Jeep Wrangler 2024 Review

Going against the industry-wide tide of increasing prices almost across the board, the upgraded 2024 Jeep Wrangler line-up costs less than the model it replaces, at least at base level.

First revealed in the US in April 2023 and now in Aussie showrooms, the four-grade MY24 Wrangler range is priced from $75,950 plus on-road costs in entry-level Sport S form, marking a $5500 reduction from the Night Eagle it replaces.

Jeep Australia has also lowered the asking price of the mid-range Overland by $2000, which now starts from $84,950 plus ORCs, while the two Rubicon hero grades maintain their current $83,950 (two-door) and $90,450 (four-door) starting prices.

The base Sport S and more luxurious Overland grades are four-door only and the hard-core Rubicon flagship is the only variant available in both four-door and more traditional two-door form.

Rubicons account for half of all Wrangler sales, with the two-door remaining very niche at 10-15 per cent.

Despite lower prices for the bottom half of the line-up, the 2024 Jeep Wrangler brings more standard equipment across the board.

Billed as the world’s most capable and iconic off-roader, the Wrangler has few rivals – including the GWM Tank 500, INEOS Grenadier and Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series wagon – and continues to offer a pair of variant-specific switchable 4x4 systems with low- and high-range transmission ratios.

Sport S and Overland grades come with Jeep’s Selec-Trac active on-demand 4x4 system with automatic 2WD/4WD selection based on conditions, while Rubicon variants are fitted as standard with the Rock-Trac 4x4 system offering a shorter 4:1 low-gear ratio, 77.2:1 crawl ratio, Tru-Lok electronic differential locks both front and rear, and an electronic front swaybar disconnect system.

There’s still no diesel engine or manual transmission, but all MY24 vehicles bring a revised seven-slot grille with shorter and wider openings, new wheel designs and a ‘Gorilla Glass’ windscreen with integrated radio antenna (to replace the awkward old aerial mast), alongside a host of variant-specific additions.

The base Sport S gains LED ambient interior lighting, heated front seats/steering wheel, a 240-amp alternator, fabric dash panel, automatic high beam, heavy-duty rock sliders with side steps and 17-inch machined alloy wheels with Nexen Roadian AT tyres.

Other standard features include LED exterior lighting, push-button start, remote proximity keyless entry, remote start system, security alarm, deep-tint sunscreen window glass, soft spare wheel cover and a headliner for the three-piece removable hard-top. (The windscreen and doors also remain removable but doing the latter is illegal on Aussie roads.)

In addition, the Overland grade scores the Rubicon’s DANA M220 rear axle (up from M200 in the Sport S) with limited-slip diff, heavy-duty suspension, 18-inch machined/painted grey alloys, black side mirrors, body-coloured hard-top, body-coloured fender flares, platinum silver grille accents, premium-wrapped instrument bezels, leather-clad gear shifter and (still manual) handbrake, and McKinley premium-trimmed seats with Jeep logo, hard seatback panels and 12-way power adjustment.

At the top of the Wrangler tree, Rubicon variants score ‘performance’ suspension, Off-Road+ mode, programmable auxiliary switch bank, a premium dash panel, forward-facing TrailCam, Nappa leather upholstery, powered front seats (driver-only in the two-door), acoustic laminated front door glass and 17-inch machined/painted black alloys with 32-inch off-road tyres and selectable tyre pressure alert.

At the rear, Rubicons are fitted exclusively with a heavy-duty DANA 44 full-float rear axle, which separates the wheel hub assembly from the axle shaft, improving weight distribution, improving lateral-force camber compliance and facilitating tyre upsizing.

Otherwise, the rugged underpinnings remain the same, including the ladder-frame chassis with solid axles at both ends, four skid plates and five-link front/rear suspension with high-strength steel upper and lower control arms and full-width track bars.

The Sky-One-Touch Power Top is a $6450 option for Overland and Rubicon four-doors, alongside a $950 18-inch alloy wheel option for the Overland and a range of premium exterior paint colours (the only standard hue is Bright White), each costing an extra $1490.

They include Black, Granite Crystal, Sarge (green), Firecracker Red, Hydro Blue, Silver Zynith, High Velocity (yellow), Earl (light blue), Anvil (grey) and the new Tuscadero (pink) from March production.

There’s also a Sunrider sunroof available and genuine Mopar accessories include a steel front bumper for $3290 (fitted) and an LED light bar for a cool $4189.

The Wrangler is covered by Jeep Australia’s five-year/100,000km warranty and lifetime roadside assistance (if serviced at a Jeep dealer). Service intervals remain 12-month/12,000km, with each service costing $399 in the first five years.

There’s no change to the sub-standard three-star ANCAP safety rating awarded to the JL Wrangler when it was new in 2019, under less strict testing and scoring protocols than today.

But the 2024 Jeep Wrangler does now add full-length side curtain airbags (mounted in the roof rails) for all vehicles and a rear seatbelt reminder for all four-door models, but not the Rubicon two-door, which has only two rear seats.

This in addition to twin front and front-side airbags (but there’s still no centre front airbag to avoid head-clash in a side collision) and a full complement of active driver aids including full-speed Forward Collision Warning Plus, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, blind spot monitor and rear cross path detection, a reversing camera and front/rear parking sensors.

Naturally, all Wranglers also come with electronic stability/traction control, anti-lock brakes and hill start assist, plus trailer sway control, electronic roll mitigation, cruise control and Selec-Speed Control.

The 2024 Jeep Wrangler’s biggest tech upgrade is reserved for a larger and more advanced new multimedia system incorporating a 12.3-inch central touch-screen running the latest Uconnect 5 infotainment operating system.

It comes as standard with satellite navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, a nine-speaker Alpine Premium sound system with subwoofer, DAB+ digital radio, USB/aux media hub and a USB port.

There’s a customisable home screen for quick access to frequently used features and one-touch operation, simultaneous connectivity for two Bluetooth-enabled devices, five user profiles and a valet mode with customisable music preferences, apps, seat position, mirror angles and climate control settings.

It also displays images captured by the Rubicon’s TrailCam, which is mounted on top of the Jeep grille, features an automatic washing system to ensure clear visibility and eliminates close-proximity blind spots off-road and in tight turns.

There’s a 7.0-inch driver information display too, but no electric parking brake, traffic sign recognition, real-time traffic updates or head-up display.

The biggest mechanical upgrade for the 2024 Jeep Wrangler is ditching of the gruff old 3.6-litre Pentastar petrol V6 in favour of a smaller new 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine.

The new force-fed four offers slightly less power than the outgoing V6 (200kW versus 209kW) but brings a healthy increase in torque (400Nm versus 347Nm) and, more importantly, a far wider and more useful spread of torque.

Still matched as standard to an eight-speed automatic transmission with two-speed transfer case in all variants, the long-stroke 1995cc DOHC turbo-four makes peak power at 5250rpm but delivers maximum torque from a lower and wider 3000-4500rpm range.

The Euro 6 emissions-compliant engine requires premium 95 RON unleaded petrol.

The downsized but turbocharged four-pot makes the 2024 Jeep Wrangler not only more refined and flexible to drive, but a little bit more efficient.

Combined ADR fuel consumption is now stated at 9.9L/100km and average CO2 emissions at 225g/km, which is slightly better than the 10.1L/100km and 235g/km figures of the old V6.

The new engine doesn’t have any effect on the Wrangler’s 750kg towing capacity – or 2495kg with a braked trailer, which shrinks to just 1497kg for the Rubicon 2dr.

The latter’s maximum tow ball download weight also falls from 250kg to just 150kg, but towing isn’t what the Wrangler ‘shortie’ is all about.

And while the new engine is lighter, the increased standard equipment cancels out much of its weight-saving, although payload is up by almost 200kg – to 431kg for the Rubicon two-door and 478kg for the four-door (and 551kg for the Sport S).

This is due to new kerb weights of 1973kg (Rubicon 2dr) and 2096kg (Rubicon 4dr), GVMs of 2404-2574kg and GCMs of 3751-4819kg.

In short, dramatically smoother, quieter and more flexible. Yes, the 2024 Jeep Wrangler takes a big step forward in terms of driveability, thanks to the new 2.0-litre turbo engine that’s vastly more refined and muscular than the old Pentastar V6.

It not only revs quickly, cleanly and without fuss to almost 6000rpm, but delivers more punch from just off idle and especially in the mid-range, which makes it more effortless to drive around town, on the open road and, most importantly, up a greasy fire trail.

