New Jeep Cherokee Looks a Lot Bigger Than Beloved XJ in Latest Teaser

The Drive

5 days ago

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We've seen nearly every angle of the next-gen Jeep Cherokee by now, but we still don't have any solid stats or specs. It's already confirmed that the model will return later this year as a hybrid, and judging by the small batch of photos Jeep has released, it'll be pretty boxy. That's unmistakably a call back to simpler times, when the XJ Cherokee revolutionized SUVs—and no, I don't think I'm exaggerating. But as Jeep's latest teaser for the new model shows, it's going to be quite a bit bigger.
The short, 36-second ad spot shows the Cherokee transforming from one generation to the next. Now, the model hasn't looked anything like the original two-door SJ for a while, but the next-gen is really its own thing. It draws from the rounded lines of the most recent Cherokee, which was discontinued in 2023, but you can see as it morphs that the new Cherokee is both taller and longer than the one it replaces.
I checked the XJ's exterior dimensions for reference and found that it measured 167.5 inches from bumper to bumper, with a height of 64 inches. The last-gen KL Cherokee was larger overall, coming in at 182.9 inches long and 67.8 inches tall in Trailhawk form. Additionally, the KL's 107.1-inch wheelbase is about six inches longer than the XJ's, which was 101.4 inches. And just so we're clear, all of those XJ specs are for the four-door model since it's obviously the most direct comparison.
The upcoming Cherokee looks larger in just about every way. While it's tough to tell from the video if the wheelbase extends much beyond the KL's, the overall length is unquestionably greater. The roof is taller by quite a bit, too. I won't waste anybody's time by trying to guess the new rig's exact dimensions, but I bet when the hard numbers are released later this year, the size gap to the Grand Cherokee will be significantly smaller.
Nobody should act surprised that the new Cherokee is bigger than before; new car bloat has been a thing for years. But if it grows as much as it seems, it could erase some of the Cherokee's charm as a compact four-wheeler. I doubt that will be a problem to most actual customers, though, especially those in America, where bigger is so often equated with better.
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