I'll have to take another look at them, but I didn't think they had as much room as a GC, nor were they rated for the towing capacity.
We're in a bit of a tough spot on picking vehicles for the wife. Something like a minivan would be great BUT she drives 45 min or more each way to work through the country side. She's a nurse, and works at a hospital. In the winter, she's faces heavy disciplin if she can't make it in due to bad weather. So we look for vehicles that are 4x4 AND get good millage AND can haul us, the kids, 2 dogs and tow the travel trailer. Good fuel mileage is normally not something you find in with those things, but then again it's not there in a minivan either. On top of that, most minivans that we have looked into need a new tranny around 150K. We buy used vehicles, and drive them to 200K or more. Knowing that we are buying something that's going to loose it's tranny before we're done with it just doesn't make sense. Since the GC is trail rated from the get go, I would anticipate that the tranny is pretty decent.
A friend of ours had a Sprinter Van with the 3.0 L Merc and loves it. That 3/4 ton van gets 22 mpg. I'm 6'2" and I can stand up in the back without having to lean my head over. If that big box gets 22 mpg, then I'm convinced that with a few minor mods the GC can get 30+. A 4x4 SUV with a 7K towing capacity that is capable of getting 30 mpg on the highway, now that would be a good fit for us.
As far as working on them, if the Merc needs that much work, then its worthless either way. There are no Merc dealerships close by, and I wouldn't trust any of of the Mopar dealerships to work on my lawn mower. We have a decent diesel shop about 30 min away, or I could run it over to Indy to a freightliner dealership.
Having said all of that, if this Grand Cherokee is known to have problems and need a lot of work, then it's not for us. We can't afford to have a vehicle in the shop all the time.
