[Auto] 1999 Nissan Xterra SE vs. Jeep Cherokee Sport Archive Comparison Test

[Wolf.17]

From the July 1999 issue of Car and Driver.

Long before the invention of the automobile, French jour­nalist Alphonse Karr noted that the more things change, the more they stay the same—an observation that does seem applicable to this twosome. On the one hand, we have a brand-new sport-utility, the Nissan Xterra, that returns to the fun­damentals of its class: a body-on-frame design with mildly macho styling and—a pleasant surprise in an age of high prices—a bar­gain price. On the other hand, we have the Jeep Cherokee, which hasn't undergone any major changes since it began altering the appearance of suburban carports some 15 years ago.

 

Obviously, there's a major difference in design philosophies here. Even so, we still perceive some striking similarities. Both vehicles compete on the border of the subcompact- and com­pact-SUV classes, which is increasingly well-po[CENSORED]ted territory with lots of choices. Both vehicles are relatively free of frills, and both have the right stuff for fairly rugged off-road duty, which can't be said of the Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV4, or the Subaru Forester.

Since off-road capability is a defining trait here, we decided to shovel a higher-than-normal proportion of dirt into our test regimen. Accordingly, we shaped a course for the west coast—the west coast of Michigan, that is—and the mammoth sand dunes of Silver Lake State Park about 35 miles north of Muskegon. The park is open to recreational vehicles, and for a modest fee—$20.25 each—visitors can take their dirt bikes, ATVs, and sport-utes out there and churn sand to their hearts' content. Understand, we do this sort of thing strictly in the interest of thorough testing.

 

Automotive historians cite the Jeep Wrangler's military ancestors as the prog­enitors of the modern species sportus util­itus, but the real father of the SUV boom is the vehicle you're looking at right here. Introduced in 1983 as an '84 model, the Cherokee was the first unit-bodied sport­-utility, an innovation that yielded benefits in curb weight—note the 545-pound dif­ference between our Cherokee tester and the Xterra—and chassis stiffness, the basic ingredients for good handling. With its handy size and four doors, the Cherokee caught the attention of fashionable sub­urban moms from Scarsdale to Pasadena.Jeep has invested modestly in various updates, most recently in 1997, but the cur­rent Cherokee still looks very much like the two-box original, right down to the irregular seams and gaps between its body panels, a perennial weakness that doesn't seem to retard this little wagon's persis­tent po[CENSORED]rity. Although the '97 update gave the Cherokee a more modern instru­ment panel (shared with the Wrangler), there's no disguising the age of the design, and that goes double for its propulsion sys­tems. Our tester—a Sport model with Jeep's basic Command-Trac part-time four-wheel-drive system and Up Country off-road suspension package—was pow­ered by the optional 4.0-liter pushrod in­line six. This aging powerplant generates gratifying torque—225 pound-feet—but its noise and vibration belong to a more primitive era, traits that were magnified by a driveshaft vibration during startup accel­eration. Interior noise, most of it related to the industrial sounds coming from the powertrain, was substantially higher than what you'll hear inside the Xterra at all speeds.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a60010621/1999-nissan-xterra-1999-jeep-cherokee-sport-archive-test/