It can go almost anywhere and do almost anything…. but going topless can be..ummm… interesting. Grant Winter takes us on a Real World Test Drive:
Chief has been around since 1941 but even the official chrysler website which owns the jeep name isn’t exactly sure what the word jeep means the company was called willys-overland at the time the first model was created at the dawn of the second world war they’re not sure if jeep is just a way to pronounce gp meaning general purpose or if it was named after a
Popular cartoon character from the 1930s named eugene the jeep he was a friend of popeye and only appeared when popeye needed jeeps special talents either way jeep and its 7 slotted grille have become almost a synonym for tough off-road vehicles with special talents i have a feeling that if the trademark lawyers for jeep hadn’t been vigilant the term suv never
Would have existed they would all just been called jeeps in this case the jeep were talking about is the 2010 wrangler unlimited rubicon 4×4 the unlimited part means that it has four doors a lot of people know the wrangler as a two-door and i think now that we’ve added the four-door where you have plenty of room you can take the family along lisa barrow is a north
East spokesperson for chrysler mg these doors are really cool because these doors have the electric windows the up and down and yet you can unplug the door as well as lift them out of the hinges and take them off so when you’re going off-roading you can do it as the doors off windshield down doors off top off i mean truly outdoor feeling well it may be simple
To lift off the doors and fold down the windshield taking off and putting on the winter top is another story luckily you only have to do it in the spring and fall and i mean you in the broadest sense i went inside and took a nap while the photographer and pa in their 20s wrangle the hardtop off the wrangler once the hardtop is stored wherever you can manage the
Story the soft top is well let’s just say it is you have to do some type of fan dance to open and close it here’s a clip from the video that comes with the owner’s manual now finish unzipping the rear window completely from the passenger-side make sure you store it where it won’t get scratched or dirty not so tough so far a release the side bows by pressing down
On the latch above the front of the rear door push the top rearward to disengage again that extra pair of hands will help slide the side bows off of the doorframe track and lower the top down into the back of the vehicle as you’re lowering the top make sure you’re tucking the material inside the vehicle neatly now eventually you’ll have to put the soft top back
Up so let’s go over that procedure still have that extra pair of hands good first undo the sunrider strap securing the top working from the rear with a tailgate open grasp the folded side bows and lift to the top don’t get me wrong the jeep wrangler is a lot of fun with the top down and it’s a lot of fun with a hardtop on its the cocoon to butterfly stage that’s
Not pretty but this isn’t a vehicle for the mani-pedi set it’s more for the manly peddling set as in mountain biking and doing other things that require helmets and sunscreen from the mad max tires to the manual shift for two-wheel to four-wheel hide a four-wheel low the rubicon is a serious off-road er this is a place to put your blackberry but this is also the
Type of vehicle that you want to drive until you’re out of blackberry range it’s actually this actually means something it’s not just decoration that means that this is actually a very capable vehicle absolutely it has to go through a certain test in order to get the trail rated badge it may have to go through a deep body of water successfully or you know climb
Like a you know a large mountain in order to get that badge maneuverability things like that so it’s like a merit badge for a vehicle yes actually yeah you’re right this is the only four-door convertible i know of and there’s a law that says you have to have beats out with you at all times but seriously four-door convertible $35,000 loaded with a lot of fun stuff
And the only other convertibles that i know of that have either all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive or the audi quattro and the bentley so the relative steal it even has an electronic switch that turns off the sway bars which is apparently something you might want to do when you aren’t planning on seeing pavement for a while the wrangler also has an optional i pod
Interface satellite radio and a navigation system that includes a breadcrumbs feature breadcrumbs are so that you can leave an electronic trail behind so even if the road or path is unmapped on the gps you and gretel can get back home speaking of getting back home never go off-roading without letting someone know where you’re going and when you expect to be back
You know whenever you go off-roading you should always go with someone so in case the other person and another manufacturer you go get stuck you can pull it out plus you are less likely to need to do that whole uruguayan rugby team playing crash in the andes thing the 3.8 liter v6 generates 202 horsepower and the zero 60 time of about 10 seconds but this vehicle
Has meant more for pikes peak than the new jersey turnpike the rubicon gets 15 miles per gallon in the city and 19 on the highway it has power steering and brakes so even though you might be doing some serious off-roading you don’t need serious muscles to do it the jeep wrangler unlimited rubicon 4×4 starts at about 32,000 dollars with the hardtop satellite radio
Including the serious traffic the navigation system and everything else the prices tested came out to be about $36,000 on ground winter reporting
Transcribed from video
Real World Test Drive 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon By Grant Winter