Here’s Why I Liked The Jeep Grand Wagoneer Over The Ford Expedition Tremor

7 minutes reading

Tuesday, 29 Sep 2026 08:00 0 5 autotech

Mirrors: You wouldn’t think about them much once you’ve adjusted the ones on the exterior of your rig, but if you purchase theFordExpedition, and if for any reason anyone ever changes how its mirrors are angled, returning them to your preset requires delving into menus and using a touch-sensitive D-pad on the steering wheel. No, there’s no dedicated button adjacent to the window controls, like you’ll find on the rival Jeep Grand Wagoneer — and on most vehicles, for that matter. Ford buries these controls, and also the ones to tilt and telescope the steering wheel. Why start a review of a Jeep by talking about its rival Ford?

Buttons FTW!

TopSpeed | Michael Frank

Don’t worry, I’ll get around to talking about the Grand Wagoneer’s bona fides off-road and on, shortly — and its weaknesses, too. But the clearest upside to the Upland Edition of the Grand Wagoneer I drove recently is that the carmaker retains physical buttons for its instrumentation. There’s a giant rotary for a classic PRND transmission control, dedicated buttons for off-road modes, climate controls segregated from the touchscreen display, and nestled at the base of that, both a tuning knob and a volume knob. Plus, on the bottom of that 14.1-inch unit, there are dedicated navigation controls to quickly switch between choices for audio, say, and switching in or out of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

An Excellent Aesthetic

Let’s clear the air. I think the newest Ford Expedition is quite attractive. To me, it’s a little sharper than the Grand Wagoneer, in part because the classic Jeep shape is a box, not a rectangle; and if Ford has a default SUV shape it’s the Explorer, and that allows the carmaker to stretch an already elongated box more readily, to get to a reasonably Ford-ish genre in the form of the longer Expedition. “Jeepness,” however, vibes from the Wrangler and, perhaps to some folks, the Grand Cherokee, both of which are more squat. Still, the Grand Wagoneer accomplishes the visual mission of looking like a Jeep, not, say, an Escalade.

Good In The Dirt

The Grand Wagoneer barely edges the Tremor with 11 inches of ground clearance vs. 10.6 from the Ford. I’ve driven the Tremor off-road, too, and it’s very capable, though that experience was in mud, which is not what I encountered in the Jeep. I got to drive the Grand Wagoneer on a section of beach in Washington State where it’s perfectly legal — but not easy — to churn across miles of sand. I say it’s not easy because I witnessed lots of people get stranded. Farther up from the surf, the sand gets plenty mounded. While the wet sand at the shore didn’t require even AWD, to take on the deeper grit, I raised the Jeep to its maximum ground clearance and engaged Sand mode. That’s all it took — plus the courage to stay in the throttle and let the torquey three-liter in-line six do its business. Then I just bobbed along the dunes, happy to be spitting sand in my wake.

For reference, there are also modes for rock and snow, and the Upland not only gets an air suspension, but also 20-inch all-terrain tires and a full transfer case with front and rear locking, plus skid-plating to protect the front axle, fuel tank, and transfer case. Needless to say, for the duties I put this Grand Wagoneer to, it barely raised a pulse, let alone a sweat.

A Lot Posher Than Rivals

I recently got to drive the new Recon electric Jeep. That experience, and this one, reminded me that at least at the top end, Jeep really rivals Cadillac (and runs doughnuts around Chevy) when it comes to interior treatments. Ford’s Tremor is also way upscale for the brand, and it’d probably come down to a matter of taste rather than grade quality for which carmaker appeals to you. But I’ve been pretty wowed by the execution and finish quality of Jeep’s cabins lately, and if you haven’t eyeballed Jeep recently because you have a preset image of what the brand stands for, you need to look again.

I had an unusually long time behind the wheel of the Grand Wagoneer because I wove my loan around a road trip. That gave me a lot of seat time and also a lot of time to see how the Grand Wagoneer drove in traffic, on winding mountain roads, and around town. Jeep’s done an excellent job with this chassis. You don’t exactly want to slay every corner, but that’s hardly the point. When I had passengers to ferry, they appreciated the comfortable, smooth ride, and the 420-horsepower in-line six remains refined and quiet, as befits a luxury vehicle.

More Usable Cargo Space — But Ford Wins The Total Capacity Crown

Often how you slice the onion determines what the sauce tastes like. Or, to be blunt, in standard wheelbase the Ford has more overall cargo capacity (108.5 cubic feet vs. 94.2), but you might find the Jeep more useful for some duties. For instance, the Grand Wagoneer’s second-row legroom (42.7 inches) bests the Expedition’s (41.1 inches). And you can carry more stuff in the Jeep when you’ve still got five passengers aboard, with 70.8-cubic feet of capacity vs. the Ford’s 60.8 cubic feet. This last data point is probably the most important one, since, sure, you might need that overall capacity occasionally, but if you’re buying one of these beasts it’s because you’ve got kids and their stuff to haul, and that means stowing the third row, keeping the second row upright, and tossing in strollers, toys, soccer balls, hockey bags, etc.

TopSpeed’s Take

There’s one demerit with the Grand Wagoneer that will be addressed next year. Right now, Ford offers the Expedition with BlueCruise, the carmaker’s hands-free driving system. Next year, Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, will unveil the even less mellifluously named STLA AutoDrive for Jeep (a.k.a., hands-free, level 2 assistance), and it’ll be an option for Grand Wagoneer. But right now the best you get from the Grand Wagoneer is hands-on advanced cruise control that can slow the Jeep to a stop and then accelerate, with lane-keeping and adaptive distance assistance. It does work well, and it saw me through a long snarl of stop-and-go driving outside of Seattle.

But a lot of studies are showing that luxury buyers want hands-free driving features and increasingly advanced assistance. Perhaps the fact that even loaded, the Upland edition of the Jeep I drove came in at $76,650 (while the Tremor starts at $84,495) will convince some buyers that they can handle the onerous duty of driving themselves. And then pocket that not-so-small price difference.