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I am considering getting a Jeep Wrangler.
- Thread starter BigPrince
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Kind of like a Land Rover?
Yes, except land rovers can fit more than 2 people, drive in rain, snow, mud, etc and you could probably actually fit your backpack in it too.
Land Rover's are very functional vehicles. Not only do they look like nothing on the road, they are extremely useful off-road. While it's true few ever see anything besides pavement, if you ever need an SUV to back you up, it wil be there for you. BTW, Land Rover's are my least favorite motor vehicle.
But back on topic, the Wrangler's are neat little SUV's. However if you need something that is refined or has lots of utility, it isn't the vehicle for you. Was there another vehicle you were considering, or did you just want the Jeep?
But back on topic, the Wrangler's are neat little SUV's. However if you need something that is refined or has lots of utility, it isn't the vehicle for you. Was there another vehicle you were considering, or did you just want the Jeep?
i have a 94 wrangler and i love it. jeeps were my childhood dream car.. the rides a little bumpy but theyre fun. so easy to park too with their short wheel base.. but youre going for the four door so im not sure if that applies, jeeps are also extremely customizable with accessories and different things, so even though you feel that everyone has one, you can really individualize it. summers are so exciting with them too.. take off the top and take off the doors, every car ride is a new adventure. i always look forward to driving it.
My wife has one. LOVE it. What's your point?
Amen. Living in VA it was a colossal gas guzzler because we didn't need it but once we moved to Colorado I found out why so many people had Jeeps when it snowed hard the first time. I thought I was going to die trying to drive up the road on the interstate when I couldn't see 25 feet in front of me in my Neon. However, in my wife's Jeep in 4WD there was a heck of a lot more control. Of course nothing's going to help you on ice but in snow and the powdery type we get a 4WD Jeep is a Godsend.
Strange because my wife's heater is so bloody hot that it's literally burned my hand (she has a V6, not the weak 4 cyl). The A/C is also cold enough to give me a freaking headache.
When I got in my brother-in-laws 06 Wrangler I thought it was going to be like riding in a dump truck but it ended up being a lot more comfortable than I thought (more so than my Neon even). It's no Merc or BMW but can you drive over a median with curb if you wanted (done that plenty) in one? There's just something about owning an auto that you can buy ever part for out of a catalog.
I do agree that you should test drive it first. It'll tell you way more about it than just reading the spec sheet and seeing photos. Don't let the salesman pressure you to keep it short either. Let him know this is a lot of money to spend and you want to make the right decision. Also, don't be afraid to tell him to shove off or you'll take your business elsewhere. Car salesman have to know who's in charge unfortunately. Most of them are a pain in the tail.
How stupid is that!? "I want a Zune just because no one has one." Um, riiiight. Enjoy that Zune.
Hmm... that's weird. My friend has an '05 Wrangler X with the 4L Inline-6 and six speed manual transmission. Does your wife's have a hard or soft top? I've heard that the hard tops are much better at keeping the A/C and heat inside the car than the soft tops (duh, haha). But yeah the Wrangler's are neat little vehicles.
This might come from left of field for some, but... why are you buying a car that runs on liquid fuels? Why not insist on an EV you can charge at home? Seen the oil price lately? It's only going to head up and up... until the rationing starts.
I thought everyone knew we were only a few years away from the final oil crisis? Planet earth has been drilled for over 100 years and we just can't find any more super-sized fields. It's been 40 years since we found the most oil we ever will. It's been 25 years since we've discovered more oil than we've burned! We now discover about 1/5th the oil we burn each year! We are eating into oil our grandparents discovered. 54 out of 65 oil producing nations are already passed their peak production and are now in permanent decline. Doesn't all this say anything to you?
Even the Australian Army has finally released a report detailing the implications.
The Australian Army, like its American counterpart back in 2006, has just released a report about Peak Oil, its implications for Australia in general and the Army in particular. The details make for very sobering reading as it does not pull any punches;
• Australia faces a fundamental dislocation if there’s an early peak, which it feels is very likely (within the next decade).
• The domestic oil supply is deteriorating rapidly and as a result the country may face significant difficulty sourcing sufficient quantities of imported oil post peak.
• Unconventional sources of oil will be unable to meet the shortfall in the decline of conventional oil.
• Alternatives to oil won’t save us either, even with as yet unknown or unproven technical breakthroughs, due to the non-trivial problems of scale and low energy profit of things like hydrogen and biofuel.
Implications for the Army and recommended mitigation strategies include;
• Disruption to the oil supply is likely to hinder the Army’s role of “winning the land battle” in their words (i.e. maintaining command and control here and in theatres of operation overseas).
• The Report recommends the Army switch to renewables (solar and wind), as a backup power source, from diesel powered generators at its bases.
• The use of more simulation-based training rather than transporting troops to training operations in remote parts of Australia or overseas.
For those out there who think Australia or American can just bumble its way through an oil transition without too much pain the army has some bad news;
Our army making sense? Who wooda thunk it?
I thought everyone knew we were only a few years away from the final oil crisis? Planet earth has been drilled for over 100 years and we just can't find any more super-sized fields. It's been 40 years since we found the most oil we ever will. It's been 25 years since we've discovered more oil than we've burned! We now discover about 1/5th the oil we burn each year! We are eating into oil our grandparents discovered. 54 out of 65 oil producing nations are already passed their peak production and are now in permanent decline. Doesn't all this say anything to you?
Even the Australian Army has finally released a report detailing the implications.
The Australian Army, like its American counterpart back in 2006, has just released a report about Peak Oil, its implications for Australia in general and the Army in particular. The details make for very sobering reading as it does not pull any punches;
Main conclusion - there are no silver bullets;
• Australia faces a fundamental dislocation if there’s an early peak, which it feels is very likely (within the next decade).
• The domestic oil supply is deteriorating rapidly and as a result the country may face significant difficulty sourcing sufficient quantities of imported oil post peak.
• Unconventional sources of oil will be unable to meet the shortfall in the decline of conventional oil.
• Alternatives to oil won’t save us either, even with as yet unknown or unproven technical breakthroughs, due to the non-trivial problems of scale and low energy profit of things like hydrogen and biofuel.
Implications for the Army and recommended mitigation strategies include;
• Disruption to the oil supply is likely to hinder the Army’s role of “winning the land battle” in their words (i.e. maintaining command and control here and in theatres of operation overseas).
• The Report recommends the Army switch to renewables (solar and wind), as a backup power source, from diesel powered generators at its bases.
• The use of more simulation-based training rather than transporting troops to training operations in remote parts of Australia or overseas.
For those out there who think Australia or American can just bumble its way through an oil transition without too much pain the army has some bad news;
Our army making sense? Who wooda thunk it?
Wranglers are far, far, FAR cheaper. When new, the Defender was essentially a $90,000 Wrangler - a toy for the rich. They are equally capable off-road, equally crude on it and both have timewarp interior design.
And why would you buy a lotus? All they do is break and they aren't practical at all.
The Elise/Exige has a Toyota engine and an aluminum chassis/body, so I can promise you it will not suffer the drive train reliability issues or corrosion woes that a Defender will have. For what many used Defenders cost I could get both an Elise and a Wrangler.
I'm not here to argue whether a Wrangler is a good buy, but I would recommend against getting it as a passenger vehicle for the road, because it isn't much good at that. For off-road/foul weather driving it's outstanding though.
For highway driving in foul weather an AWD car like a Subaru or Audi is better than a Jeep (or any truck/SUV). At lower speeds the "dumb" 4WD on the Jeep is great, better than AWD. My neighbor has a '78 Chevy 4WD pickup as a winter vehicle and that truck (with mud tires installed) will go uphill in waist-deep snow without any trouble. It's horrible on gas and unsafe on the highway though.
Every vehicle is a compromise.
What the Wrangler really needs is a modern direct injection turbodiesel. It would weigh less than the big, stone-age six cylinder they use, have more power and get way, way better mileage.
EVs don't help much - sure, they don't consume oil directly, but where do you think that electricity comes from? Statistically speaking (in the US at least) it probably comes from coal or oil, so we're back to where we started. The future lies with biodiesel and fuel cells.
I share the same concerns as the Australian Medical Association and UN over biofuels.
The only biofuels I support are the ones that are grown either in marginal land (not farmland or forest) such as tree-based crops like the Candlenut, or fuels that are cooked up from agriwaste such as Agrichar. The agriwaste is cooked up which releases either Syngas or Synfuel, and the by-product is this wonderful charcoal that when sprinkled in the soil allows fungi and other micro-organisms to grow. These suck extra Co2 out of the air and extra nitrogen, which help crops grow and could potentially save the world from global warming. So maybe if our friend was driving his Jeep as a farm tool, that's one possible reason to buy a Jeep farmers will be some of the rare citizens with permits to burn some of our precious fuel.
But for Mr and Mrs Suburbia, I'm pretty sure there's no liquid fuel that can be scaled up in time and sheer SCALE to provide fuel for us as oil peaks and declines in production. We'll just have to catch the trolley buses they'll put up everywhere, ride a pushbike, or even walk?
The only biofuels I support are the ones that are grown either in marginal land (not farmland or forest) such as tree-based crops like the Candlenut, or fuels that are cooked up from agriwaste such as Agrichar. The agriwaste is cooked up which releases either Syngas or Synfuel, and the by-product is this wonderful charcoal that when sprinkled in the soil allows fungi and other micro-organisms to grow. These suck extra Co2 out of the air and extra nitrogen, which help crops grow and could potentially save the world from global warming. So maybe if our friend was driving his Jeep as a farm tool, that's one possible reason to buy a Jeep farmers will be some of the rare citizens with permits to burn some of our precious fuel.
But for Mr and Mrs Suburbia, I'm pretty sure there's no liquid fuel that can be scaled up in time and sheer SCALE to provide fuel for us as oil peaks and declines in production. We'll just have to catch the trolley buses they'll put up everywhere, ride a pushbike, or even walk?
OK, lets not turn this into a PRSI thread. The guy wants to know wether or not he should buy a Jeep Wrangler, not which fuel to choose. (Although on a personal note, I agree with pretty much everything you said)
I have one. Love it.
Bought my first Wrangler in '97, then another one in '04. Friends have had several recent year models, too. All soft-tops. Never any problems with the heat or A/C not getting the job done. Heat feels hot enough to pop corn!
The JK Unlimited (4-door) has a totally different ride than the 2-door models I've owned. On the Jeep forums, many hardcore Jeep guys complain about the *lack* of roughness on this model.
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The JK Unlimited (4-door) has a totally different ride than the 2-door models I've owned. On the Jeep forums, many hardcore Jeep guys complain about the *lack* of roughness on this model.
My guess is that the longer wheelbase has something to do with it.
My biggest complaint against the Wrangler is cost. They are not cheap cars by any stretch, which makes it harder to excuse some of the rough edges I see in materials and build quality. You can't argue with their ruggedness and off-road credibility, but the refinement seems lacking.
To be fair, I haven't driven one of the four door models - maybe things have improved since 2005 (the newest Wrangler I've driven).
Aren't Jeeps the most consistent unsafe cars?
I have been out of the automobile industry for awhile, but I remember they just sucked when it came to safety.
I have been out of the automobile industry for awhile, but I remember they just sucked when it came to safety.
Regarding safety, I've only followed the Wranglers, and they've done fairly well (I thought).
The 4-door one I have comes standard with stability control. It's impossible to spin around in a snowy parking lot unless you disable it.
http://www.safercar.gov/Cars/4060.html
The 07 4-door got 5 stars (out of 5) for front impact. Side impact hasn't been rated yet. 3 (or 4) stars out of 5 for the chances of not rolling over during a crash.
The 4-door one I have comes standard with stability control. It's impossible to spin around in a snowy parking lot unless you disable it.
http://www.safercar.gov/Cars/4060.html
The 07 4-door got 5 stars (out of 5) for front impact. Side impact hasn't been rated yet. 3 (or 4) stars out of 5 for the chances of not rolling over during a crash.
My brother had one a few years ago. I loved driving it -- short distances. For around town it was great, but I wouldn't want to take it too far on the highway. Definitely more of an off-roader than anything else. My brother's had the doors that would pop right off, and the windshield that would drop down onto the hood. That was the only way to drive it!
After considering everything, I think I am going to wait another year. I do not need a new car right now and I have a car that I am happy with currently. I am for some reason smitten over a Jeep, just not the right time.
Thanks for everyones input.
but someday in the future I will be a proud owner.
Thanks for everyones input.
but someday in the future I will be a proud owner.
my uncle has one 2002 i think, and he likes it. Its fun to drive off road, but it seams like he works on it a lot more than say other cars. (but he's a former car mechanic and may also be tinkering with it)
Because car enthusiasts like myself will take any opportunity to turn a straightforward discussion of vehicles into an esoteric, hypothetical quagmire.
Now get back into your Falcon Ute and be on your way, Ozzy boy.
Good move waiting for a year it'll give you time to watch the oil price and story unfold.
Quite some tangents we have going on here....
Because car enthusiasts like myself will take any opportunity to turn a straightforward discussion of vehicles into an esoteric, hypothetical quagmire.
Now get back into your Falcon Ute and be on your way, Ozzy boy.
Hey! I'm a Holden man!