PURE & SIMPLE

JEEP’S JL Wrangler line-up hit our shores not long after the Jimny did in the first part of 2019, and with it came the surprise that the traditional SWB two-door model would only be available in Sport S and Overland model grades, and only with the V6 petrol and eightspeed auto transmission powertrain. Significantly, this meant no off-road focused Rubicon shorty and no diesel engine or manual gearbox.

While this disappointed many purists, the Wrangler remains one of the best off-road wagons in showroom trim, and the JL ups the on-road ante over any Wrangler before it with improved refinement and features.

A Jeep Wrangler shorty will cost you $48,950 in Sport S trim level or $59,450 as an Overland as we have here.

POWERTRAIN & PERFORMANCE

JEEP’S 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 engine was considered state-of-the-art for petrol mills when it was introduced almost 10 years ago. It might be getting long in the tooth, but there’s nothing wrong with it and it feels like it has a new lease of life in the lighter JL Wrangler now that’s it’s backed by the excellent eight-speed auto.

The two-door JL Overland is 138kg lighter than the equivalent four-door model with the same powertrain, and this allows it to make the most of its 209kw and 347Nm. The ‘little’ Wrangler feels sporty by comparison as it willingly spins up in revs and shoots through the gears. Jeep’s claimed numbers put the shorty half a second ahead of the four-door in the zero to 100km/h dash. We can only imagine how much fun it would be if we could row through those gears with a manual ’box, but no such luck for us Aussies.

The eight-speed Torqueflite auto built under licence from ZF helps the Pentastar achieve better fuel numbers as well as performance. The official ‘combined’ fuel economy figure is 9.6L/100km, so it can make the most of that 66-litre tank. The four-door Wrangler gets an 81-litre tank and claimed 9.7L/100km combined cycle.

ON ROAD RIDE & HANDLING

THE WRANGLER is an overall bigger vehicle than the Jimny, and that affords it more suspension travel, bigger wheels and tyres, and hence better overall ride and handling. The Jeep still uses live axles front and rear, in its case suspended on a three-link front and five-link rear arrangement with coils.

The Overland’s 255/70R18 tyre size is a good compromise for both handling and ride. It is tall enough to give a smooth ride, while low enough to not move around too much when pushed hard. The Dueler H/T pattern is definitely aimed at on-road use.

With the JL model, the Wrangler moved to electrically assisted power steering, which is well suited to this type of vehicle. It delivers enough feedback to the driver at higher speeds yet offers plenty of assistance at low

speeds, both when driving on tracks or when parking around town.

OFF ROAD

ANY JEEP Wrangler is a good offroad vehicle, and the short wheelbase variants are better than the long ones as they are easier to manoeuvre in tight spaces and have a far better ramp-over angle than the long wheelbase models. We didn’t experience any of the belly scraping with this Overland shorty that we have experienced with Rubiconspec Unlimited JLS. It does, however, still suffer the poor departure angle of its longer brethren, and will scrape its back bumper on many exits.

Sure, the Overland doesn’t get all of the off-road hardware of the Rubicon, but its open diffs and electronic traction control will get it most places people will want to go.

In the absence of a SWB JL Rubicon, off-road enthusiasts wanting a shorty might be best off opting for an entry level Sport S and going wild with aftermarket gear. Like all non-usaspec JLS, the Overland’s transfer case offers the choice of 2WD, full-time 4WD, locked 4WD high-range and locked 4WD low-range.

CABIN & ACCOMMODATION

IN OVERLAND trim the JL interior is a nice place to ride. It’s comfortable, well-appointed and everything is easy to find and operate. It offers more space than the Jimny’s cabin but is still best suited to just two passengers. Again, we’d be throwing that rear seat to the rafters and maximising the Wrangler’s cargo space. Compared to Jimny, there’s also more space behind the rear seat when it is in use, but not a lot. The rear seat only folds in one piece.

The one big thing the Jeep offers that no other vehicle does is an open interior. Whether you simply remove the front roof panels or you have the

IT’S A GOOD OFFROAD VEHICLE, AND THE SHORT WHEELBASE VARIANTS ARE BETTER THAN THE LONG ONES