as a prior owner of a jeep WK, grand Cherokee 2005-2008, I would not own another.
pro’s. Basic car functions were great. Handled well, drove well, good heat and air, excellent seats front and back. WA580 transmission is a very, very good transmission. fuel economy, unmodified, with the 3.7 was respectable. Visibility was good, minus thick A-pillars. There are probably more pros, decent stereo, good dash lighting at night. Good headlights, some of the best I’ve owned, tepid high beams. I liked the 3.7 - earlier years had more torque though, latter years were more car-like. There was a big difference.
cons. Chassis was not rigid, quite disappointing for a supposed 4x4. mine had a leak at the fuel rail that came and went. Very odd. It would also stumble at idle, sometimes triggering a lurch forward as the engine rev’ed while in gear. It would do it in reverse too, you know, when you need to control your speed (and yes, as a bitoger, I checked codes and replaced things). It died completely twice, lighting up like a Christmas tree, and running fine on restart. Chassis would flex just driving down the road. You could place your fingers where to top of the door meets the roof and feel the door shift up and down. A-pillars are known to permanently bend if you fling the front doors open. Some were known for poorly aligned rear axle housings… Chrysler spec’ed a 140wt oil, wonder why. Front diff bushings were known to go prematurely bad. Techs didn’t like giving it an alignment. They said Chrysler used 1 less adjustment than other vehicles on the front end, so they had to go back and forth with the adjustments it did have until the combination yielded the right results. My AC control doors were never quite right, never quite blowing out the correct vents.
if you wanna jeep, skip that generation. I think the wk2 is probably better sorted, and the previous WJ is super long-lived as well, as long as you could deal with AC blend door issues and Chrysler electronics.
