Jeep Grand Cherokee to get ZF 8-speed auto ‘box

Jeep Grand Cherokee to get 8-Speed ZF Gearbox

The latest version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee has only just arrived, but already Jeep are planning improvements with the confirmation that the Grand Cherokee is to get the new 8-Speed automatic gearbox from ZF.

The 8-speed ZF auto ‘box should help all round with the new Grand Cherokee, which already offers the promise of an American SUV matching the expectations of European buyers and, more importantly, offering a viable alternative to the offerings in the premium SUV sector from the Germans.

Not only does the new Grand Cherokee look able and promising, even with a relatively modest 3.0 litre diesel being the only engine on offer for the mainstream Grand Cherokees, but with a starting point of under £38k (and a top-end price of £44k) there’s a lot on offer. Especially as the interiors seem to have a much more European feel than we’ve seen in Grand Cherokees previously.

The icing on the cake for the Grand Cherokee is the new that we won’t just get the workhorse Grand Cherokee in the UK, we’ll also get the barn-storming Grand Cherokee SRT8. That’s due to arrive in 2012 offering Cayenne Turbo performance at half the price of Stuttgart’s offering.

Whether the SRT8 will also get the new 8-Speed ‘box we don’t know, but we do know that Land Rover use the ZF 8-speed ‘box in the Range Rover, but they don’t fit it to the Supercharged Range Rover because, we assume, it can’t cope with the power. So maybe it will be just the diesel Grand Cherokee getting the new shifter?

Still, the new box will cut emissions, make the drive smoother, reduce fuel consumption and probably improve performance in the process.

Which has to be good news.

(77 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK