January 29, 2007
I know, I know, it's about time.
Kelly Toepke, Manager of Vehicle Testing and Crash Test Dummy
September 7, 2006
August 29, 2006
It's over! The Jeep spent the night in MY driveway, and I spent the night in MY bed. Vacations are excellent therapy for body and soul, but getting home after spending 1,900 miles on the road is a great feeling. All that's left is to roll into work this morning and release this final blog entry.
For our family at least, the Commander didn't turn out to be the ideal road trip implement. This Jeep seems better suited to empty-nester duty at the ranch or someplace similar where the off-road related trade-offs would be appreciated and utilized.
August 28, 2006
Our Oregon adventure has entered the final phase: driving home. After re-packing our stuff and saying our good-byes, we pointed our Commander south for the 900-mile or so return trip. The run home will follow a more direct route, as the dog is waiting for us and the kids are itching to see who their teachers will be next year.
Three of the Jeep's electronic gadgets have already helped this driver wile away the miles behind the wheel: Sirius satellite radio; the Navigation system; and the Tire Pressure Monitoring System readout. Here's how they are doing:
August 27, 2006
My parents own a hilltop house with a 180-degree view of the Pacific near Pistol River, Oregon. Another higher hill sits behind their place, with an old logging track servicing the top. The steepest portion is something dad proudly calls the Wall of Death, a narrow, 30-percent steep stretch made slippery by a coating of pine needles, gravel and twigs.
Low-range and a steady application of throttle are necessary here. The steepest portion is deeply shaded, making it a poor photo op. But the payoff at the top is an even more sweeping 360-degree view, with the unspoiled, rocky Pacific coastline at our feet, and the Trinity Alps behind. I don't understand why he wants to sell this place...
August 25, 2006
Yesterday was the first full day of nothing to do but relax. Finally.
Our first task was to load six of us into the Commander and head for Jerry's Rogue Jets, where we hopped on a jet boat to take us 52 miles up into the Wild & Scenic portion of the Rogue River. Fantastic. Everyone should make this trip.
August 23, 2006
Our Jeep Commander is back in service! Thanks to Harper Ford / Kia / Jeep, their helpful Green Team service writer Scott List, and an anonymous mechanic, a new starter arrived in the morning shipment from San Francisco and was installed by lunch. And no, I don't think we received any special treatment, as I never let on where I work or what I do for a living.
Yesterday afternoon, my folks drove 120 miles south and rescued us from the Lost Coast Brewery, a wonderful little joint that we had set up camp in while we waited. We transferred our belongings from the stricken Jeep into the back of their Honda Odyssey. Even with the Honda's third seat in use, all of our stuff from the back of the Jeep, plus items the girls had piled between them in the second row, fit well below the headrests in the Odyssey.
August 22, 2006
Well, I guess if I had to break down somewhere, this is as good a place as any. I'm sitting in the Lost Coast Brewery in downtown Eureka, California. And since I won't be doing any more driving today, I'm having my second Downtown Brown ale with lunch.
Day 3 of our trip to Oregon in the Commander has gone badly. After a grand total of 11.4 miles - the distance from our hotel to our breakfast stop at the Big Blue Cafe in Arcata, California, the Jeep refuses to start. Click, click, click, is all I get after a twist of the key.
It's not a dead battery, as the car sat for 12 hours overnight and started on the first twist of the key. After driving to our breakfast stop and sitting for about five minutes, I decided to move the car to a better parking spot and... nothing. I have plenty of power, as the power windows, lights, NAV screen and everything else works at full strength. And Editor Karl, who had a similar no-start incident, replaced the battery about five or six-thousand miles ago. No, something else more sinister and hidden is at work.
A sympathetic motorist who saw me fiddling under the hood offered me a jumpstart, but as expected, that didn't change anything. Click, click, click. So I've called roadside assistance, and a tow truck will be here in 30 minutes, they say, to haul me and ONE of my family to the dealership. According to roadside assistance, the other three of us need to get a taxi, at our own expense, or simply wait here, on a park bench presumably...
