Jeep Wrangler: Unlimited Fun

This is not an SUV for the shopping mall. This is a serious 4x4 for serious off-roading

by Thane Peterson

Editor's Rating:

The Good: Old-school looks, off-road capability, four doors

The Bad: Doubts about quality, clunky removable top, poor gas mileage, sluggish acceleration

The Bottom Line: You've gotta love a four-door Wrangler, despite its inconveniences

Reader Reviews

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Up Front

Jeep's four-door Wrangler Unlimited is a real pain. It's slow, noisy, and guzzles gas. The old-fashioned upright windshield attracts more bugs than Internet Explorer, and the spare tire, which is mounted on the rear of the vehicle, limits visibility through the back window, making parking a chore. Then there's the removable soft top. I spent several hours trying to master the one on the Sahara Unlimited I test-drove and never did get it up or down in less than 15 minutes.

Who would want one of these things, anyway?

I would. I love this vehicle for its old-school look and feel, from the exposed hinges on the doors and macho front and rear tow hooks to the classic Jeep grille and round headlights. I like the feeling of solidity and the go-anywhere confidence its off-road capabilities give you. The Wrangler Unlimited not only has available four-wheel drive but also has 10 inches of ground clearance—an inch more than General Motors' (GM) Hummer H3 and almost two inches more than the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

I'm not the only one who likes the Wrangler. Sales are booming, largely because of the success of the Unlimited (BusinessWeek, 6/19/07). In a terrible market for traditional SUVs, overall U.S. Wrangler sales soared 71%, to 83,904 units, in the first eight months of this year.

The Wrangler—which was redesigned for the '07 model year and is being carried over as an '08 with almost no changes—was Jeep's top-selling model during the period, eclipsing the faltering Grand Cherokee by a slight margin, and helping propel Jeep to an overall 10% increase in sales. In fact, one of the big negatives about the Wrangler is that it has been in short supply all year, so you may have to wait to get your hands on one.

The Wrangler appeals mainly to relatively young males. The average Wrangler buyer is only 41 or 42, according to the Power Information Network (PIN), about the same age as buyers of such youth-oriented vehicles as the Nissan (NSANY) Xterra, Toyota (TM) FJ Cruiser, and Scion tC. Less than one-third of the Wrangler's buyers are women, PIN says.

The big innovation of the Unlimited is that it has four doors and is longer and roomier than the regular Wrangler. The Unlimited comes in three trim levels. The basic Unlimited X starts at $21,190 with rear-wheel drive and $23,190 with all-wheel drive. Next up the food chain is the Sahara Unlimited, which starts at $25,565 with rear-wheel drive and $27,565 with four-wheel drive. The Rubicon, which has extra off-road capabilities, starts at $27,355 to $29,900.

All versions of the Wrangler Unlimited are powered by a 3.8 liter, 202-horsepower V6 engine. There's a choice of a four-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed stick shift.

Relatively few options are available. A real bargain is the $1,590 navigation/entertainment system, which includes a 20GB hard drive, a CD player with MP3 capability, and Sirius satellite radio with one year's free service. A three-piece hardtop to augment the removable soft top goes for $690, supplemental side airbags for $490, and a trailer-towing package for $220 to $270.

Standard safety gear includes stability control, antilock brakes with braking assist, seat belt pretensioners, a rollover prevention system, dual-stage front airbags, and seat-mounted side airbags. In addition to the rollover prevention system, there's quite a bit of protection against head injuries, including a pillar over the windshield, and roof, side-rail, and rear-window headers further back in the cabin.

That's a good thing because, while the '07 Wrangler Unlimited earned a top, five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in frontal crash tests, it only earned three stars in rollover tests.