2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport Review

This is the all-new 2018 jeep wrangler how can i be so sure well that’s what they told me when i picked it up no but in all seriousness this thing is very very different than the previous wrangler but oh so familiar at the same time if you care to find out what i’m going on about hang on over the next few minutes and i’ll try and break it down for you i know it’s

Kind of hard to believe that this is an all-new jeep wrangler what i’m telling you that it is obviously being a wrangler certain things cannot change now if you want to look like your smart ass and you want to point out to your friends the new wrangler there are a few subtle hints the integrated turn signals in the flares are one which actually nicely frees up the

Front grille which somehow looks amazing on this there are different colors other subtle differences new wheels there’s door handles some of the cutouts and the rear tail lights which are now much much better integrated into the body style one thing that always blows my mind when it comes to jeep wranglers is how expensive they have become and your base is two-door

Soft top wrangler retails for just over 36,000 dollars that’s right the base jeep wrangler this is at an unlimited sports actually i was a two-door sports re an unlimited sport this one starts at forty four thousand dollars obviously my truck has a number of options including these wheels it has a cold weather package i’ll show you a few of the highlights of that

Tech group which includes car play it sirius xm can you guess what the final tally is of my cool and cold basic jeep ram $49,000 the 3.6 liter v6 and an 8-speed automatic so let’s go and has a soft top oh yeah and if you want the dual top option which i would strongly recommend it’s $2,400 more do it access to the trunk see these are some of the compromises that

I just do not get when it comes to jeeps all right so remove this it can’t be done but fitting the but i don’t know whatever access to the trunk is fairly limited but there’s a fair amount of room once you get to it ish oh yeah finally oh why not okay so yeah that’s that the back seats construction area you can tell now this is actually fairly roomy now getting

Into no it’s obviously it’s a wrangler to bid seating position is upright because it’s a soft top it has a lot of headroom not that you can really see what i’m showing you but there is room three across here it’s not too too bad now with my driving position look that’s a lot of legroom you can also slide your feet on there this is not the most comfortable like your

Upper shoulder is not support it actually ends up as well as the arm right in the hole in between i don’t know that’s it but it’s a jeep wrangler this is what comes with the territory up front now this is high-end cloth seats you see these are your standard seats i’m gonna start her up yeah look at that now this my friends is high-end for a jeep it’s actually quite

Insane that’s part of the climate package steering wheel which is really nice the buttons finish everything is far more civilized far more luxurious i mean you can’t do that much with such an up rights narrow – right but jeep designers actually managed to do something really really nice i mean this is high hints compare this to a jk or l or a yj forget about it

Your gauges iot pms yes yes i know i know so yeah all kinds of measurements this is a lovely screen the graphics are actually really quite nice if you’re gonna focus for me please there we go david bowie right now you can select your media climate controls which have a redundant buttons down here this is obviously you connect from fc a so everything is accessible

Easy to use very straightforward it’s very very nice storage is limited there my gloves which i’m surely going to forget sooner rather than later if you’ll focus there you go and a huge bin here which is quite useful it’s actually refined if you look on the inside right it’s easy to believe that’s just one of the tricks of anna wrangler the other one we all do know

That the jeep wrangler is excessively popular and for this generation of the jeep the jl g decided to make it even more interesting for those that thought at one point that maybe they’d like a wrangler but they just could not deal with getting a permanent membership with a chiropractor now what i’m trying to say is that the new 2018 jeep is far more refined than

All of the previous generations but and obviously this remains a jeep wrangler that the drive is completely different from the previous trucks yet extremely familiar and what i’m trying to say by that is yes i mean okay so it still has dana axles right it’s still very hardcore it’s got ten inches of ground clearance it’s not comfortable but it has become civilized

Enough that it can be driven by those that are not really g people but want an authentic jeep experience so what that means is that with a new chassis eating the suspension configuration the ride is actually a little bit more comfortable a little bit it varies obviously depending on the road condition right if the road is a little bit bumpy then you kind of forget

That this is new and it’s real because it only really feels like it’s old but on a nicer smoother surface like on the highway it actually drives like a typical crossover swear to god powertrain wise my sport has the 3.6 liter v6 which puts out 285 horsepower 260 pound feet of torque it’s got the 8-speed automatic transmission and obviously the two-speed transfer

Case and everything that makes wrangler a wrangler power wise the v6 is actually really nice but that turbocharged 2-liter engine with the by default eight speed automatic transmission transforms this into i don’t want to say a rocket right keeping in mind that this is a wrangler right but the driving experience is completely different i was at the launch we were

In arizona so everything is kind of very smooth and relaxed and i found myself dipping into the throttle all the time the 3.6 is a beautiful engine if anything is the reliable wise choice fuel wise it’s not that much worse than what it says on paper the 2-liter will be in the ends quite happy with the wrangler this has never happened in 20 years of test driving

Wranglers this is the first time that i’m actually into it the sole issue and i kind of touched on it is the freakin soft top now call me lazy call me what you will there’s some but at two degrees celsius it’s too freakin cold to try this to take the soft-top apart and figure out where what lines up with once in order to get rid of that annoying wind noise that’s

Me i would opt for the dual top option and probably just always use the hardtop dollies but yeah i’m getting onto the highway and i’m gonna have to start talking a little bit louder because of the wind intrusion what the 3.6 when the tour comes in it somewhere just shy of 5,000 rpm i think it’s 4800 but it really it’s good it’s really really good this is not you

Know a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder wrangler from 20s someone more than 20 years ago this is the first wrangler you can actually daily drive without suffering again no need for a visit to your local chiropractor every other day in order to keep your spine straight and everything else okay driving position is actually decent visibility is really good everything is upright

I could live with this without the soft-top and i’d probably up through three point six just to be safe unless i’m thinking shorter term and extended warranty with a 2 liter turbo and obviously when the end of the world comes for long drop atop this will be freaking hot and enjoy whatever remains of our days

Transcribed from video
2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport Review By Motor Illustrated