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Most unexpected good and bad thing about my 2021 TH

8506 Views 34 Replies 16 Participants Last post by  UN4GTBL, 
Mike B in OK
The most unexpected good thing for me is the hands free power lift gate. I was aware of this feature, and expected to like it, but I LOVE it! So convenient to just bring bags from the grocery store and walk up and put them in the car without setting bags down or trying to hold them with one hand and arm while I fumble in my pocket for the key fob. I do photography as a hobby, and expected to like hands-free when carrying bags of equipment to and from the car, but even in more mundane tasks, I really like it. I had noticed that the other car I was considering, The Subaru Forester, didn’t have hands free, but it wasn’t a deciding factor in choosing the Cherokee. If I had known how much I would like it, I would have made it critical!

I also really love The adaptive cruise control, but expected to feel that way. This is my first car with ACC.

I was aware of the weak gas mileage on the Jeep, but the financial hit I worried about isn’t happening because my V6 uses regular gas and my old car with better mileage used premium. On the other hand I find it annoying to fill up my tank so frequently. I don’t like to run the tank down very low, so I have ended up with a practice of filling the tank when I return any time I leave my immediate urban area. I wish the gas tank on the Jeep was bigger!

something I worried about that hasn’t been a concern is the transmission. In test drives, I considered the nine speed transmission barely adequate. But it does seem to have improved after the first thousand miles, and though I still don’t consider it a great or smooth transmission, it is good enough, and the occasional bobble doesn’t make a problem.

Overall. I do love my TH with the comfortable ride and the (seeming) go-anywhere capability!
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Mike B in OK
As mentioned, hands free power tailgate is part of a package on the 2021 TH. I wish there was a TH Elite, I’d have loved it. Ventilated seats are the one feature I expect to miss on my example. They don’t matter now, but they will be missed when our hot Oklahoma summers are definitely not OK!

mine is very reliable. When I first tried it during a demo neither I nor the salesman could get it to work. There is a trick, you must move your foot straight in and straight back. As if you were punting a football. My instinct was to stick my foot in there and wave it around especially sideways, and that will not work!
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Mike B in OK
hawkzilla said:
hands free tailgate seems nice, to be honest i wish i could deactivate the power part of the tailgate somehow. I wanted to get a fold up cargo carrier, but thought if i hit the power tailgate by accident, or forgot i folded it up, it would just destroy the paint on the tailgate.

I didn't know they added hands free on the 2021, got the 2020 and i only did that because i didn't see much difference, but i guess this might be really the only major one.
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The hands free tailgate on the Latitude Lux and the TH only comes with the comfort & convenience package. I believe it is standard on the Limited. Not sure if those changed between 20 and 21. The big change I’m aware of for 2021 was the addition of most of the safety nanny features such as rear cross-traffic and automatic emergency braking as standard on all Cherokees. I know some dislike those, but I really wanted them, and that addition was what made me sign on the dotted line for my TH. :)
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Mike B in OK

there is the official word from the Jeep high priests. But I have to admit I usually close the tailgate with the button inside the door on the left, not by kicking again.....
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Mike B in OK
activedriveII said:
confused about the hands free tailgate, is this a feature of having 'passive entry' or is passive entry required to have this added on?
Family member has '21 Latitude Lux-the set up for doors/locks shows passive entry and the selection can be checked, when the vehicle is approached with the fob and the handle is -touched- the door unlocks and if no door is open the door will re lock in 60 seconds. Problem is that no amount of foot movement within the required area will open the hatch.
thoughts appreciated.
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Hands-free lift gate is separate from passive entry, and also separate from power lift gate. Hands-free lift gate comes with certain packages as you can see from this screenshot. Looks like you have to get either the Comfort and Convenience or the Limited Elite Group package on some of the upper trim levels.

This is a screenshot of a PDF from Chrysler I downloaded when researching my purchase. I can’t find the link to the PDF now, but I probably found it in this forum. Someone reading this may know where the original link is.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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