Jeep owners aren’t the sort to embrace needless fiddling. Give them features that make their treasured 4x4s plough through the mud more effectively and they’re a happy bunch. Make changes for the sake of change and there’d be rioting in the streets.

So while the latest Grand Cherokee might be all-new from its knobbly tyres up, the exterior styling could have been a reject from when they were designing the 1993 original. In fact, talk to Chrysler’s Brit-born design chief Trevor Creed and he’ll tell you that the edgier look really harks back to the original square-box-on-wheels Cherokee from the late ’70s.

But changes beneath the skin make the Cherokee an even more accomplished mud-plugger-cum-highway-bruiser: three new full-time 4x4 systems, all-new suspension, new rack and pinion steering and a new 5.7-litre Hemi V8 motor.

Compared to the current Grand Cherokee this new version, which lands on British soil late next year, is 142mm longer, 91mm longer in the wheelbase and 63mm wider between the wheels. An increase in size became necessary to meet upcoming US crash requirements, not because Jeep owners wanted a bigger vehicle. In fact, Jeep’s own research revealed buyers would rather pick an MPV if seating seven was a priority.