This past Saturday, was a bittersweet day for me when I traded in my 2019 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320. I wasn’t actually shopping for a new car at the time or necessarily looking to get rid of the Challenger, although I was having some thoughts about the possibility.
The previous day I stopped in to see our friends over at White Rock Dodge when it came up in conversation that they still had a leftover 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk that they were looking to get rid of. I ended up taking it for a test drive, which turned into me taking it home overnight. During that period I completely fell in love with it, don’t get me wrong the Challenger 1320 is an excellent car and excels at doing exactly what Dodge engineers set it out to do. That said, the feeling and incredible launches of the all-wheel-drive system coupled with the 707 horsepower 645 lb.-ft of torque Hellcat engine and incredibly fast shifting ZF8HP95 transmission in the Trackhawk is on another level.
Fast forward back to Saturday afternoon and I returned to the dealer thinking about how I could possibly make this work. Although people were screaming for Jeep to put a Hellcat motor in the Grand Cherokee since the Hellcat-powered Dodge Charger and Challenger arrived for 2015, dealers have had a hard time selling them due to the large price premium on the Trackhawk models. Jeep wanted their Hellcat-powered Grand Cherokee to be all-wheel-drive just as the Grand Cherokee SRT models always have been. Adding the beefed-up components to handle putting all that power through the all-wheel-drive system is costly and reflected in the Trackhawks MSRP.
Luckily we have an excellent relationship with our friends at White Rock Dodge and were able to hammer out an incredible deal which resulted in me taking the Trackhawk home. In the short period that I have had it, I have been incredibly impressed with this vehicle. It is completely tame just driving around in town and turns into an absolute animal when you get on the loud pedal. There are 6 driving modes (including a user-customizable custom mode) which all make the Trackhawk drive completely different. Ride quality is excellent, visibility is great and the interior is comfortable and very high quality.
The base price for the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is $110,845 Canadian, our Trackhawk also has the following options:
- Velvet Red Pearl $100
- Customer Preferred Package 2XV
Rear DVD entertainment centre $2,150
Blu–ray compatible dual screen video
Rear seat video system - SRT High Performance Audio Package $1,995
harman/kardon 19–speaker high performance audio
825–watt amplifier - Red seat belts $95
- CommandView dual–pane panoramic sunroof $1,695
- Premium headliner module
- Compact spare tire $295
- 20×6.5–inch aluminum spare wheel
- 20×10–inch Semi–Gloss Black aluminum wheels $995
- Federal Green Levy $3,000
- Federal A/C Excise Tax $100
- Destination Charge $1,895
Putting the total MSRP at $123,165, we paid considerably less. In less than a week after this article goes up, I will also be driving the Trackhawk across Canada from Vancouver, B.C to Grand Bend, Ontario, to race the Trackhawk at Dave Hayes’ SRTHAYES Demon event on September 22nd. We plan to put out a ton of content of the trip and the event itself, it is about a 50-hour drive each way so I will quickly be getting a lot of seat time in the new Jeep.
We are going to have a ton of fun with our new Trackhawk and plan on making a ton of videos on it as well, so if you want to stay up to date on the new long-term vehicle, make sure you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel.
