Gladiator enters the arena
The Gladiator is the most Jeep you can buy. But does that mean you should, asks Damien O’Carroll.
Joey, do you like movies about Gladiators? How about huge V6 petrol-powered convertible utes? No? Well, too bad, because one is already here in the form of the Gladiator, Jeep’s forceful entry back into what Americans laughably call the ‘‘medium pickup’’ segment. We call it huge.
Really? They call this medium?
While something like the Gladiator is only a ‘‘medium’’ in the land of the free and the home of the XXXL – where the buffalo roam and Ford F150s playfully nuzzle up against Chevrolet Silverados at the gas station – we are used to a smaller scale, so something like the Gladiator is rather huge here, even compared to the more familiar, yet ever-increasingly large, utes we are used to in this part of the world.
As such, the visually imposing Gladiator makes a scene wherever you park it. People point and stare, taking photos and hesitantly smiling, much in the way you would if, say, a giant robot whale suddenly materialised in the city centre.
And, it’s about as incongruous as that, too – a hulking, ridiculously long thing that is familiar Wrangler for the front three-quarters and equally familiar ute for the final fourth. Except they’re not familiar when joined together in such a way.
But that is what makes the Gladiator so special, so interesting and so much fun. Well, there’s that and that whole ‘‘convertible’’ thing – yes, the Gladiator features the Wrangler’s ‘‘Freedom top’’ (how American is that?) that has two removable roof panels, while the entire hardtop can also be removed.
And, like the Wrangler, you can also remove the doors and fold the windscreen down, if the need takes you ...
How does it measure up to the Ranger or Hilux then?
Well . . . it doesn’t really because, aside from sharing the double cab wellside layout, the Gladiator is a rather different beast entirely.
For a start, the Overland we drove only has a meagre tray payload of just 527kg, because payload just doesn’t matter to Americans. It also only tows 2700kg on a braked trailer, making it less of a workhorse and more of a big, chunky toy. Which is just perfect, really.
Around town the Gladiator is surprisingly better than the Wrangler in ride comfort, if not actual manoeuvrability. Although in the Gladiator’s defence it has an impressively tight turning circle for something so long, which makes life easier.
The ride quality is impressive though, with only a slight ‘‘unladen ute’’ jiggliness coming from the rear over rougher surfaces.
It doesn’t necessarily last, however, as when you venture further out onto open roads, the
Gladiator betrays more of its Wrangler origins, with a slightly cruder ride than you would expect from something like a Ford Ranger or Toyota Hilux. It also has the Wrangler’s tendency to wander quite a bit during highway cruising, meaning you spend a lot of time chasing it on the open road.
The Gladiator’s 209kW/347Nm V6 petrol engine doesn’t necessarily feel over-endowed with power, but it does an admirable job of hustling it along at a more-thanacceptable rate and feels nicely brawny when overtaking.
It does become a bit breathless and runs out of torque at higher revs, but the slick 8-speed transmission does a good job of generally keeping it where it needs to be to make the most of the engine’s torque band.
It does sound a bit harsh though, but you could argue that this suits the Gladiator’s personality anyway.
Is it as blatantly American on the inside as it is on the outside?
Of course. The Gladiator shares the Wrangler’s interior, which is a very good thing as it was a massive improvement in terms of what Chrysler stuck inside a Jeep.
All of the expected chunky Jeep heritage styling cues are present, although there is a surprising lack of fake allen bolts and screw heads present. Which is nice.
The seats are comfortable and supportive (although in a more broad American backside sense), and Jeep has even managed to banish the irritating habit the old Wrangler had of reflecting all of its dash lights in the side windows at night. It only does it in the rear window now.
As it’s American, the audio system is, of course, a hilariously over-powered pounding way to destroy your relationship with your neighbours. The heated seats and steering wheel could be used to cook lunch on.
It’s a Jeep, so I assume it is utterly excellent off-road?
You assume correct. The Gladiator is spectacular off-road, given its close relationship to the Wrangler.
Like the Wrangler, the Gladiator dismisses aggressively unwelcoming terrain as effortlessly as a Toyota Corolla driving through the car park of a lawn bowls club.
While its extra length makes the occasional ramp-over underside scrape a bit more regular, it is still as essentially unstoppable – and impressively comfortable – as a Wrangler off the sealed stuff.
In fact, like the Wrangler, the Gladiator weirdly seems to get more comfortable the worse the surface gets. Which tells you all you need to know about its intended purpose in life, really.
Any other cars to consider?
There aren’t really all that many, to be honest.
A Ford Ranger Raptor is in the same price range ($84,990) and packs a reduced carrying capacity (750kg in this case), putting them both squarely into the ‘‘massive toy’’ segment together, but the Raptor is far more polished, yet nowhere near as outrageous (although it is still quite outrageous).
The Volkswagen Amarok V6 Aventura ($90,000) frolics in the same price pool, but is far more pofaced and serious compared to the Gladiator’s joyously in-yer-face style. The Mercedes-Benz X350d was around the same price, but has been consigned to history as a failed experiment.
The real decision for a potential Gladiator buyer is likely to be between it and saving $5000, ditching the tray and buying a Wrangler Unlimited instead. While both are spectacular, yet ruthlessly single-minded toys, the Gladiator does win the cool battle hands down...