The Commander may be many things, but I can say with authority that it is in fact Tree Rated, as it fits (barely) through the famous Drive-Thru Tree in California's Humboldt Redwoods. Okay, the mirrors had to be folded in, and we had less than an inch on each side at times, but it squeezed through.
August 21, 2006
The Jeep Commander came out of nowhere and got the nod for my family's road trip to Oregon. Even though it is equipped with most of the things on our checklist -- a DVD player and a navigation system -- it had not been highly rated due to smallish interior volume. But the front-running Kia Sedona developed a CD player glitch at the 11th hour and dropped from contention. Two thousand miles without decent tunes wasn't going to cut it.
August 14, 2006
I've concluded that you have to be in the right mood to like this Jeep. If you're in a hurry it's not much fun. The throttle is touchy, the steering is slow and there's so much slop in the suspension that you can't take turns at anything more than walking pace. Fitting it into tight parking spots is also a pain and getting in and out is a bit of a climb too.
July 28, 2006
Although I complained yesterday about the Commander's lack of hauling capability, I can't deny that I like the driving position in this vehicle and I like the way it rides and handles -- a couple of things that continue to make this Jeep so seductive in the face of high gas prices. The driver seat is well shaped, and the seat-bottom cushion is long, providing good thigh support for those with long legs. It's a shame the steering wheel doesn't telescope, but I found it easy to get comfortable, and visibility is quite good. The cushioning has a squishy feel reminiscent of the '99-'04 Grand Cherokee, which likely explains why the seats got uncomfortable on Karl's cross-country trip, though they held up just fine during my hour-long drive last night...
July 27, 2006
I'm in the midst of cleaning out my apartment, so I loaded up the long-term Commander for a quick trip to the recycling center. I was immediately struck by how high the load floor in this vehicle is. With the second- and third-row seats folded down, your load surface begins 4-5 inches above the top of the rear bumper. As I began loading in my sorted bags and boxes of recyclables, I realized I wasn't fitting much more stuff in the Jeep, which has a max capacity of 69 cubic feet, than I did over the weekend in an Audi A6 sedan, which has a 16-cubic-foot trunk and 60/40 folding rear seats...
July 17, 2006
Ohhh! Denied!! And it was sooooo close!! The Jeep Commander had manged a nearly flawless performance from the West Coast to Upstate New York and back again...
After three weeks and 7,000 miles behind the wheel of our long-term Jeep Commander you might expect us to have the car pretty well figured out. Your expectations would be correct, as I've got plenty to say about Jeep's Hummer-wannabe. Some comments also come from my 73-year-old father. He drove the Commander from Las Vegas to Cooperstown, New York before I hauled the clan back to the Pacific Coast in it, via Florida and Texas.
Let the commentary commence!
July 13, 2006
You know that saying about hot rods and sports cars? "It passes everything but a gas station." Well, that colloquialism also applies to our 2006 Jeep Commander. Over the course of 6,500 miles, 90 percent of them on freeways, the vehicle is averaging 14.4 mpg. Combine this with the 18 gallon fuel tank and you're lucky to get 260 miles between fill ups...
July 9, 2006
We entered Louisiana today, with the Jeep Commander turning over 19,000 miles. We still never know how much noise and vibration we'll get from the climate control fan, sometimes it's almost inaudible and sometimes the steering wheel feels like a paint mixer (with the accompanying sound booming through the cabin). We'll try to get it serviced soon during a stop in Austin, Texas.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 19,135 miles
July 7, 2006
How do you put over 5,500 miles on a car in 12 days? Take it on a cross-country trip from Los Angels to Upstate New York to Florida. Our Jeep Commander has performed just such a duty over the past two weeks, and there's still 3,000-plus miles between the car and its home along the Pacific Ocean. I've learned plenty about Jeep's Hummer-wannabe on this trip, such as the seats are too squishy, the fuel mileage isn't too good, and the climate control system is too loud...
June 27, 2006
At full blast, the air conditioning cooled us to our bones. But lowering the temperature dial a notch caused the air to become significantly warmer. With the summer season fast approaching we drove to the dealer for service.
Moothart Chrysler/Jeep in Cerritos was busy when we arrived, and we didn't have an appointment...
June 22, 2006
It was a beautiful evening in Los Angeles when I left the office last night. It was around 7pm and the air was cool enough to not need the A/C. Traffic was flowing so I opened the moonroof, put on the seat warmers and enjoyed my comfortable ride home.
The interior of the Commander is spacious and pleasant...
June 20, 2006
Just how thirsty is the big V8 in the Commander? Bring your fuel card. You'll need it.
June 19, 2006
The Jeep Commander is getting to be my favorite long term vehicle. It does everything I ask, fits my lifestyle, hauls our two kids in comfort and the optional rear seat DVD player is a life saver. I'm not saying that bringing video entertainment into the car is best thing ever but when you have a 4 year old kid who can be a little demanding at times, the occasional Thomas the Tank Engine or Winnie the Pooh DVD seems like a well deserved oasis of quiet (thanks to the rear seat headphones).
After several weeks of driving the Commander I can honestly say I am still not tired of it and I look forward to each day I spend with the car...
June 16, 2006
We've noted the Jeep Commander's oddly configured cargo area before, but it wasn't until last night that I saw it first hand. Drop the third row to throw in a little cargo and you get a load floor that's four or five inches higher than the actual threshold. Since the seats don't fold flat into the floor, Jeep's engineers simply raised everything around them to make things even. It's better than having a multilevel floor, but trying to load big items isn't easy with such a high liftover...
June 14, 2006
Last night I drove the Jeep Commander home and discovered the audio controls behind the steering wheel. I'm not much of an audiophile. I usually just pop in a CD and listen to it over and over until I don't hear it anymore. Or I put on 103.1 FM and pretend I'm hip listening to Indie tunes...
June 12, 2006
This is more Land Rover than Jeep, both in price and performance. Commander rocks the neighborhizzy over the weekend and virtually all who came in contact with it during this relaxed weekend came out with a different view of the brand.
June 6, 2006
I forgot to mention a tiny gripe I had about the Jeep Commander when I took it on my road trip this past weekend. And actually this goes for any car that does this. But I don't like how the navigation system pauses when the car is in motion. My traveling companion could have safely fidgeted with the nav system while I was driving...
June 5, 2006
Faced with a long arduous trip to the high desert in scorching temperatures as well as a bit of off-roading, I was more than relieved when I scored the Jeep Commander this weekend. Our journey was about 300 miles roundtrip and I honestly didn't feel a thing. Of course the satellite radio, nav system, an effective A/C and comfy seats helped lots but the Commander's smooth and quiet ride really did it for me. There was barely any road noise with the windows up and the A/C on. It felt like we were flying. And the miles just ticked by on the tripmeter unnoticed.
June 2, 2006
About a week ago we took our 2006 Commander in for its 12,000 mile service interval. At the time we reported a broken left rear seatbelt. Less than a week later the ordered part arrived and we made an appointment for the next day. Our service appointment was for 9:30 but we dropped the car off a little early - around 8:45. Only two hours later the Jeep was ready and our service advisor Rick called promptly to let us know. The cost was covered under warranty so we had zero out of pocket expense...
May 31, 2006
As far as I'm concerned, the Jeep Commander is the ugliest SUV on the road. Its proportions are odd and no matter which angle you look at it from it doesn't look right. And I think it's the reason I like it so much.
May 25, 2006
New vehicle service intervals generally consist of the same things - oil and filter change, top off fluids, tire rotation and various inspections. But we're always surprised by how much the price varies from car to car.
Thankfully Moothart Chrysler/Jeep in Cerritos, California surprised us in a good way. The final bill for our 12,000 mile service was $51.78...
May 24, 2006
This morning we dropped our Jeep Commander off at Cerritos Chrysler - Jeep in the Cerritos Auto Mall for its 12,000 mile service. In addition to the regular service interval we also asked them to check on a slight whining noise the truck seems to make at highway speeds and our left rear passenger seatbelt has suddenly stopped working - it's locked in the fully retracted position. Check back tomorrow for an update on the price and details.
May 22, 2006
We now have 11,300 miles on our Commander. The downside to the Jeep's more manageable size is that the third row of seating isn't exactly spacious. However, it is roomy enough for a child's car seat and my 4 year old son was perfectly comfortable riding around back there all weekend. No one should seriously be thinking that third row seating is for adults - it's not. 90 percent of the time I leave the third row folded flat on the Jeep and I bet most owners do the same thing. The only real bad news with this truck is that I've been getting 12.9 miles per gallon from the Commander's 5.7 liter Hemi V8...
May 19, 2006
I just put about 400 miles on the Jeep Commander in about 2 days - it now has just over 11,000 miles total. I must say I really love all the little storage spaces up front. I had a spot for everything. There's even a slot next to the shifter that was perfect for holding bridge/ toll road money and reciepts. The more time I spend with this Jeep the more it just seems to "fit."
On the other hand I wish the nav screen was a little bigger...
May 18, 2006
The more I drive the Jeep Commander, the more I like it. It's one of the few cars from our long term fleet that I would be happy driving everyday for the next 3 years. But the more time it spends in my driveway, the more I don't like the way it looks from the rear. There's something chunky or disproportionate about it...
May 17, 2006
At first I thought this bigger Jeep would be too big. But really it feels a bit more managable than most full size SUVs. For me, that makes it much more useful since I can let my wife drive it without worrying that it's too big for her - plus I find I don't dread going to certain parts of town that are more crowded the way I might if I were driving something like a Chevy Tahoe.
Brian Moody, Road Test Editor
May 15, 2006
The average driver today is a major power hog. And I'm not just talking about engine power (though the continued sale of V8 SUVs, despite $4-a-gallon gas, confirms plenty of us want that, too). No, what I'm talking about is the need to power our various electronic devices as we motor. Our driving accessories, if you will...
May 11, 2006
Our Commander has a reverse warning sensor that beeps like crazy when you're about to make contact with something other than the pavement. Leaving my own garage, I watched in the driver's sideview mirror as the sensor sounded its warning, but since I could see that I had clearance, I dimissed its sensitivity. Scraaaaape! The Commander's wide rear fender rubbed against a concrete post...
May 9, 2006
Out for a spin with the family, I rolled up behind a pack of cars that had just gotten the green light. I saw a gap and squeezed the throttle a bit to fill it with the Jeep Commander Limited.
"Owww," my wife yelled as she grasped fruitlessly for something to grab onto while her head snapped against the headrest, knocking her sunglasses into my daughter's lap in the back seat. She glared.
"I didn't do that on purpose. I just pushed it a little bit," I explained through a partially suppressed grin. But it wasn't a white lie. Several days earlier, while driving the Commander on a rocky track in support of another test, I had a similar experience.
The speed of the Jeep had been somewhat difficult to control while rock crawling in low-low. Slight initial pressure on the throttle produced too much instant torque, causing the beast to want to lunge over rocks, resulting in the inevitable skid-plate crash on the other side...</fo
May 1, 2006
This weekend photographer Scott Jacobs and I drove our Jeep Commander Limited 180 miles north of Los Angeles to Pismo Beach, where for $5 you can drive your vehicle right by the ocean's edge. We had a great time driving the SUV through the crashing surf. If we had gotten stuck or if the engine stalled, we might have been swept out to sea, but the Commander handled it without a problem. Forget 'Trail Rated,' this thing is now 'Beach Rated.'
After the 360-mile round trip, we were wishing for more range, however...
On day two of our desert comparison test the Jeep Commander tackled even tougher trails and emerged unscathed. Extra care was needed on a few sections to keep the big Jeep from getting hung up, but going slow is the name of the game when you're off roading anyway. We were a little unsure just how "Trail Rated" this Jeep was before this trip, but not anymore. Some of its competitors could probably handle the same terrain with the right driver, but the Commander made it seem easy.