Jeep Killed the Cherokee in 2023. It's Back — as a Hybrid Crossover Reviewers Actually Like.

Jeep killed the Cherokee name in February 2023, after almost 50 years, when Stellantis idled the Belvidere, Illinois plant that built the outgoing KL generation and folded compact-SUV duty into the Grand Cherokee family instead. A little over three years later, the badge is back — but not on anything that resembles the boxy, live-axle SUVs that made it famous. The new Cherokee is Jeep's first regular, non-plug-in hybrid sold in the US, a mainstream crossover built to go after the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, and reviewers who've spent real seat time in it are largely in agreement about what that means: it's a genuinely better vehicle than the one it replaces, and it has almost nothing to do with the Cherokee people actually get nostalgic about.

"A far cry from the XJ Cherokee." — Caleb Jacobs, The Drive

The numbers are straightforward. A turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder pairs with two electric motors and a 1.03-kWh battery for 210 hp and 230 lb-ft, sent through all four wheels via a conventional driveshaft — every Cherokee ships with AWD standard, and there's no front-drive option to chase a lower sticker. EPA ratings land at 39 city/35 highway/37 combined mpg with a claimed 500-plus-mile range, a real leap from the outgoing model's 19-23 city mpg. The new car rides on a wheelbase 6.5 inches longer and a body 1.5 inches wider than before, which shows up mostly in the cargo hold — 34 cubic feet behind the second row, 68 with it folded, both notably up on the old Cherokee. Four trims spread from a $37,695 base to a $44,995 Overland, both figures including Jeep's now-standard, and now-criticized, $1,995 destination fee.

On the stuff that actually matters day to day, the reviews line up. CarBuzz landed on an 8/10 and called the new vertical front end "a refreshing change of pace" after the outgoing generation's much-maligned face, praising snappy handling, weighted steering, and a cabin that trades up to soft-touch plastic and a "Soul cloth" upholstery that reads more premium than typical Jeep interiors. The Drive's Caleb Jacobs got 31 mpg out of it while driving it hard, called the improved interior space and visibility standout wins, and landed on a similar verdict overall: "a genuinely good fit" for the CR-V and RAV4 buyer Jeep is actually chasing, even if it is, in his words, "a far cry from the XJ Cherokee." Consumer Reports, working through its own early evaluation, flagged the tall glass and boxy greenhouse as a real visibility advantage and noted the Cherokee out-spaces the CR-V — while dinging Jeep for a $495 charge just to get a compact spare tire.

The complaints cluster in the same places across every outlet, too. Despite the Cherokee growing in nearly every exterior dimension, rear-seat legroom actually shrank — CarBuzz measured it trailing the CR-V by two and a half inches, with a rear bottom cushion reviewers described as short on thigh support. The hybrid system has real personality quirks: engine "droning" when the generator kicks in on steep downhill grades even though no fuel is being burned, brake feel more than one reviewer called funky, and fuel economy that still trails the CR-V hybrid's 40-mpg combined rating by a real margin, largely down to a 400-plus-pound weight disadvantage. And nearly everyone singled out the same design decision for scorn: push-button door handles with no exposed mechanical backup, which The Drive called out specifically as the kind of feature no car actually needs and one that's caused real safety problems elsewhere in the industry.

None of that adds up to a bad car — it adds up to an honestly competent compact crossover that happens to be wearing a legendary name it isn't really trying to live up to. Nobody testing the new Cherokee is cross-shopping it against an XJ, and Jeep isn't pretending otherwise; this is a hybrid built to win back CR-V and RAV4 shoppers, full stop, and on that mission it's mostly succeeding. Where it's still exposed is the one lever a mainstream crossover actually needs to win on: price. Starting above both of its main hybrid rivals while trailing the class leader on fuel economy means the Cherokee badge is doing more marketing work here than the spec sheet is doing competitive work — a fine trade for Jeep dealers with a legacy nameplate that's been sitting in a drawer since 2023, and a real question mark for anyone cross-shopping this against a CR-V Hybrid on sticker price alone.