Junkyard Find: 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee Orvis Edition
Published: November 17th, 2015
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The value of a first-generation Grand Cherokee that’s even slightly rough crashed hard quite a few years ago and has remained just a hair above scrap value ever since, so junkyards here in SUV-crazed Colorado tend to be packed with these trucks. XJ Cherokees are plentiful as well, but I tend to notice them more than the bigger and more Chryslerated Grands.This ’97, however, is one of the (presumably) super-rare Orvis Editions, and so I broke out the camera when I saw it in a Denver yard last week.
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Yes, Bob Lutz introduced the world to the first Grand Cherokee by driving it up some stairs and through a plate-glass window.
Ford had the Eddie Bauer Explorer during the 1990s, when American families were finalizing their divorce with the station wagon and moving en masse to crash-safety- and fuel-economy-standards-evading SUVs, so Chrysler felt the need to team up with a rugged-yet-stylish clothing company as well.
The Orvis Edition Grand Cherokee was available for the 1995 through 1997 model years, and it featured these handsome green-and-tan leather seats plus a lot of Orvis badges on the exterior.
The basic design of this truck came from AMC, during its final days, and so there’s a bit of Kenosha in this truck’s genes. The engine, however, is pure Chrysler: the Magnum version of the venerable 318-cubic-inch V-8 (you could still get the even-more-venerable AMC straight-six in ’97 Grand Cherokees, of course).
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The ideal vehicle to help a tortoise cheat against a hare.
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In Australia, the loser drivers of the Roller and the Mondial were forced to use ordinary driveways, while the manly (and equally wealthy) ’97 Grand Cherokee driver rumbled over a conveniently placed rockpile by the outer wall of the compound.
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Meanwhile, the Grand Cherokee’s American marketers were chasing those cheapskate dollars with a zero-down deal.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Did anyone else get a RoboCop vibe from the JGC intro vid? I expected police marked '87 Tauruses to come flying out of nowhere.
Would love to see a Grand Cherokee TSi junkyard find. Anyone else a fan of the blue trim/pinstriping?