Our Jeep Wrangler is noisy, uncomfortable and daft, but we love it

This is our Jeep Wrangler. Well, when I say ours, I mean YouTube producer Rory White’s. He’s been running this as a daily driver for a few months, but over the past few weeks it’s done the rounds in the Carwow office as we all fight for a go behind the wheel.

I’m the latest guardian of this American off-roader, and after a few days with it I’ve reached the same conclusion as everyone else: I love it, despite its many, many foibles.

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Jeep Wrangler long term test: what is this car like to live with so far?

Our Wrangler has been used for everything from short, urban hops to long motorway slogs, and it’s been put to use as a family hauler as well. In some ways, it’s a brilliant daily driver, but in many ways it isn’t.

Let’s start with the positives. There’s enough space inside for ferrying kids and crew to various destinations, and the interior feels robust enough to stand up to the worst that either could throw at it.

I also love having a removable roof. It may be a faff to take the targa-like panels out and store them in the boot, but getting that open-air feeling in an SUV is a real novelty.

However, this is still a difficult car to recommend to reasonable members of society, because in many ways it’s a very silly thing.

Driving the Wrangler on the road is a bit like commuting in an allotment shed. You can remove the entire roof, all four doors and fold the windscreen flat using a basic tool kit which comes with the car, but the result of this is that they’re not exactly fitted with the precision of your average SUV. The roof, for example, is basically a plastic tupperware lid plonked atop an internal roll cage, and there’s no sound deadening either.

So as you’re driving along, especially on the motorway, the wind noise is so pronounced that you’ll convince yourself that you’ve left a window open. It’s also incredibly jiggly over bumps, on country roads the vague steering and body roll makes it feel like you’re trying to hustle a water bed around the bends, and then there’s the fuel economy.

We’re averaging just 17mpg at the moment. Granted, we weren’t expecting a big off-roader on all-terrain tyres to be economical, but a diesel Land Rover Defender will get 25mpg if you’re careful.

Other niggles include the narrow footwell, which leaves nowhere for your left foot to rest, and the side-opening tailgate makes it impossible to access the boot in tight spaces.

But you know what? I don’t really care about any of that. Just look at this thing in all its majesty. It looks fantastic in this olive green paint with the Rubicon decals down the bonnet, and it turns heads wherever it goes. I’ve even had a few thumbs up from onlookers.

It’s got a charming, old-school vibe which makes it very easy to like, and it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it. It’s slowly becoming a beloved member of the Carwow family, and soon we’ll also be putting it through its paces off-road.

The muddy stuff is this car’s natural habitat, so stay tuned to see this car do what it does best – conquer any terrain you put in its way.

Report 1: Rory’s introduction to the Jeep

Before I begin, I have a confession to make: I love American cars.

I’ve owned a fair few classic ones over the years, and while I know the modern ones often don’t rival their European counterparts on things like interior quality and handling, I can’t help but love the way many of them look – and, of course, sound.

So, when the chance came up to run a Jeep Wrangler for six months, my hand went up faster than a Bald Eagle at a BBQ. Or something.

But there’s bad news, I’m afraid. Having been on sale here since 1987, it’s not currently possible to configure a brand new Wrangler in the UK – it actually went off sale earlier this year.

That’s because its safety kit no longer meets the EU’s latest standards, and also because its poor CO2 emissions are costing Jeep too much money under strict new environmental laws.

In fact, at the time of writing, heading to Jeep’s website and clicking on its Wrangler page reveals that pre-built Wrangler stock is dwindling, so you’d better be quick!

Towards the end of the Wrangler’s life in the UK, the two door model disappeared leaving just the four-door model. Ours is the latter and you’ll also notice it’s painted in the very American sounding 1941 Military Green, which was an extra £965.

Ours is also the range-topping Rubicon model (Sahara being the only other trim choice) which brings more equipment, such as a surround-view camera, a tougher look and enhanced off-road capability.

And as Jeep wound down Wrangler production, just one engine and gearbox combination was available; a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol with 272hp mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, as fitted here.

The price? A pretty eye-watering £67,000 when new. But at least the paint is the only option, meaning the Rubicon comes stacked with just about every bell and whistle you could possibly want on a family 4×4.

We all know the Jeep Wrangler is unstoppable off-road, and we have some Carwow off-road battles planned for it over on our YouTube channel. But I want to know if it can also make good daily transport for a family of five.

On first impressions, I’m rather smitten with the Jeep. It’s a bit rough-and-ready to drive, but it always puts a smile on my face. It looks great, has plenty of space inside and comes with plenty of kit. It has heated seats, a heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control and smartphone mirroring. What more could you need?

Stay tuned over the coming weeks for updates on what the Jeep Wrangler is like to live with as I get some more miles under my belt.

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