1990 Jeep Cherokee Laredo review from North America

Renault was in charge of Chrysler-AMC at the time they designed the electrical system, and it shows in the numerous relays, wires, and unused connections sprinkled liberally under the hood and dashboard. This has caused a great amount of grief understanding why the left turn signal won't blink, the cruise control won't work, the remote door opener remaining useless, back wipers failing, lift gate switch not lighting the cargo area - I'd begun to think the car was flood damaged until I'd read repair postings on the Internet filled with requests to fix the same on their Cherokees. I had told myself to avoid cars with power windows and door locks - at least the windows still work. I honestly believe the electrical designers were trained by Lucas (The Prince of Darkness!)

Jeep Cherokees invite you to blow off all the little hot cars on the road. The 4.0 L six has plenty of power to keep up with larger V-8s, and won't punish you too seriously in gas mileage IF you drive sensibly. Having built a 66 Mustang with 302 CID and 4 speed, I wonder if it couldn't keep right up with it.

The chassis handles quite well considering it has no independent suspension - just two live axles, but fully equipped to control the handling under road and field conditions. The ride is a little stiff, with speed bumps shaking the cab at low speeds, but smoothing out well on highways and interstates. Off road the chassis does well, limiting the driver's over-enthusiam with plenty of warning the chassis is not ready to play with the really big mud monsters. Pay for modifications to crawl over rocks and gulleys bigger than the tires - the standard Jeep will do better going around.

The four wheel drive lacks one facet when running in deep snow or badly iced roads - studded tires to stop you! It is amazingly easy to get up to dry road speeds in nasty conditions. The selective box allows all the control you can get from open differentials, and will pull you away from the curb, parallel parked, in axle deep snow without a hitch. You may want a hitch, however, just to help tow out your buddies in their trucks and hot rods. Blasting around in slick conditions will only feed your arrogance toward people who have no business being on the streets in their creeping slidermobiles.

The interior is too comfortable compared to old trucks and Mustangs, and is well appointed in the Laredo package. Although Jeep drivers seats seem prone to breaking the weld on the support panel underneath, they have no hard spots or mushiness, and allow the driver to put in a thousand miles a day when he needs to - broken or not.

Cherokees are the only choice when you must get your cargo and passengers anywhere in America under almost any conditions.