141 complaints, the quietest Cherokee with real volume behind it. But one of its four recalls told owners not to drive the car until it was inspected, so the recall record here is not a formality.

Still the leading complaint cluster even at this volume. The Power Transfer Unit, or PTU, is the small gearbox that sends drive from the transmission to the front wheels; when its input splines strip the car can lose drive while moving and lose the Park function when stationary. 2021 is inside recall 26V-290 (Chrysler code 40D), which covers 2019 to 2023, affects 61,711 vehicles, was reported 7 May 2026, and states that 'the remedy is currently under development,' with interim owner letters expected 25 June 2026. A 2021 is not covered by the earlier replacement recall 25V-011, which stops at 2019, so this is its only campaign. The private cost, quoted to an owner in this year's file: '$2500 for a new PTU and of course add more money for labor.' On the test drive, exercise the four-wheel-drive system, listen for grinding from underfoot, and check the car holds Park firmly on a slope.

A 2021-only manufacturing defect. Chrysler's description: on certain 2021 Cherokees 'the transmission oil cooler hose may have been incorrectly cured, allowing transmission fluid to leak,' and 'a transmission fluid leak increases the risk of a fire.' Dealers inspect and replace the hose, free. Owner notification letters were mailed 18 May 2021 under Chrysler code Y18. If you are looking underneath the car anyway for the control arm inspection, look for red fluid around the cooler lines at the front of the transmission at the same time.

Recall 24V-516 (Chrysler code 71B) covers 2021 and 2022 Cherokees where 'an improperly secured connector for the right-side curtain air bag may prevent the air bag from deploying as intended,' failing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214 on side impact protection and 226 on ejection mitigation. The remedy is simply to secure the connector, free. The useful detail from the campaign record is that Chrysler reports 'all vehicles have been remedied,' so on most 2021 cars this should already show complete. Confirm rather than assume, because a car that changed hands several times may have missed a notification.

A specific, checkable symptom on this generation of the car. Chrysler published a reprogramming bulletin covering model years 2021 to 2023 in which 'customers may experience a moan noise or shudder feeling from the rear axle during low speed cornering, most notable in a parking lot or low speed maneuvering.' The fix is to reprogram the drivetrain control module, the computer that manages the four-wheel-drive hardware, with the latest software. This is worth deliberately testing: find an empty car park, do slow full-lock circles in both directions, and listen. A moan or a shudder is not necessarily expensive, because the documented answer is software, but it tells you the car has not had its updates.

The ZF nine-speed automatic (the 948TE, from German gearbox maker ZF) carries the model's reputation, and by 2021 the software has had years of refinement. The remaining issue for a used buyer is maintenance rather than defect. An owner-mechanic servicing a 2021 Cherokee reports that 'Jeep classifies the fluid as a lifetime fluid,' that a dealer told him 'this car does not have a service for the transmission,' and that the unit 'is basically completely sealed, it has no pan underneath, it only has a drain and a fill' plug, with no dipstick to check. He does the change himself with a fluid transfer pump because there is no other way to fill it. Assume the fluid is original, and treat a drain and fill as a first-year job rather than a fault.