Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
BORN TO RUN
High-speed Jeep Gladiator Mojave an off-road conqueror
There are two kinds of auto enthusiasts: those who get their thrills on the road, and those who get them off-road.
A sports car racer for decades, I’m an on-roader. But the 2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave pickup could convert me.
The Mojave is the latest variation of the tree-chewing, midsize Gladiator pickup designed for folks who want to explore the far corners of the Earth. Unlike the Gladiator Rubicon, which is built for rock crawling, the Mojave wants to run.
It dreams of being a Ford Raptor, Ford’s high-speed, Baja Desert-friendly F-150.
Unlike the Raptor, the new Gladiator doesn’t have a new engine or get-out-ofthe-way bodywork.
But it does feature Jeep’s throaty 285-horse V-6 and a unique hood scoop that sets it apart from brother Rubicon pickup. More important, it is raised an inch above Rubicon with trusty Fox performance shocks.
To test the Gladiator Mojave, I headed to the Mounds off-road vehicle park near Flint, Mich.
I shifted the Mojave’s transfer case to four-wheel drive, turned tractioncontrol off and nailed the V-6 across the Mounds’ open, northwest trails. This is terrain where the dirt bikers like to open it up, and I picked up speed quickly, the Fox shocks absorbing the trail’s imperfections.
This might be hairy stuff in the ginormous Raptor, but the Mojave was in its element. A 75-degree lefthander loomed, and I slowed — then slewed it sideways across a waterfilled dip. Gladiator’s dimensions allowed me to rotate the pickup beautifully, then I was back on the throttle as the big, 33-inch knobby tires sprayed the cabin with water.
Good thing I kept the doors on.
With the pickup bed out back, the doors and roof panels are easy to stow.
The Mojave is happy at low speeds too. The Mounds has a number of tight scramble areas that favor Jeeps over big trucks.
With the transfer case in four-wheel low, I flipped a console switch to lock the rear axle and gain better traction. The Gladiator Rubicon takes this capability one step further with twin locking axles and decoupling sway-bars for serious rock-crawling, if that’s your thing.
Naturally, all of this scene-chewing hardware doesn’t come cheap. The base Gladiator starts at $35,000 and the base Mojave at $45,000. My tester was an eye-watering $60,945, just $7,500 cheaper than the Ford Raptor I tested a couple of years ago.
What you get for that coin is a unique vehicle that is good at addition as well as subtraction. Subtract the doors and hood for that unique outdoors experience. Then ogle the additions that Jeep has brought to its console.
The Uconnect infotainment system is one of the industry’s best, with easyto-use menus so you can blast your favorite Sirius XM station while pulverizing trails. Where Uconnect is shy of the industry’s best is in the navigation department, Jeep has thoughtfully made Apple CarPlay and Android Auto standard on the Mojave.