Today I was one of the lucky 2000 who got to drive a Jeep on and off the road.
You may remember that I managed to bag a free place on this event via an internet banner ad.
Well despite my initial reservations, Jeep delivered what they promised. My daughter and I arrived quite early at West Harptree near Chedder. We then waited for my sister to bring my nephew who was also going to be a passenger.
The weather was slightly changeable but generally dry and sunny.
When they arrived we registered and I handed over both parts of my licence and grabbed a coffee whilst I waited for the event to start.
Each driver and his/her party was sorted into 4 groups who took part in the following in no particular order. Each activity lasted around half an hour.
1) Introduction to ESP and Quadradrive (Jeeps version of Traction Control employed by Land Rover).
2) Off road driving experience
3) On road trial
4) Agility driving.
1) Was as it says really. A couple of short videos about ESP and then a demonstration of Quadra Drive. The vehicle they used to demonstrate the quadra drive was specially adapted to enable switching off of this feature so that we could see it with and without. Essentially 3 wheels were placed on rollers whils the forth was on solid ground. The Quadra Drive feature enabled the vehicle to use the one wheel with traction to pull itself out of the rollers.
2) Was for me the best part of the day. My daughter and nephew sat in the rear of a Jeep Commander whilst I, under instruction from Chris the off road instructer drove the vehicle over a short off road course. IMO any vehicle without traction control or quadra drive would have had issues with this course. My Discovery 200TDi would almost certainly have come unstuck. This was no green laning jaunt but serious off roading with huge crevases and dips that had the vehicle tilted sideways at 45 degrees, climbing and decending very steep inclines, negotiating 3 feet potholes etc. A sherman tank would have been at home on this course. IMO this part could have lasted longer.
3) Took us in a Jeep Grand Gerokee on local roads. Although I was invited to "see what the vehicle could do" I was concious that it was not my car and that there were plenty of other road users, so I kept the speed down. I had driven the Grand Cherokee in the USA a couple of years ago so I was not unfamiliar with this ride. However I preferred the roomyness and the ride of the Commander. I fellt that the GC was a little soft on the road for my liking. Having said that I enjoyed the drive very much, but could have booked a similar test drive from a dealership - not something that I could say about the off road experience!
4) This gave us a chance at manovring the vehicles around obstacles. A smaller Jeep Cherokee and a Jeep Commander were made available, and I had a chance to drive both around the course. This involved zig zagging between cones drivng forwards then doing the same in reverse along another line of cones. The organisers had placed two cones on the reverse course quite close together, catching some of us out as we found that distances were hard to guage via mirrors. Ironically this probably showed the Commander in a less than favorable light. Although it is accepted that the vehicle would be less maovrable with its increased size, the presence of the 3rd row of seats and the size of the door mirrors impared its rear visability more than was necessary. Having driven to the event in a car with blind spot mirrors fitted as standard, I really felt that this £30K's worth of off road vehicle was lacking from such a basic oversight.
After the event we all said our thank yous etc and were presented with a partig gift. This was a small oak tree sapling that we were asked to consider planting. Although the representatives made no mention of the thought process behind this gift I wondered whether it was to do with carbon offsetting, perhaps it was Jeep's way of settling their CO2 account with mother nature for the fuel burned during the trials.
I was pleasently surprised that there was no hard sell throughout the event. The organisers were all professionals in their own fields. The qualified off road instructers were hired in by Jeep. The Lady who sat with us when we went on the road was a freelance plublicity/marketing agent who was paid a flat fee for the event. Although there were brochures available we were free to have a good look at the vehicles, drive them and then leave after our turn was over.
In all the experience was definitely worth the trip from Cornwall.
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Thanks for that.
I always try to get a Jeep Grand Cherokee when in the US or Canada (the Canadian ones have always been 4WD but the US ones 2WD - even though it says 4x4 on the tailgate!).
I just like the way they're so absolutely effortless to drive - the steady speeds, wide roads and (generally) huge parking spaces in N America help of course!
Unfortunately I just couldn't live with the fuel consumption - the 3.6L V6 petrol I just drove (very gently) in Florida did 16 MPG (US) - 19MPG (UK). I gather the diesels are not a whole better.
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Big deal on one oak sapling each as a way to square the deal with "Mother Nature''. I spend half the year pulling the darn things up.
Does this mean I will go to hell even though I don't have a 4x4 and just want to keep the garden tidy? ;-)
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I like to think I'm already there... ;-)
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We got given 2 oak saplings as we were one of the last in our group to leave and the guy had 2 left. so rather than bother to return one he just gave us both.
My sister got them as we've got nowhere to put them that isn't near a retaining wall or such like
If they were fruit trees that IMO would have been a different matter........
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