14th August 2014, Singapore – The new Jeep Cherokee puts its boots down on Singapore soil and was greeted by fans of the brand during a closed-door preview session at the Chrysler Jeep showroom on 13th August. Despite the 4x4s futuristic looks, there are subtle styling elements that draw inspiration and pay homage to Jeep’s illustrious past to ensure all the technology is well-grounded in tradition. It is expected to slot in rather slickly between the Wrangler at the rugged, rough-and-ready end, and the Grand Cherokee in the posh-roader corner.

Jeep realises it’s no longer sufficient for the cabin to be ruggedly utilitarian – as some might imagine would befit an off-roader of Jeep’s credentials – but some effort has been spent on endowing the interior with that elusive ‘premium’ feel. We reckon it’s now more important for car brands to care about what the rest of the world wants, instead of catering to just a dwindling domestic market – the last thing anyone wants is to be the brand that buyers ‘settle for’.

In the new mid-sized Cherokee (Limited and Trailhawk are available), ‘soft-touch’ quality materials are used and there’s a healthy gamut of tech gadgets to keep you occupied in the great wilderness of the nature reserve carpark, which includes an 8.4-inch touchscreen monitor to control the vehicle’s multimedia system, as well as a 7-inch full-colour TFT instrument cluster.

On the inside, there are less right angles and lots of curves, contours and textures, with a choice of shapes and colours that is inspired by the natural landscape of the Great Outdoors. There are even ‘easter eggs’ abound in the cabin, which are tongue-in-cheek nods to iconic Jeeps of ages past. For instance, the vehicle depicted in the auto-parking graphics is that of a Willys Jeep and little styling touches about the centre-stack are meant to evoke the front grille of classic Jeeps.

At the heart of the car beats an Euro6-friendly 2.4-litre TigerShark that produces 174bhp and 229Nm. Transmission duties are handled by a nine-speed automatic, which sees it join the Range Rover Evoque in Singapore as the other posh-roader here to offer nine-speeds. Like its other off-road brethren, the Cherokee features the Jeep Active Drive II 4WD System and a Selec-Terrain System for seamless transition from road to rubble and rock.

At time of writing, both the Limited and Trailhawk are priced at approximately $228k with COE. – Story David Khoo / Photos Derryn Wong, Jeep