Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Cleveland Auto Show Part II - The Jeep Experience

In my last post, I talked about the Dodge experience at the Cleveland Auto Show. Now I'll outline what I experienced at the Jeep exhibit. It was awesome.

After the Dodge heart-attack-demo I sauntered over to the Jeep exhibit where a much more impressive driving course was set up. Only it was four times the size of the Dodge demo area and a little more engaging. Not only was there a course there for test rides but it was a really, really nice setup.

Basically, the idea is the same as the Dodge exhibit; you get a test ride in a vehicle. But instead of a short burst of straight-line acceleration, you are taken on some sort of pre-built off-road course. It’s great. The whole setup is built of really heavy-duty wood (timber?) and there is a thick layer of mulch covering the floor. Add a couple of trees and we’d have been out in the Alaskan frontier. As I typed before, a really nice setup.

Anyways, so you stand in line outside the barriers and wait your turn. When you get to the head of the line, you are ushered to a waiting Jeep vehicle. They had quite a few available and I may not remember them all, but there was a Grand Cherokee, a few Wrangler Rubicons, some new four door Wranglers and maybe a Liberty or two.

After buckling up, you are jostled around as the driver shows you the wheel articulation by driving over some large, oddly-spaced timbers, then you are bounced around as the ground clearance is demonstrated by driving over some obstacles of varying height.

Next is some sort of sideways ramp that you are driven over. This doesn’t sound or look very impressive, until you are inside the Jeep and you look to the sides and either see the floor or the ceiling. I think this was to demonstrate the Jeep’s ability to not flip over on its side and kill you. Plus one for Jeep.

After that was some sort of traction demonstration that we rolled over. Three of the vehicle’s four tires were set on these rollers while the fourth was left on hard pavement. So, when the driver stepped on the gas, the three tires on rollers got no traction. But due to the Jeep’s capabilities, the one tire that could get traction did. Again, kudos to Jeep.

The last two things were cool. Ok, one of them was cool. One area was to show us the water fording (driving through water) capabilities of the little Jeep. I think that there was 18 inches of water that we drove through. I wasn’t too impressed until I remembered that most cars couldn’t handle a 1/3rd of that depth. But forget that.

The coolest thing was a hill climb that our little-Jeep-that-could completed. I’d say that it was about fifteen feet high and the driver told me that the angle was thirty-five degrees. I don’t know what you’re picturing, but let me tell you, I would have needed stairs and/or a rope to climb this thing. The Jeep, however, didn’t seem to have a problem. As my eye-line rose towards the ceiling I could feel my body sinking further into the seat and I instinctively grabbed for the overhead bar. You could hear a distinct Tink-Tink-Tink as the change left my pockets and joined everybody else’s in the back of the Jeep. Looks like I don’t have to tip my driver…

Let me tell you, if I was in the market for a Dodge or Jeep vehicle, these exhibits would have sold me. Feeling the full onslaught of the Dodge Charger’s impressive acceleration and braking really brought that car out of the magazine pages and into reality. Having never thought about buying a Jeep, I could now see myself fording streams and climbing over hill and dale in pursuit of happiness. Thanks, folks, you done well.

For more information about the Cleveland Auto Show, go head over to Stylin' Concepts website. They sent their writer and photographer out there to check it out. I'll post a link when they make their article live.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the Cleveland Auto Show Review.

Oh, and head over to Stylin' Concepts if you are in the market for any truck accessories. They've got everything.

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