Jeep Wrangler 75th Anniversary 2016 Review

Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 75th Anniversary edition
Australian Launch Review
Flinders Ranges, SA

There is only one Jeep that is a true successor to the 1941 Willys, and that is the Wrangler. The four-door Wrangler Unlimited 75th Anniversary edition brings some birthday bling and a (minor) improvement to the Wrangler’s already formidable off-road strengths. The birthday Jeep adds $1500 to the Overland on which it’s based, making it a $55,000 (plus ORCs) proposition.

About 20 years ago, a dreadful thing started happening to 4WDs in Australia. Buyers began to eschew their passenger cars for 4WDs, but soon were bitterly complaining about their slow, rough-riding, sloppy-handling trucks.

Manufacturers listened. Over subsequent years, more and more tall wagons plopped into showrooms that suited the trendy city families but were useless in the rough stuff. These new sleek tallboy cars had no low-range and many didn’t even have 4WD. Blasphemy!

Just as 4WD enthusiasts began crying into their beers, thinking life would never be the same, their abject howls soon slowed to a sniffle. They realised that companies like Jeep still built real 4WDs, ones you could fling into the Outback without leaving half their underpinnings scattered on the road behind them, that could go off-road without getting bogged in the first pothole.

The JK Wrangler is that Jeep, the sole offering that pays homage to the first Jeep built for the US military 75 years ago.

The Wrangler has the gear no right-thinking 4WDer would do without: a seperate, box-section steel chassis with a body bolted on top, live axles (front and rear, thank you very much), proper steel-plate underbody protection and a dual-range gearbox.

There is a God, and on the seventh day He made Jeep (and Toyota, but Land Rover and Nissan went to hell, as far as 4WDers are concerned, when the Defender and Y61 Patrol were given the chop this year).

When you add the Wrangler’s square-jawed military look, its practical tailgate-mounted spare, tyres that are half-decent OE boots for off-roading and a fair-dinkum, off-the-shelf rock crawler with the Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, well, life couldn’t look any rosier.

This 75th Anniversary edition Wrangler (based on the Overland) doesn’t add a lot to improve this model’s off-road cred -- it has the Rubicon’s rock sliders that stop sill damage but misses out on the steel front and rear bars of the 75th model the Americans get.

It also has a few more baubles to let everyone know this is a limited-edition (you can read the details here), like satin bronze-painted bits here and there and smaller-diameter wheels (from the Overland’s 18-inch wheels to 17-inch) and a ‘75th Anniversary edition’  badge slapped everywhere just in case you forget what it is.

Compared to almost any passenger car, the Jeep feels crude on the road. Punting the Wrangler along on tarmac, the first thing you notice is the ride. The unsprung mass of live axles will never let you hit a bump without informing you of the precise details.

Steering is vague on centre and lacks feel once you tip into a corner. Which you won’t dare to do with much speed because the the Wrangler develops quite a lean and its tyres don’t have a lot of grip on the hotmix. The Jeep’s main talent lies in understeer, copious amounts of it.

Around town you’re faced with a vehicle that’s not the easiest to see out of (thick roof pillars look cool and help roof rigidity, but make seeing out hard) and at 13.1m, the turning circle is huge.

But all is forgiven when you go bush, as we did in the harsh conditions of the Flinders Ranges. That numb steering on the road becomes your best friend off-road, absorbing some steering kick as the Jeep thumps over uneven, rocky terrain.

Sure, the ride quality isn’t quality at all, and the Wrangler goes skipping over corrugations, but at least the suspension will take the pounding of rough dirt roads without complaint. In fact, the 17-inch tyres are better at absorbing bumps than the 18-inch wheels on the Overland.

That’s within reason, of course. If you’re planning to take a Wrangler on an Outback expedition, as with any stock-standard 4WD you’d have to invest in better tyres and aftermarket suspension at the very least. You don’t want to come home to confess to your better half, “Honey, I broke a Jeep”.

The 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 is smooth, has plenty of torque and a keen willingness to rev to its 6400rpm redline. The engine does get noisy under load at around 4500rpm -- although it sounds great, with its guttural V6 thrum -- and has plenty of get-up and go.

The five-speed auto is becoming dated in a world where even the Wrangler’s sibling the Grand Cherokee uses the same Pentastar engine hooked up to an eight-speed automatic. However, shifts are mostly smooth and ratios seem well-chosen for the Wrangler.

The cabin exudes military chic. It has a utilitarian and ready-for-battle appearance at first glance, with basic, thin doors retained by a simple strap (which lack any holding mechanism to help keep the door open) and inner-door painted bits obvious throughout the cabin. Yet the leather seats, chrome embellishments, large touch-screen and other premium touches soon dissolve any thoughts that this is anything but a luxury 4WD.

The seats lack much side support but still do a good job of keeping you comfortable on a long trip. While some competitor’s hard points were conceived decades ago -- making their shortcomings really obvious now, such as squeezing you up against the door or placing a knee against the dash -- the Wrangler is relatively fresh and so doesn’t suffer such compromises.

That doesn’t mean its design is flawless. Access to the cargo space is by a side-opening lower tailgate, which has to be opened before the glass upper tailgate can be raised (because the tailgate mounted spare gets in the way of the upper tailgate). Too bad if you need gear you’ve piled on top of a full load: you’ll have to grab it from inside.

The Wrangler Unlimited isn’t the best city car or on-road vehicle, but driving the 75th Anniversary edition in the Flinders showed where the Jeep really excels — it is one of the best, off-the-shelf offroad-capable 4WDs money can buy.

2016 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 75th Anniversary edition prices and specs:
Price: $55,000 plus on-road costs
Engine: 3.6-litre V6 petrol
Output: 209kW/347Nm
Transmission: Five-speed automatic
Fuel: 11.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 273g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Four-star ANCAP

Also consider:
>> Nissan Patrol ST (from $57,390 plus ORCs)
>> Toyota LandCruiser Wagon Workmate (from 57,990 plus ORCs)