is priced against
- Discontinued nameplate means scarcer parts and less workshop familiarity
- 2.4-litre four feels modest, and the more capable V6 Trailhawk is rare used
The Cherokee arrived with genuinely ambitious styling and a unibody platform aimed squarely at buyers who would never take a Jeep off-road, and Bahrain's dealer network never quite convinced that audience to switch away from a RAV4 or CR-V. The nine-speed automatic that debuted with the car earned a rough reputation for hesitant early shifts, and while Jeep sorted most of it through software updates over the run, it is the first thing any used buyer should stress-test on a test drive.
Where it actually competes
The front-wheel-drive 2.4-litre grade is the one Bahrain's used market carries in any real number, and it drives with a softer, more absorbent ride over Manama's patched streets than either the RAV4 or the Tucson of the same era — a genuine point in its favour that reviews focused on the drivetrain tend to underweight. The cabin design, with its raised centre stack and better-than-expected material quality on Limited grades, still looks contemporary years later.
The trade-off is straightforward: performance from the 2.4-litre four is modest, especially once the nine-speed hunts for the right ratio in city traffic, and the 3.2-litre V6 Trailhawk with real Active Drive Lock four-wheel-drive that would answer the performance complaint is rare in GCC-spec used stock.
Buying used and living with the scarcity
Discontinuation is the practical issue. Fewer Cherokees were sold here to begin with, dealers stock the nameplate less, and independent workshops see them infrequently enough that diagnosing anything beyond routine service can take longer than on a Corolla-class rival. None of that makes the Cherokee a bad car — it is a competently engineered one that simply never found its footing in a market this loyal to Toyota and Hyundai. Buy it only at a price that reflects that reality.