OK, this really comes as a surprise to no one, least of which my very understanding wife of 8+ years. From the day I first read about the plans for a 4-door Wrangler, which was about the time said wife starting hinting heavily towards kids, I figured the folks at Jeep had an ace up their sleeve and I would eventually succumb to their keen marketing ploys. To be quite honest, I am proud of myself for holding out this long
Let me start by saying this is NOT the Jeep that you grew up with. It’s not the Jeep your folks crammed a weekends worth of gear into, with stuff hanging everywhere and every available square inch overstuffed. It’s not the Jeep you pulled stumps with around the farm. It’s not the Jeep you pretended was a Baja racer after a night with the guys. It’s not the Jeep you cursed for leaving you smelling like a tar pit when you decided to take your girl to Prom in it. I can confidently tell you this because I’ve had all those Jeeps, and this simply is NOT one of those… Even right up to the ’03 Rubi we’ve enjoyed over the last year or so, I could see, feel, even almost smell the true Jeep lineage. This thing is such a deviation from all that, it is truly remarkable that it even bears the same nameplate. It rides as well as my wife’s Yukon, and has just as many electronic gizmos. The stereo and HVAC switchgear feel like nothing a Jeep should ever feel like. At least not what I thought a Jeep should feel like. Long story short, yes, this is the soccermom-mobile of Wranglers, and only time will tell if it has the underpinnings to make it truly dual purpose vehicle.
Dual purpose? Yes… I sold my soul, err, F-350 as part of the agreement with the wife. So, that means I will now rejoin the ranks of those without a dedicated tow rig (motorhome notwithstanding
). I’ve had a few conversations recently with some friends/family about getting back to simpler times, and consolidating my vehicular fleet is a step in that direction. This will force my thought process on the buildup in directions I haven’t explored in a while, which should be fun.
On that note, some of you may wonder why we didn’t opt for a Rubicon model right out of the box. Well, the truth of the matter is, I felt like this particular rig was too good of a deal to pass up. With the money we saved on the purchase, we could buy all the Rubi parts straight from Mopar and still be well under what a comparable Rubi is on the market for. And we all know there are WAY better deals to be had than marching down to the Mopar stealership, so we’ll see what comes about. The reality is, we only wheeled about 8 weekends last year, and with the exception of a couple trails on our Colorado extravaganza, there was nothing we encountered that required “Rubicon levelâ€
The trail rated badge is very nice. Could you step back about 30 feet and take another picture? 