One of the main reasons why SUV models are very popular is its versatility, because the U in the three letters of SUV is the meaning of multi-purpose. But now more and more SUVs have become less versatile, and the attributes of urbanization are becoming more and more intense, and even they can no longer take you to a wider world.
Some of the popular 7-seat joint venture SUV models on the market, such as Volkswagen Tuang and Toyota Highlander, their "car design" is roughly: home transportation, status symbols, etc.; and the owner of the car who buys this type of model can also imagine it: not confused, there is a family with a baby, the insulation cup soaks in the goji berries, listening to Fei Yuqing and Cai Qin, everything has a Buddhist posture, and everything can always be seen lightly. Compared with this ordinary, moderate attitude of life, more and more young people of the new generation today are eager for freedom and exploration. They prefer to have a car that can not only meet the city's worries, but also meet the off-road "exploration" model, to have a pure taste, Jeep's new big commander is a good choice.
There is no doubt that in the segment of the 7-seat joint venture SUV, Tuon and Highlander are its strongest opponents. The dialogue between these three SUV models is not only a clash of hardcore product forces, but also a collision of different car selection concepts.
The new Grand Commander inherits Jeep's pure pedigree, a deep, mature heritage that is enough to appeal to consumers. The iconic seven-hole front grille on the front is highly recognizable, and the use of a large number of lateral lines makes the front of the car look layered. The side lines are rich, the straight waist line creates a slender posture for it, and the 19-inch wheels add a lot to the aura. Similar to the through-the-end light, the "GRAND COMMANDER" nameplate is inlaid in the middle, which once again confirms its identity.
In terms of details, I also noticed that the front window of the new Grand Commander is double-layer laminated glass, which makes its safety and sound insulation double improved. The front and rear fender linings are made of flocked material, which can effectively alleviate the tapping sound of sand and gravel, and the front bar and the front fender lining also have air flow channels, which also play a role in dissipating heat from the braking system. On the whole, the new Jeep Commander gave me the impression that he was "thin and stripped of flesh", which could either be dressed in a straight suit or exposed to the wild.
Coming to the car, the classic symmetrical layout of the new commander is not stunning but more durable, and this practical home style can also meet the aesthetics of most consumers.
The interior is visible to the naked eye, the new commander is basically wrapped in soft plastic and leather, the stitching process at the details, chrome decoration also further enhances the sense of grade of the cockpit; the mechanical + LCD screen combination of the dashboard display effect is clear, but also has a hard-core feeling in it; the three-spoke steering wheel is very thick, the leather package has a relatively good softness, the multi-functional buttons on both sides are complete; the central control screen is built into the latest generation of Uconnect system, the operation is smooth, and the functions are relatively complete. Support carPlay/CarLife mobile phone interconnection function; air conditioning control area all use physical buttons, the operation is quite convenient, while the button has a good sense of damping feedback; the new commander's power interface is very rich, the front/rear row has a number of USB and Type-C interfaces, can meet the needs of passengers.
We will move the realization to this Ashkenazi "big man" Tuon, this medium and large SUV gives me a very heavy impression, even reminiscent of "Dwayne Johnson". Tuon uses a lot of chrome material around the body to highlight the sense of grade, and its body line is also very sharp. It is worth mentioning that Tu Ang is also a good hand at playing with lights, and its matching IQ.light all-weather intelligent headlights have a welcome mode in addition to intelligent near and far lights, follow-up steering, height adjustment and other functions. Looking at it as a whole, Tuon's shape impresses me as very strong and at the same time there is no lack of refinement.
Sitting in the car, Tuon applied Volkswagen's latest set of family-owned interior designs, which looked much more fashionable than the previous design. The center control and doorknob areas are covered with a lot of leather, but the feel is a little harder. The grip of the three-frame steering wheel is a little thicker, and the feedback of the multi-function buttons is very crisp. The fluency of the central control screen is acceptable, but the reflection speed and accuracy of speech recognition need to be improved. Another point that feels very deeply is that Whether it is air conditioning, lighting or sunroof in Tu Ang's car, the control area of these parts is a full-touch operation form, which is inevitably the risk of mistouching, and its experience is not too good.
In this era of good looks, the fourth generation of Highlander's style still looks a little simple. Compared with the model, the new car has a lot less chrome material embellishment, but the inverted trapezoidal grille with the through-type front bracket design still has a good three-dimensional feeling. The tail is a flat design, which is more full of lines than the previous model, the slender taillight group is very eye-catching, and the tail "HYBRID" nameplate emphasizes its hybrid identity. The impression of the fourth generation Highlander is that it is more rounded and less fierce.
Inside the car, the center console of the fourth-generation Highlander adopts a design that is biased towards the driver's side, and retains more physical buttons in the car. Compared with the old model, the suspension central control screen has improved in terms of size, and it has also improved in function, supporting Carplay and Android Auto mobile phone interconnection, but the richness of its overall functions and the fluency of the system need to be improved. In terms of interior materials and workmanship performance, Highlander still has a lot of room for improvement compared with the above models.
The new Grand Commander gives the interior and exterior design a tough guy's temperament, but it is not rough at all. The new car is equipped with luxurious leather seats as standard, and even uses Nappa material, which is very good. The new Grand Commander also provided HARMAN Kardon 19-speaker premium surround sound, while ANC active noise cancellation and double-layer acoustic glass also created a good environment for the sound. For the family, the new commander is commendable in terms of creating a sense of travel atmosphere.
