As 4X4 wagons go, I’ve had two favourites for the past year or so. The Toyota Fortuner and GM’s Hummer H3 appeal to me because they offer acceptable comfort levels, genuine off-road capabilities and are relatively well-priced.
Just about everything else is either too fancy and expensive to take into the bush, or inadequate for really serious use off-road.
Now Jeep has joined my little group of favourites with the new Wrangler — a vehicle that is likely to become a lot more popular with South Africans. Why? Because the factory has broken with tradition and finally introduced a four-door version (hooray!) and the thirsty old four-litre inline six engine has, at last, made way for two new units — a 3,8-litre V6 petrol engine or a 2,8litre turbodiesel.
Suddenly the Wrangler has moved beyond being a thirsty toy with limited real-world practicality into the world of really useful family 4X4s.
Jeep has managed to retain the styling we have become used to since the first Jeep went to war against Hitler and Japan in 1941, but even the two-door versions have grown considerably. At the launch, I discovered the vehicles look much better in the flesh than they do in the press pics, though, so don’t be too put off by what you see in the media.
The four-door version — the Unlimited — boasts a 523mm extended wheelbase, and two-door and four-door Wranglers come with three trim levels: Sport, Sahara and Rubicon. All derivatives have dual airbags, ESP, ABS brakes with EBD and a radio/CD player.
I was somewhat disappointed to discover that only the upmarket Rubicon models come with front and rear differential locks. The others rely on the electronics to lock the brakes on any wheels that lose traction, thus sending torque to the wheels with the most grip. In my eyes, a Jeep Wrangler (or any other proper 4X4) should be equipped with diff locks as standard.
The new engines used in the Wranglers are both brilliant. The 3,8litre V6 petrol unit puts out 146kW at 5 000 rpm and 315Nm of torque at four thou, while the 2,8litre inline four turbodiesel is good for 130kW at 3 800 rpm and 410Nm at anywhere between 2 000 rpm and 2 600 rpm.
Gearboxes available include six-speed manual transmissions, four-speed auto boxes for the petrol engines and five-speed autos for the diesels. We drove all of the vehicles across some of the worst 4X4 terrain I’ve encountered and even those without diff locks coped well, although one journalist managed to break a side-shaft while traversing a rocky river bed.
The pricing of the new Wranglers is competitive, ranging from R219 900 for the Sahara 3,8 Sport with a six-speed manual transmission to R314 900 for the four-door Unlimited 3,8 Rubicon four-speed auto.
Serious off-roaders will be best off with the Rubicon versions, which come with a more advanced four-wheel-drive system, diff locks, different axle ratios and an electronically controlled front sway-bar disconnect system that improves wheel articulation in the rough. The rest of us will get by very well with the Sport and Sahara derivatives.