A 21st-century Jeep. At last.
Very recently, a slew of details have emerged about the upcoming 2018 Jeep Wrangler, a car that’s keeping Jeep fans around the world at the edge of their seats. With the brand promising to offer the Wrangler with more features, tech, and creature comforts, as well as a new range of engines to keep the Wrangler on the ball.
The engine details were brought forward by Jalopnik, who cited an anonymous source with ties to FCA, claiming that the Wrangler will offer no less than six engine variants. Two differently-tuned versions of the 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 will feature, along with 3.0-litre and 2.2-litre turbodiesels, as well as a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-pot in two states of tune. This largely lines up with information that’s been gleaned earlier this year, where a 2018 Wrangler Rubicon was spied with a diesel motor, as well as chatter that a 224kW turbo-petrol 2.0-litre will be joining the Wrangler lineup.
Details on the offered body styles were also offered, which detail the “typical two- and four-door configurations,” as well as a ute setup that we’ve spied before (photos featured here are courtesy of JL Wrangler Forums). The roof should see several options, including black or tan soft tops, a black or body-coloured hard top, and a power-retractable roof. While all-wheel drive is a given, along with an automatic gearbox, it still remains only a rumour that the next-generation Wrangler will be offered with a manual gearbox.
While there’s little doubt that the V6 engines will dominate North American sales and the diesels will sell healthily in Europe, the question of which engines will be offered for our market remains. A healthy mix of the petrol and diesels (3.0-litre oiler, 3.6-petrol, and 2.0-litre four-pot maybe?) should win over buyers here, though it remains anyone’s guess as to what will eventually play out.
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