- This is our best SUV of 2023 award winner
the 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
And not long after we at cars.com purchased one
for a year long test, we started thinking to ourselves
but where can we take this thing off-road?
It is an off-road vehicle,
and the answer actually happened to be
right in our backyard.
You may have even heard of it,
it's a Jeep Jamboree.
- The Jeep Jamboree is a series of off-road events,
specifically for Jeep brand vehicles
held all across the country.
Owners can sign up for two days of off-roading fun
in a wide variety of terrain.
We signed up for the one in Attica, Indiana,
held at the Badlands Off-Road Park,
and we brought along our brand new
Grand Cherokee Trailhawk 4xe plug-in hybrid.
- [Aaron] We wanted to learn more about
how the 4xe actually works out here in the woods.
It's a plug-in hybrid, it has an electric mode,
and it allows you to go wheeling
in pretty much complete silence.
So we brought along a second 4xe as well,
a 2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 20th Anniversary 4xe,
to test against the Grand Cherokee.
- So come along with us as we sweat our way
through our first ever Jeep Jamboree
and put these two iconic off-road SUVs through their paces,
all while finding out what makes people
from all over the world sign up for these events.
- It's a Jeep thing, we're gonna try to understand.
(upbeat music)
- It's a Jeep loyalty program
and what we do is we bring Jeep owners together.
We take 'em out and let them experience
what their Jeep is capable of doing
out in the woods or out in the mountains.
And we bring them back and they're ready to go again,
we feed 'em, most of the time,
we raffle prizes away that our sponsors give to us
and help us with, so that's what it's all about,
and in there there's a lot of socializing.
- I've been aware of the Jeep Jamboree for quite some time
and we just had not gotten the opportunity.
And since we're in the Jeep family now,
we thought we'd come to it.
We're in Chicago, so this was kind of the closest one to us.
Yeah, we've had a great time,
gain confidence through the day of what I could do
with the Jeep, and of course I figured out
if you keep it in low and keep it in first
and just take your foot off the accelerator,
it just kind of does its own thing.
- We have several different Jamborees
and they're all different ratings, okay.
So the Badlands Jamboree that we're attending right now,
that we're doing right here
it's on the scale, a little bit lower scale of difficulty.
So for someone that's a little more cautious and nervous
and hesitant to take their Jeep off-road,
this is a great place.
Now, someone that is more experienced
and wants more of a challenge,
the Rubicon is the place to be.
So the events are based on different areas,
different locations, and different difficulties,
so there's something for everyone, there truly is.
- I've been doing Jeeps for 15 years,
My dad bought a YJ straight out the lot,
I rode with him and we just been doing stuff
in dunes, sands, whatever else.
And that's the lifestyle.
I love coming out here, enjoying it and getting through it,
and meeting all these great people.
We meet a lot of cool friends.
And really the Badlands gets to offer a little bit of every
kind of terrain you wanna get into, a little bit of mud,
a little bit of woods, a little bit of rocks, sands.
I mean, it's a good taste of everything.
I always love going down the creek, right?
Everybody talks about the tubes, that's awesome.
But I really love going through the creek
and the deep woods, gets kind of chilly
with some of the colder air, still, even the hotter weather.
But yeah, it's a lot of fun.
- It's a great way to meet people.
It's also a great way to find places to go out wheeling,
if it's an area you're not familiar with,
you can go on one of these Jamborees
and learn the park, learn the trails
and make a good decision whether you want to come back
and do it again without the Jamboree.
- I have yet to experience, let's put it that way,
I have yet to experience a mean Jeep owner.
They're all nice, they're all social people,
they all have a servant attitude,
everybody's willing to help one another.
- I try and keep expectations low.
I didn't really have that many other than just getting
to be off road and having a good time
and definitely have done that.
The trails are actually harder than I was expecting
for the group I picked.
But it's been really good
'cause it expanded my comfort zone.
They haven't been too hard,
it's just more than a newbie like me was like,
oh geez, should I step into this?
But peer pressure and little bit of ego,
I was like, well, I gotta try it, you know?
- You know, you come out to one of these things
and it's just infectious.
The camaraderie out here, there's so many people,
and there's not a stranger amongst them.
- It's going pretty well.
I mean, everything's been really well organized,
the people are nice, very encouraging.
And no one ever makes you feel stupid
when you have a question, which is nice,
since it is our first time being out.
Actually this was everything we had hoped it would be.
We were expecting it to be, once we came in,
we saw the Jeeps all lined up for first day registration
and everything,
we thought it was gonna be like,
oh gosh, we're gonna wait a while.
And everybody was really helpful and organized.
I mean, it's just been fantastic.
Can't wait to come back and go to other ones.
- [Damon] So is a Jeep Jamboree worth attending?
Well, if all this sounds like great fun to you,
then yes, absolutely.
Simply getting access to primo off-road terrain
with things like permits and land use fees
taken care of for you is a big plus.
And if you add up what two full days of activities
would cost at say a typical amusement park,
it becomes clear, a Jeep Jamboree is a decent value.
You'll likely be surprised, even amazed,
at what your Jeep is capable of doing off-road.
And you're almost certain
to make new friends in the process.
(upbeat music)