All the gear, no idea. But what a great place to start
Pair a driver with minimal off-road experience with one of the most capable 4x4s ever built and what’s the worst that can happen? Stand back, this could get messy.
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Month 1
The story so far
An American icon joins the CAR fleet
★ Smiles per mile through the (removable) roof already high - Capable it may be; practical it very much is not Logbook Price £53,800 (£55,800 as tested Performance 1995cc turbo four-cylinder, 268bhp, 7.3sec 0-62mph, 99mph Efficiency 24.4mpg (official), 21.8mpg (tested), 260g/km CO2 Energy cost 31.3p per mile Miles this month 1670 Total miles 2709
Prepping for doomsday is a real thing for some. And, if I were to start digging my own bunker and buying my own bodyweight in loo rolls and tins of baked beans, I’d want a Wrangler to traverse the apocalyptic wilderness – no question. No car is more capable, flexible or customisable. Defender? G-Class? Nah – far too bourgeois these days.
Besides the back-to-basics appeal of one of the most iconic cars on the planet, I’d also argue few cars are this smile-inducing. The Wrangler is all about the journey, not the destination, and this JL generation has been built with fastidious attention to detail by people who live and breathe adventure, for those who feel the same. It’s been set up to be easy to customise. You can detach the doors, take off the roof (either just the front panels with your hands, or the whole lot with some tools) and fold down the windscreen – because why not – and the Mopar catalogue of accessories for Wranglers is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.
So, a chunky 4x4 with high torque demands mean it’s a diesel, right? Nope. Jeep quietly killed the diesel option, due to tougher emissions standards, more than a year ago, and is still umm-ing and ahh-ing about building the 4Xe plug-in hybrid in right-hand drive, so mine is powered by the sole engine in the UK: a non-electrified petrol. It’s got pedigree, though; the 2.0-litre turbocharged four here is the same basic unit used by Alfa Romeo for the Giulia and Stelvio Veloce, albeit mildly detuned compared to the feisty Italians.
Mine’s a Rubicon – the most off-road-biased variant of a car that’s in any form wholly capable of taking on the rough stuff – finished in the brilliantly-named Nacho Orange. You get knobbly tyres, a taller ride height, heavy-duty axles with locking mechanical front and rear differentials and some proud
RUBICON decals stretching across the edges of that huge bonnet.
It’s the two-door, which Jeep says it’s the best version for off-roading, with its stubby wheelbase and near-square footprint, but it doesn’t do me any favours in terms of practicality. The rear seats require yogi-like flexibility if you’re to get in and out with any grace (I split a pair of jeans recently in a botched attempt at getting out), and the boot is paltry.
The interior is a fascinating blend of function and form. There are so many buttons on that cliff-face of a dashboard, with grab-handles aplenty (which are genuinely useful – this is a tall car to climb into, remember) and a properly cool twin-gearlever set-up – one for the eight-speed auto and another for the switchable four-wheel drive, complete with a low range mode.
And it’s not sparsely equipped in here, either – as standard, the Wrangler Rubicon has heated seats and steering wheel, a not-cack infotainment system on a big screen, adaptive cruise control, a 230-volt socket in the back, all-round parking sensors and a reversing camera with a lens that sticks out beyond the rear spare wheel. This one has the Technology pack that throws in blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and keyless entry.
So it’s capable. But am I? Ha! I’m far from an expert in off-road driving. But I’m regarding this opportunity to live with one of the toughest and most talented 4x4s currently on sale as a chance for me to hone such off-roading skills as I may possess. I want to take it on trails, go camping with it and more. So let’s get stuck in. @_jakegroves
The accessories catalogue is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen