Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4dr range
Prices: £20,100-£23,100 - on the road
Insurance Group: 10E
Emissions: 227g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 10.9s / Max Speed 112mph
Fuel Consumption: (urban) 22.2mpg / (extra urban) 34mpg /(combined) 28.5mpg
Safety: twin front airbags, ABS, ESP with rollover mitigation
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4223/1873/1800

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES

Our Rating: 6.1 / 10

Jeep’s Wrangler Unlimited has a style all its own but could it offer realistic family day-to-day transport? Jonathan Crouch decides

Bigger, better built, with a far better ride and a diesel engine option at last, the Jeep Wrangler is now something more than a novelty plaything. True, it’s still hardly the most practical 4x4 unless your idea of practicality is wallowing in mud but it’s now usable in Surbiton as well as across the Serengeti. And if you’re prepared to put up with a slightly utilitarian feel, it’ll reward you with a unique character all of its own.

Back in 1938, the US government’s original brief for a ‘light reconnaissance vehicle’ resulted in the development of the Willys Jeep, and the subsequent production of 368,000 of them for use during World War 2. General George C Marshall described it as "America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare". The spiritual successor to the Willys Jeep is today’s Jeep Wrangler.

Much separates the two designs of course. What’s ideal for a theatre of war doesn’t necessarily work for a family trip to the cinema and over the years, through CJ, YJ and TJ Wrangler models, as different company owners have come and gone, Jeep designers have struggled with the need to develop this icon without losing its distinct appeal. Their biggest challenge came with this ‘JK’ version, launched in 2007 with the need to justify its existence in a modern 4x4 market that claims to have an answer to every need. Jeep’s response was offer two Wrangler ‘firsts’: five doors and diesel power.

Previous Wranglers never had to be very good on road. As long as they didn’t shake your fillings out on the way to your surf shack, all would be forgiven once you set a tyre on the rough stuff. But Marlboro men are in short supply these days and to keep this car in customers, Jeep had to appeal beyond those who might use their cars as weekend mountain playthings.

So they started again with the chassis for this car – it’s now 100% stiffer, so the whole thing doesn’t bounce about so much on country roads. Extra torsional rigidity and an upgraded five-link suspension system help too. Don’t get me wrong, this is no RAV4 but it works a great deal better on the tarmac than something like the Toyota does on the mud. Even more important is the 174bhp 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine fitted to virtually all UK Wranglers, though a 3.8-litre V6 petrol unit is also offered on the two-door version.

The diesel offers a hefty 410Nm of torque but the pulling power is available only in quite a narrow band between 2000 and 2600rpm, so you have to swap cogs around the 6-speed manual gearbox quite often to make full use of it. Body roll is not surprisingly greater than you’d find in a ‘school run’ 4x4 but I was surprised to find that it’s now quite possible to cruise at 80mph and hold a civilised conversation. Cutting to the chase, yes, if you wanted to, you now could quite happily live with this as an only car.

But if you think that means this Jeep has gone soft for rough terrain work, then you’d be wrong. Switch from two to four wheel drive, make full use of the low range transfer case and you’ll find that it’s now even more capable thanks to greater ground clearance, improved approach and departure angles for steep slopes and a clever brake lock differential system that can slow down a spinning wheel to equalise torque across an axle and so boost traction just when you need it most. The only thing I’d change is this low-mounted rear numberplate, which can be quickly dislodged by proper mud-plugging.

This is unmistakably a Jeep Wrangler. Iconic features like the seven-bar grille, the fold-flat windscreen and the removable doors are all present and correct and the two-door short wheelbase model should do little to upset diehard enthusiasts. Sales growth though has come from this four-door Unlimited version, a car that looks something like a mi