In terms of riding space, the new commander has fully taken into account the needs of the three rows of passengers, according to the normal height, the riding space of the two or three rows is relatively rich. The comfort and flexibility of its space is also worth mentioning: the main/co-pilot seats have 12-way electric adjustment, the second row of seats supports the adjustment of the front and rear and backrest angles, and the third row of seats has a 37° backward tilt multi-level adjustment. In terms of storage space, the front row of the new Grand Commander is relatively good, and the glove box with a two-layer design can hold a lot of carry-on items. The storage slot on the door panel can also hold large bottles of drinks, there is also a small drawer at the bottom left of the steering wheel, and the depth of the central armrest box is also satisfactory.
Not only does Tuon look big, but its over 5-meter length and close to 3 meters of wheelbase also emphasize that it is really big. Sitting in the car, Tu Ang uses leather perforated seats, but the touch is a little hard, the function is quite rich, the main / sub-seat seats provide 12-way electric adjustment, while there are heating, ventilation and other functions. In addition, Tuon's high-end version also offers harman kardon sound.
In terms of the performance of the ride space, the performance of Tuon's three rows of seats is worthy of recognition. Its second row supports the adjustment of the front and rear and backrest angles, and the third row supports the adjustment of the backrest angle. Tuon's storage performance is still remarkable, there is a glove box on the left side of the dashboard, a wireless charging box for mobile phones under the air conditioning control area, a glove box on the right, and a double-open armrest box for the central channel.
The fourth-generation Highlander continues to deepen its space advantages, with a 75mm increase in length and 60mm in wheelbase. The new car features leather seats with a satisfactory softness of the padding. In terms of ride comfort, the fourth-generation Highlander provides electric adjustment, heating, ventilation and other functions for the front seat main and co-pilot.
In practice, the second row of seating space of the fourth-generation Highlander is relatively rich, and the second row of seats also supports the adjustment of front and rear and backrest angles. Entering the third row, although there is no problem with leg space, due to the high ground platform and the limited longitudinal height, it is easy to form a small bench sitting posture, and the long-distance ride is not very comfortable. In terms of storage space, the second and third rows also support 4/6 division, and the length of the luggage compartment has been increased by 60 mm, and the loading capacity of the trunk has been further improved.
In terms of power, the new Grand Commander is equipped with a 2.0T engine (maximum power 195kW, maximum torque 400N·m); Tuon provides 2.0T (maximum power 162kW, maximum torque 350N·m) and 2.5T engine (maximum power 220kW, maximum torque 500N·m); the fourth-generation Highlander series uses a 2.5L hybrid engine (maximum power 141kW, maximum torque 238N·m). So for the sake of fairness, the PK of the power parameters, we chose the 2.0T version of Tuon and the power parameters of the two models for comparison, obviously, the power parameters of the new Grand Commander are optimal.
These three SUVs, the author also have a test drive experience, in terms of driving smoothness, the performance of the new big commander and Highlander is satisfactory; on the acceleration of the body feeling, the performance of the new commander is the most outstanding; the texture of the chassis, highland comfort is good, but lack of a little toughness, Tuon chassis feedback is very brittle, while the filter performance is also good, the new commander's chassis toughness is good, while taking into account the comfort; acceleration performance, undoubtedly the best power parameters of the new commander performance In terms of NVH performance, Tuon and the new commander perform better.
Of course, all three SUVs are available in four-wheel drive versions. The fourth-generation Highlander's four-wheel drive version is equipped with an E-FOUR electronic four-wheel drive system, which adopts the design of the front and rear axle dual drive motors, which can achieve a wide range of adjustment of the front and rear axle drive force from 100:0 to 20:80; Tuon provides a 4Motion intelligent four-wheel drive system, which also adds DCC adaptive suspension; the new big commander is equipped with a new generation of lightweight Active Drive intelligent four-wheel drive system, and the Selec-Terrain full-terrain mode self-selecting system. The off-road performance of these three cars, in my mind, is: the new Grand Commander > Tu Ang> the fourth generation Highlander.
"Not all SUVs are called Jeep", the Big Commander's four-wheel drive system is also worth mentioning. The most powerful part of this system is that it can complete the two-wheel drive / four-wheel drive switching within 0.1 seconds, and the maximum can achieve 0-100% of the torque dynamic distribution, that is, when the system detects that it needs to switch the four-wheel drive, the vehicle can instantly switch the strongest state of the four-wheel drive, and the daily driving is the two-wheel drive state, maximizing fuel economy.
Grand Commander is also equipped with the Selec-Terrain full road condition mode self-selector system, and with automatic, snow, sports, sand /mud four driving modes to choose from, each driving mode will be the vehicle's power unit and electronic auxiliary unit independently matched, so that the vehicle better adapt to uncomplicated road conditions.
It is true that in the current urbanization of SUVs is the mainstream choice trend of many consumers, especially in the field of joint venture 7-seat SUVs. Spatial expression, comfort and rich configuration are important weights to attract consumers, when facing strong opponents such as Tuon and Highlander, we see that the new commanders have the confidence and confidence to compete with their advantages, and the performance is not inferior. At the same time, thanks to the outstanding four-wheel drive system and strong off-road ability, the new Grand Commander can also take you to explore further afield.
You can drive the new Grand Commander gracefully through the steel jungle of the city, or you can let it take you to trek mountains and waters, skiing, fishing, camping... No tossing, not wonderful, come to a pure taste ~, maybe the new big commander is your good choice.