On the road at the launch, we easily bettered the official sub-10L/100km fuel economy claim and the latest Wrangler felt quicker than the last JL V6 we drove, both from a standing start and under roll-on acceleration.

That’s no surprise since Jeep claims it hits 100km/h 0.6 seconds quicker than the model it replaces, in 7.4sec.

There’s no mistaking the Wrangler for anything other than a body-on-frame vehicle from behind the wheel, with mid-corner road obstacles inducing plenty of steering and suspension kickback.

And despite the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) improvements, there was still some pronounced wind, tyre and engine noise in the Rubicons we were limited to.

That said, the hard-core BFGoodrich KM2 Mud Terrain T/A rubber (not KO2 ATs as seen on the Ford Ranger Raptor) were quieter and grippier than expected – even on wet bitumen.

And the Rubicons we drove offered surprisingly civilised levels of ride comfort, cornering control and straight-line stability, unlike some other ladder-frame off-roaders like the Suzuki Jimny.

Can it ever. We first drove the new JL Wrangler at its Australian launch in mid-2019 and came away impressed at the ease with which it traversed the Climes track in Tasmania – a notoriously difficult trek littered with big rocks and even bigger bog holes – especially after an enormous rain event.

The 2024 Jeep Wrangler launch took in the newly-reopened Crystal Creek 4x4 park in northern NSW, which offered a very different – but equally boggy – off-road test, including hard-core hillclimbs up slippery clay tracks.

Yes, tyre pressures were dropped to 20psi, but nothing could stop any of the Rubicons scrambling, clawing and bouncing their way up all of them – even from a standing start when one of them ran out of momentum and required lots of wheelspin and steering work to get going again.

Of course, this is what the Wrangler is built for – especially the two-door, which may be less capable on snotty climbs like this than the four-door, but is better in almost all other off-road situations with a better rampover angle and tighter 10.0-metre (versus 11.6m) turning circle.

That said, all Rubicons offer a decent 760mm wading depth and a generous 255mm of ground clearance, and we’d never have made it up those hills without their front swaybar disconnect system and new Off-Road+ mode with Mud, Sand and Rock modes (in both 4L and 4H).

Apart from some more premium trim on the dash and seats, there’s not much new inside the 2024 Jeep Wrangler – except of course for the bigger, fancier infotainment interface, which Jeep claims now reacts five times faster to inputs than before.

It’s certainly more responsive, better presented, much easier to connect whatever smartphone you have and ticks all the boxes for features and functions.

But it doesn’t come at the expense of traditional Wrangler hallmarks like chunky controls, a lockable glove box and centre console, hose-out foot wells with drain plugs (only the INEOS Grenadier also has these) and, now, a handy Quadlock mount concealed in the dash top for securing GoPros and the like.

Yes, traditional Wrangler ergonomic bugbears like crook outward vision and window switches on the centre stack remain, and with no internal release – just a pair of external latches instead – any passerby can open your bonnet.

But in four-door guise the cabin offers plenty of occupant and cargo space – 897 litres, expanding to 2050L with the rear seats folded – and the Wrangler now has stops to prevent the doors swinging in the breeze when opened.

Only if you want to head off-road – otherwise what’s the point?

As described above, the 2024 Jeep Wrangler is one of the most capable off-roaders on the market but it does require you to make some concessions when it comes to user-friendliness, which makes it a chore to drive in traffic every day.

And you’ll pay for its off-road prowess, with a starting price that all but matches the new four-cylinder Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series, and Rubicon prices that remain unchanged from almost $84,000 before options and on-road costs.

But the cheapest Wrangler is now much more affordable than before – despite the improved refinement, driveability, efficiency and technology – and, given the hard-core off-road hardware that lies underneath, you couldn’t build a Rubicon yourself for less than what Jeep asks.

There’s no doubt the new engine, better infotainment system and host of worthwhile running changes make one of the world’s greatest off-roaders even better.

And so we celebrate what could well be the finest and most capable factory Wrangler ever produced, before it’s replaced by an all-electric successor.

2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 2dr at a glance:
Price: $83,950 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 200kW/400Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 9.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 225g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Three-star (ANCAP 2019)