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Off-roading the Lyman Trail in the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk

Lyman Trail is in the backwoods of the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Mich. It's where FCA goes to push off-roaders to the limits. Autoblog's Greg Miglore made a recent visit to Lyman Trail with the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. Check out the video to see how the SUV performed. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] We are on Lyman Trail here, deep within the Chelsea proving grounds in the woods. This is where they test all the off-roaders, the Jeeps, the Rams, everything that's capable and needs some sort of a trail rating - this is where they bring it to shake it down. It's all downhill from here. Except when it's rocky and wet. Here we go! [00:00:30] Grand Cherokee Trailhawk is very capable off-road. Of course it's trail-rated. It definitely has all of the gizmos and things that you need to get over the obstacles that we're going to encounter. This first one is called traction. This is where, basically, to be trail-rated the vehicles need to have a certain degree of traction so they can basically, you know, stay sure-footed over certain obstacles. When going up things like this, pick your line, I'm going straight up the middle, and just stay nice and even. [00:10:00] Go straight up let the Jeep do the work, keep on going, skid plates doing their thing, there ya go. This one is over the riverbed. This simulates a dried riverbed. It's rocky, lots of stones here, things you might see on the shores of Lake Michigan. We're just gonna go right over it. Keep it nice and simple. Nice and easy. Okay, hit it kind of hard, gonna straighten the wheels. Again, you hear those skid plates, they are protecting the fuel tank, ... [00:01:30] the transfer case, and the front of the vehicle. So I'm not gonna touch the brakes, I just want to go over it nice and easy. We've come upon one of my favorite events here. This is where you go through the water. It's basically mud, a little bit of a bog kind of thing. Jeeps are so capable, you don't even have to worry about it.The trick about going through the water is to keep a nice even pace ... [00:02:00] and don't loose your nerve. Some people go in the water and are like "woah," freaking out because literally there's water all around you. So, just keep right on going, steer, point the vehicle right on through. We're making some waves here. Keep on going. Keep it smooth. Up the hill we go. And there you have it. Your Jeep not only went off-roading, it went off-landing. That's a bad joke.

Toyota tops Kelley Blue Book's Resale Value Awards

Kelley Blue Book announced its annual Best Resale Value Award winners, and we weren't too surprised to see the list dominated by Japanese automakers - mainly Toyota and Honda. KBB hands out the awards based on the projected residual value of mostly all 2013 model year vehicles, and Toyota skated home with a number of awards including 10 of the 22 overall categories and having five of its products in the top 10 for models with best resale value. KBB's Best Resale Value Awards were announced in the same week as the ALG Residual Value Awards, and there were many similarities between both lists, especially when it came to Toyota.
To come up with its winners, KBB measures depreciation over the first five years of ownership, and looks for the cars it expects to hold its value the best after this time; on average, the report says the 2013 model year vehicles will lose 61.8 percent of its value in five years. Of the 22 categories, 15 slots were filled by Toyota, Honda and Nissan products, while the Camaro and Porsche (Cayenne and Panamera) each took home a pair of awards. If Toyota has anything to be upset about in this list of cars, it's that categories for Hybrid/Alternative Energy Car and Electric Vehicle went to the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Volt, respectively.
The overall top 10 models for the best resale value in 2013 are, in alphabetical order:

Jeep rocks the Wrangler Red Rock concept in Vegas [w/video]

The SEMA show may have once been all about dropping rides to the floor, but these days it's at least as much about jacking them up on lifted suspensions. And few show cars – or trucks, we should say – managed to embody that spirit at this year's tuner exposition quite as well as the Jeep Wrangler Red Rock you see here. The concept started out life as a Wrangler Unlimited, but instead of four doors, it has none. Or any roof, for that matter. Just a roll cage and a windscreen. What it does have are 17-inch wheels wearing 35-inch BF Goodrich tires and fitted to a suspension lifted by two inches. It also has a reinforced tailgate, power winch, tow hooks... everything, in short, that you could want or need for off-roading, and little more. As you can see, it also looks the business, with a custom hood, body-color grille, matte-finish bumpers, and a brown leather interior. Handsome as it is, though, its rugged beauty runs more than skin deep: lift off the sheetmetal and you'd find electronic locking differentials, a transfer case, and solid axles fore and aft. A more extreme take on the existing Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock edition, the Red Rock show truck was done up to honor the organization behind the Easter Jeep Safari that's a favorite among the legions of the Jeep faithful. And while it remains a concept only for the time being, a production version is slated to follow in time to celebrate the event's 50th anniversary next year. Related Video: