Gadgetory

let's get one thing clear right off the bat you mud and rock types move along nothing here for you to see you see see net those tech reviews and everyday reviews we're not going to go off-road and check the trail rating on this guy that's not what we do well maybe a little I'm talking to the 80% of you who buy these things because you want them to be mall rated this isn't just a cute little Suzuki with a chunky square body this is a Jeep it's the real deal and along the way you make some sacrifices the first of which is it's the only American car in production that still looks like an 88 now let's go inside now the odd battle between trail rated and Krissie continues inside this vehicle you've got a big old serious transfer case lever down here and all handy gear shift that's normally a 6-speed manual by the way we have the 5-speed automatic in this car and you got some simple big round gauges in front of you and lots of big maeín size things to hang on to but then the prissy kicks in little BS like the little since 1941 embossed in 1941 typeface I don't need that now what are these Tonka truck air vents here and all this chrome and there's chrome everywhere we've got controls on the wheel and voice come in and power locks and power windows and power mirrors and you can get automatic temperature control and there's a big mishmash of here of trail meats shopping mall here's your base head unit it's okay it's kind of what I would get in this car I would not bump up the either 1000 to 1800 bucks more for a six and a half inch touchscreen unit which has Garmin navigation we've seen before it's childishly simple but highly rated and depending which of those two systems you pick up you'll end up getting Bluetooth and streaming audio and some voice recognition or not skip the LCD it doesn't belong in any vehicle that you can reduce to nothing more than a chassis with a roll bar around your head now outside the Rubicon there's more evidence of the weird split personality of a modern Jeep first of all notice the hinge here at the base of the windshield yes the windshield as in dansou view our will fold flat when you're driving around the Serengeti and want a mouthful of bugs the problem is because of modern safety specs this thing has to be bolted down so you've got to remove by my count 18 bolts before this thing can fold down on these nice little bumpers and clip on the other hand the hood folds all the way back to give you a great engine access when you crap out in the boonies the problem is nothing prevents this from getting a huge dent from the windshield header now that's a pizza technology this thing could use and notice when you go to lift that hood it's secured only by to external rubber clamp downs and then a quick latch underneath no interior lock so when you need to steal a battery for your car this is the one you want to look for in a parking lot now luckily a Wrangler still has all kinds of open top options you've got this sort of t-top deal - the t it's two plastic panels that unhitch from inside and come clear nice overhead space and of course the rear part this whole cap comes off as well but it requires a few bolts be removed you can also pull the doors easily on one of these guys in fact you can still get them with half doors and plastic windows but unfortunately to have easy to remove doors you lose door checks you have door stops these canvass things but the door doesn't lock anywhere so your shins are going to look like hell as long as you drive one of these now big improvement in the Wrangler for 2012 it goes from the dog motor it had for the last handful of years to Chrysler's well-respected Pentastar v-6 this is a 3.6 liter v6 variable valve timing it's a modern engine that's going to crank out 268 horse and 260 foot-pounds of torque gets this guy up to 60 in six point seven seconds quite respectable while delivering a 17 21 mpg base gearboxes 6-speed manual as you should order or you can whistle out and get the five-speed Automatic like we showed you a lot of things in this engine Bayer laid out differently than a normal car to make it ready for anything you've got this reverse mounted alternator so splashes hit the water proof back not the pulley nose front you got a big high airbox up here of course to let you forward streams without getting drunk on water speaking of getting drunk I like this you got an easy pullout overflow coolant bottle I guess you can fill up in streams on a bad day I would turn that into a sneaky bourbon snatch okay now underway our little friend rides on 17 alloys and 32 inch tires so you've got a Jones in this vehicle you're probably not used to in the Honda Civic you trade it in to buy it there's also a knobby thing that goes on at low speeds you got to get used to because this kind of a tread on a tire makes up sound and feeling at low speeds over on this side you've got your electronic axle lock for front or rear or both there's also a button here called sway bar that will electrically disconnect the sway bar when you're really out in the chunky stuff climbing rocks or what-have-you you can disconnect the sway bar so you get greater articulation on the front wheels they can have an extreme degree of difference in height of what they're gripping while not tilting the body with them I'll tell you the thing is surprisingly bolted together you don't hear as many rattles and such as you'd expect from something with all these panels and all these kind of sheetmetal apparatus and that spare hanging off the back but enough of this freeway driving let's go do what 80% of you will not do 80% of the time and get in the mud you