The tough get going
Frederic Manby looks back on his adventures off road as he tries out the latest offering from the original wartime workhorse the Jeep Wrangler Rubico and a very noisy accessory on the roof.
THERE is an elephant in the picture, that black thing on the roof fitted to the Jeep Press car. It opens out in three directions to make a tent and sleeping bed. With a support rack on stout outer front bars and rear interior stays it costs several thousand pounds. At anything above urban speeds it was noisily buffeted to the wind. Then at round 50, depending on the road surface, the heavy breathing on top was joined and eventually drowned by the droning racket from the Goodrich Tyre Quartet down below.
At another time I may have tried the roof bed but there was a Victorian villa booked for a long weekend in Eskdale.
In the vernacular of car reviews, the Wrangler swallowed up four bags of logs – never enough logs in these places and this one had three stoves. Plus food basics and drinks to suit the diets of eight people for three nights, clothes and so on.
On the journey across the North York Moors the Wrangler was nudging 23 miles a gallon of petrol. This matches the official rating but 18mpg was possible in local stop/start shopping in Whitby for more food. It was over-engineered for these everyday errands, as are most over-sized SUVs such as the Defender and the new-kid Grenadier.
Jeep is now part of the Stellantis super group. It makes the Wrangler in Ohio. The 2-litre 268hp petrol turbo engine is made by Fiat in Italy and works through an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox,
This story started in the 1940s with the tough go-anywhere wartime vehicle used by the American forces to do battle with the enemy. The crude general purpose land car was known as the GP – hence a jeep. It was the inspiration for the 1948 Land Rover, now gone way upmarket.
Happily you can still get a direct descendant of the jeep, now trademarked as Jeep, though cheap it isn’t. This 71-plate Wrangler was £55,800 a few years ago. Its 2024 replacement costs another £7,000.
I have enjoyed many adventures in Jeeps and their rivals. In the real thing I explored the jungles of northern Thailand, drove to hard-core rock crawling in Australia’s Northern Territory in the Wrangler and trekked through the arid Red Centre in a Cherokee.
I already knew that the Wrangler could drive through terrain which was too arduous to walk in. The Rubicon Trail is a 19th century gold rush route stretching 22 miles from Lake Tahoe in Nevada into California through the Sierra Nevada, The really, really tough trail section lasts for 12 miles. Jeep has the right to use it for testing and development.
I was in the shorter two-door Wrangler. The white hulk you see here is the longer fourdoor. I am sure it would manage the Rubicon. It bears its name and a trail-rated badge and sturdy rock rails below the doors to resist damage from boulders.
The road clearance is lofty. It has gorgeous machined alloy 17in wheels carrying deep walled 255/75 Goodrich Baja Champion mud terrain tyres with triple reinforced sides. These reference the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, another playground for 4x4s and dirt bikes.
The Rubicon model has a sway (anti-roll) bar which can be uncoupled by an electric switch to give longer vertical wheel movement to maintain contact in lopsided terrain. This adds to the locking differentials and low ratio gear settings of the slightly less focussed and slightly cheaper Latitude version which has more 4x4 ability than most of us will ever need.
The photographs tell the exterior story – the famous slatted air grille, the narrow cabin and deformable plastic arches, the exterior bonnet release catches and the top pad if you want to fold the screen flat.
The rear door carrying the heavy full-size spare lacked a stay to keep it open on a slope to the left. The window lifts up on its own when the lower door is open.
‘Driving it is remarkably easy when you tune in to the slow steering geared for off-roading.’
Getting up and in is helped by grab handles in the doorways. Side steps would help.
There are lots of storage options including nets on all doors, a tray on the fascia top, locker in the fascia and so on. The centre rear headrest makes a cupholder when the seat is folded.
Driving it is remarkably easy when you tune in to the slow steering geared for off-roading. It is not as lazy as that on the Ineos Grenadier. No doubt Jeep would like the Wrangler to match its sales figures. There is an update this summer.
The cramped footwell for the driver will persist, hampered by the wide transmission tunnel. The left-hand-drive Wrangler does not suffer and the stubby lever for the high and low 4x4 selection needs less of a reach. It offers rear wheel drive and all-wheel-drive in high and low ratios.
Talking points in the Camshaft Arms include the images of wartime jeep on the windscreen, the steering wheel and the wheel rims. Just a reminder that you are in a legendary trailblazer for the whole SUV thing.
The Rubicon was judged best family SUV for off-roading in the 2024 What Car? awards.
They said: “It proved nigh on unstoppable, driving up, over and through the toughest obstacles we could find with ease and outperforming all its rivals.
“It’s an off-roader that really can go pretty much anywhere.”