JEEP WRANGLER 3.6 SAHARA / A unique kettle of vehicle

JEEP WRANGLER 3.6 SAHARA SWB

The Jeep Wrangler is the kind of car that people want to need as Deon van der Walt recently learned when finally testing the new Wrangler. It doesn’t offer much in the way of practicality, nor does it do any of the daily routines particularly well.

Here’s the thing, though: you don’t buy a Jeep Wrangler, and specifically the short wheelbase derivative I had on test, because you’re looking at an up-buy that will serve as an all-rounder family hauler. The boot of the ‘shorty’ as I’ve come to call it offers 203 litres of boot storage and that’s hardly enough for two carry-on suitcases. So, no, sensibility is not it.

DRIVING MACHINE?

The 3.6-litre V6 normally aspirated engine that lives under the bonnet of our tester churns out a seemingly meaty 209 kW and 347 Nm. While it was enough for the Jeep to go about its business of driving, in a reasonably spirited manner, I might add, it is in fact an old and unrefined engine compared to today’s standard. It’s also not efficient. With careful driving, I couldn’t muster a figure of less than 10 litres per 100 km.

The powertrain is extremely characterful, though, mated to an 8-speed automatic gearbox breezing through the cogs with a creamy soundtrack that makes you feel that all is just right in the world. We’re now stumbling onto what I think the whole point of a Wrangler is.

It also doesn’t handle as well with a considerable amount of tramlining that is present at highway speeds and while tweaking the tyre pressures helped, the characteristic light-feeling rear-end that is so ever-present on short-wheelbase offroaders reared its head.

JEEP LIFE

But that is all fine. See, the Jeep is a cult-classic kind of vehicle. You expect these character flaws because Jeep is, with every generation of the Wrangler, sticking to the recipe that made it great in the first place while naturally adding modern features as well.

Take the shape: while it’s iconic, and a culprit in the double-digit fuel-economy department thanks to the square design, it also serves as a means of allowing the Jeep to do what it does best – off-roading.

If you’ve never taken a Jeep off the beaten track, let me reassure you, it’s one capable vehicle in big part thanks to its 37.4-degree approach angle, 30.5-degree departure angle and an impressive break-over angle of 26.2 degrees thanks to that short-wheelbase. And let’s not forget wheel articulation that helps keep tractability over just about any terrain. All of this, however, is just scratching the surface of what a Wrangler, even the Sahara, is capable of.

LAST WORD

While I would love to elaborate on some of its other technical abilities like the 2-speed transfer case that’s available with full-time all-wheel drive and a crawl gear with a ratio of 2.72:1, I am, unfortunately, running out of allocated space.

My verdict, however, is that the Jeep Wrangler Sahara SWB is quite the flawed and unergonomic vehicle. But and I’m sure many a Wrangler owner will agree with me, you wouldn’t want it any other way. You want to give it a special spot in your garage and give it a name and think of it as a family member. It is just so special that I daresay it has personality. So much so that I am, once again, trawling pre-owned sections looking for one. I just haven’t figured out the fuel situation, yet.