Living with a… Jeep Wrangler (Final Report)

Jeep has been turning out rugged 4x4s since the truly iconic Willys Jeep of 1941. Reminders of that heritage are all over today’s Wranglers, with the graphic of an original model on the gear-lever and windscreen, plus the original "Overland" name given to our version. Exposed hinges, bolts, clips and a radio aerial adorn the exterior, while inside is an 80s throwback, with an upright dash, lots of chunky buttons and a manual handbrake. Luxury it is not, but the Wrangler offers charm, personality and fun in spades, which makes it permanently popular in the UK.
Skip to: Month 1 – A bit of rough Month 2 – Mud on the tyres … and everywhere else Month 3 – Another view of the Wrangler Month 4 – Season’s greetings? Month 5 – It's like a giant Meccano set!

Fun. That’s what I thought when the Wrangler turned into our drive. Then my thoughts were drowned out by the whoops and gasps of my two sons, who now think this is the super coolest test car I’ve ever had, Lamborghinis included. Strangely, for two people aged 10 and 13, what they appear to love most about the Wrangler is its total analogue vibe, its heritage styling and traditional character. From the chunky door hinges, squared rear lights, spare wheel on the tailgate, boxy wheel arches and black plastic bonnet clips to the shallow, upright dash inside and the large grab handles, they sense this is a car to be reckoned with, a car that acts more like a fairground ride than another bland-mobile on our roads.
And they’d be right. The Wrangler is a total laugh. On paper, it’s rubbish of course. It sways from side to side on its basic chassis like a small boat tossed in a storm. The dog in the boot is not happy as he’s thrown all over the place. The engine is gruff, underpowered and alarmingly thirsty, returning about 25mpg before plummeting to about 18mpg round town, where we do most of our weekly driving. We appear to be filling it almost once a week, spanking about £95 each time. In fact, in terms of climate change, this car is a serious embarrassment, with CO2 emissions of 252g/km, which puts it in the red zone for tailpipe emissions and means you’ll pay £1,850 VED/road tax in the first year if you buy new. It does, however, meet the Government’s current clean-air zone requirements, so it’s ULEZ-compliant until at least 2025. Jeep calculates average total monthly fuel costs at about £180. All we can say is that with a mixture of daily four-mile school runs, local shopping trips, railway commuter trips and a couple of 100-mile motorway journeys a month, we’re spending more like £250-300 a month. I’m also not sure how practical the horizontally opening and split tailgate is, because every time we get the dog out, we have to open the door then lift up the rear windscreen which is just annoying. It does look cool though. But. Oh, the guilty joy of this American cowboy. Every motoring journalist I know just loves the Wrangler, despite all these obvious pitfalls. And that’s because it’s one of the few cars left on the road with true character. You just want to chug along the streets, working the steering, clanking the handbrake, pumping the pedals. It requires work, input and engagement to drive this thing, and that makes it rewarding. We can’t wait for the sun to come out, at which point, even if it’s minus 10, we will unclip the two front roof panels, leave them on the drive and go for a day trip to the beach. And the colour of our Wrangler - Early Grey - combined with our white wheel cover is just stupendous. All the mums in my son’s football team stopped to stare and gush last week when we rocked up in it. It looks more pale blue than grey, and no one’s seen another example so far. It’s truly stunning, with approving comments from men and women alike. I’m sharing the Wrangler love with the rest of the Auto Trader road testing team over the next couple of months, so more from us all soon. Back to top

Dan Trent writes: Erin closed her last report saying she was going to share the Wrangler love with the rest of us but, having seen what I’ve been getting up to, she may well be regretting that offer! Not to say her regular routine carrying round teenage boys and a muddy dog doesn’t put a car like the Jeep to a test. But, plucked from its cosy Kent existence, I felt duty bound to give it a temporary respray from fancy ‘Earl Grey’ to what I’ll call ‘Yorkshire Clag Brown’ with a bit of an off-road adventure.
Because, as Erin laid out, as cool as it undoubtedly is the Jeep isn’t in its comfort zone on the road. At least, not objectively. But in an age where even Land Rover Defenders and Mercedes G-Classes are now posh SUVs cosplaying their 4x4 heritage the few remaining proper off-roaders like the Wrangler stand apart, the Ineos Grenadier I drove this time last year the nearest real comparison. I’m amused to see the latter has been dividing opinion somewhat among my esteemed journalistic colleagues as well, some loudly complaining that a car literally built to bounce over rocks and ruts might not stand comparison in refinement terms with more road-oriented luxury SUVs. And missing the point a BMW M3 might struggle in the same way if you, say, attempted a 10-mile moorland track like the one I just took the Jeep along. Horses for courses, isn’t it. Jump from a mainstream crossover into something like the Jeep or Ineos and the first thing you’ll notice is the steering feels very vague, which is a result of the way they’re built underneath. On motorways and twisty roads you’re therefore constantly sawing at the wheel with little apparent connection with the direction of travel, which can be disconcerting. But, like anything, you get used to. Aside from that and the odd shudder through the bodywork (another signature trait from the way proper 4x4s like this are built) I’d say refinement is actually pretty good. But I wanted to at least try and put it through its paces properly.

Finding places to legally and responsibly enjoy a 4x4 can be difficult, though. There are dedicated centres where you can attend self-explanatory ‘pay and play’ days, and there’s one such place up the road from me. But they didn’t have any dates available. So, it was a case of breaking the map out and looking for some legal tracks on which to drive. Even up my way these are few and far between. Rudland Rigg, an old drovers’ road over the moors near where I grew up in North Yorkshire, looked worth a punt, though. It’s been gentrified since I used to ride the northern end of it on my mountain bike and, sadly, the big rocky steps that would have been a proper test of the Wrangler’s abilities have been smoothed out. Truth be told any regular crossover with a bit of ground clearance would get along it now, given it’s basically just gravel and a few puddles. But you’d be worrying the bumpers and other important bits of bodywork would be rattled off by the end of it, something I had no concerns with in the Jeep as it splashed over the open moor, stunning 360 views more than making up for the lack of proper mud-plugging.
Honour satisfied I’m now just enjoying driving it around with a coat of mud on it, looking like a properly gnarly 4x4 among the posher SUVs that park on our street for the school run each morning. That’s what cars like the Wrangler should be about. I’d probably best give it a wash before it goes back to Erin, though. Back to top

Catherine King writes: Having heard how much the rest of the team were enjoying the Jeep, I was eager to have my turn before it went back to Erin. Picking up the Wrangler from Dan, my first experience was driving across a dark, wet, and windy M62 heading for Greater Manchester. The weather made for pretty unappealing driving conditions, but the Wrangler took it all in its stride, powering through the puddles whilst other cars struggled with the swathes of water. Filled with total confidence, I realised that I had fallen immediately in love! The Jeep is a full-scale Lego Technic model, and I adore the clicks and clunks of the physical buttons and switches. Even the key looks rugged.
For a car that has a back-to-basics image it has an impressive number of modern features, too. Blindspot monitoring, keyless entry, adaptive cruise control, and parking sensors are all much appreciated, but leave me feeling a bit fraudulent. I am hardly roughing it. Yes, it’s not the most comfortable place to sit, the driving position is very upright and there’s nowhere to rest your left foot. However, that’s what you sign up for with a car of this type and the driver’s seat of a Wrangler is a great place to be. The heated leather seats and steering wheel kept me toasty warm, so I had nothing to complain about. Once back in suburbia I was concerned that directing my trusty steed might feel like trying to get a proverbial camel to go through the eye of the needle. In reality, once you get used to having to turn the steering wheel much more than you do in a regular car, the Wrangler is surprisingly manageable. On arrival home the reversing camera came in very handy too. With the Peak District right on our doorstep it seemed like a perfect testing ground. Narrow mill towns with crumbling, car-lined roads meant I had to quickly learn where the corners of the Wrangler were. Luckily the boxy shape gives clear visibility all round. The potholes were less fun and even straying over a cat's eye jolts you out of your seat. This adds to the character of the driving experience, but my passenger was less impressed. At least there’s no warning sound for going out of your lane like in most new cars. The Jeep looked at home once we got out in the hills, although I was somewhat gentler on it than Dan! A quick go along an unmade track and a splash through the biggest puddles satisfied me that I totally could drive across the moors if I wanted to, with no trouble at all. Life with a Wrangler makes every trip feel like an adventure. Even looking at it fills me with joy, I keep peeking out of the window to admire it parked up on the road (it's too wide for our driveway) and our neighbours are all drawn to my prized piece of Americana. Let's be honest though, I don't have any reason to drive up mountains and an average of 23mpg does not make me quite so happy. Then again, seeing it tower above conventional SUVs and knowing how capable the Wrangler is makes me grin from ear to ear and handing it back will be hard. Back to top

Erin Baker writes: We thought what most drivers want to see in warm, sunny March is a picture of a Christmas tree in the back of someone’s car. So here’s one we took earlier! Much earlier, in fact, this being about a week before Christmas. For the avoidance of doubt, this was an 8ft Christmas tree, stuffed into the Wrangler, with my mum bending the tip away from her nose and my son hugging the lower branches. Classic Christmas build-up family fare.
It begs the question, why car companies use “litres” as a measurement of boot space, or tell you how many sets of golf clubs you can fit in the back. Suitcases, kids’ bikes, wellies, a weekly supermarket shop for the family and Christmas trees would be much handier. Which brings us back to the relevance of posting this image in March – now you’ll know for eight months’ time. The Wrangler is a massive car, with loads of light, tons space for the kids in the rear seats and the dog loves the boot. The downside to all that space is fuel economy, or the lack of it. It is PAINFUL. It’s like you’re driving a high-performance sports car up hills with two giants on board all day. The most depressing thing you can do in a Wrangler is have the digital display switched to the fuel economy read out. We’ve become obsessed with getting it to 27mpg. Imagine that, a world where 27mpg seems like some Nirvana! It is hardly in keeping with the environmental zeitgeist. I blush every time I refuel, and daren’t put my foot down to overtake anything, for fear of watching the needle plummet. As if the fuel economy wasn’t bad enough the fuel cap requires a key, but you turn the key in the opposite direction to the way you twist the fuel cap. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to stand fiddling around with it at the petrol pump in the dark and cold. Then again, my boys adore the sound system with its insane sub-woofer in the boot though actual woofer - Milo the Labrador - isn’t so keen on the constant boom from Kanye West’s latest diatribe in his ear on the school run. Meanwhile, I'm running out of time to get those roof panels off and experience some open-top driving, before it goes back to Jeep. Stop raining! Back to top

From Christmas trees to spring is sprung! Finally, in the last weeks of our six-month test with this car it's stopped raining and we've managed to get the two front roof panels off! The Jeep is brilliantly practical and easy to use like that. You just release two large plastic clips, twist two levers and lift the panels off. It's like a giant Meccano set, only easier.
I'm 5ft 6in and nine stone, so not a heavy lifter, but even I managed to take each panel off and store it in the garage while the kids and I took the car for a spin. I suppose you could throw both in the boot if you had nowhere to store them or were worried it might rain while you were out. Similarly straightforward and hassle-free are the rear seats. If you need to fold them down to get bigger stuff in the (already large) boot, you just flip them forwards using the big plastic levers on the tops of the seats, and each tucks forwards and down into the floor of its own accord, giving you a flat and almost level surface area. Jeep is a brilliant brand like that. If you want no-fuss, no-frills, analogue driving, with the possibility of assured off-roading, a Wrangler is undoubtedly the way forward. Other owners know that and it's the secret they all love to keep from other motorists who think more swanky, luxurious SUVs are better. I've loved having a six-month membership of this club. Indeed, just yesterday I passed a white Rubicon version coming in the opposite direction with a mum and daughter up front, and the woman nodded, smiled and waved. It's like riding a motorbike all over again, Just lovely! But all good things must come to an end and we’ve now waved goodbye to the Wrangler. We’re all so upset to see it go, particularly my 13-year-old who thought it was a very cool vehicle to turn up to the school gates in. Ah well. Onwards! Back to top