October 1, 2006 - Squaw Valley, California – In today’s environment of hyper-marketing, more is an improvement, and really more is superior. Even Jeep—who can arguably claim their existing, ten-year old TJ is still in a class by itself when it comes to off-roading capabilities—felt the need for, well, really more.

Instead of TJ, Jeep’s new-for-2007 two-door off-roader now falls in line with the rest of the world and is called Wrangler for the first time in Canada.

Born from the U.S. Army’s request in 1940, if the Wrangler was human, it would be cashing Canada Pension cheques. Nonetheless, despite a series of diverse corporate caretakers (Willys, Kaiser, AMC, Renault, Chrysler, and now DaimlerChrysler), with its characteristic round headlights, fold-down windshield and removable doors, it’s not only survived, it’s become an American cultural icon, up there with Elvis and Coca-Cola.



Recently, others have begun to crowd Wrangler’s well-tread trails (namely, this trio of off-roaders from our recent Three for the Road: Hummer H3 $39,995, Nissan Xterra S $33,748, Toyota FJ Cruiser $29,990—come on down!). To counter these upstarts, DaimlerChrysler Canada’s Senior Manager of Product Strategy, Jim Morrison (yes, he’s alive and well living in Windsor, Ont.) stated at the ’07 Wrangler’s preview event that the next generation of off-roading icon couldn’t stand on its well-deserved laurels.

“With the new Wrangler, the theme is more,” said the not former member of the Doors.

Compared to Jeep’s decade-old TJ, the Wrangler offers more of what the brand’s fanatics expect: more off-road prowess; more interior space; more standard power; more standard safety features; and more convenience items.

With the TJ hitting double digits in age, one could say these are predictable, if not necessary, upgrades, right?

But the really big news (literally) is what Morrison calls, “an extension of the Wrangler brand”: the new four-door, five-passenger Wrangler Unlimited.



Not to be confused with the ’04 Jeep TJ Unlimited, the ’07 Unlimited is the car industry’s only four-door convertible. It adds 523 millimetres to the new two-door Wrangler’s wheelbase, delivering much needed second-row seat room with more overall cargo space than those Hummer, Nissan and Toyota whippersnappers.

Jeep peeps see the larger, more accommodating Unlimited allowing the hardcore, off-roading Jeep faithful to maintain the unique characteristics of the classic Wrangler two-door’s open-air driving and 4x4 capability, even when children or the desire to bring along more than three friends presents themselves in one’s Jeep lifestyle.

“And Canadians like value, eh?”, says Morrison.

The base ’07 two-door, Wrangler X, with the traditional soft top and no air, starts at $19,995. That’s $3,605 less than last year’s base four-cylinder TJ SE model, and includes the new 202 horsepower, 237 pound-feet of torque 3.8-litre V6 hooked up to a six-speed manual (a $1,200 four-speed automatic transmission is optional), with electronic stability program, four-wheel disc anti-lock brakes, electronic roll mitigation, dual-stage air bags, and seat-mounted side air bags.

The more accommodating Unlimited, at $24,495, could be even considered more of a value.



Of course, both new Wranglers can be upgraded. But even a top-of-the-line, Unlimited Rubicon (its two-speed transfer case with a 4.0:1 low-range gear ratio, electronic front- and rear-axle lockers, electronic-disconnecting front anti-sway bars and 32-inch B.F. Goodrich Off-Road tires are available on the two-door) can be had for under 30 large ones.

Too prove the point that both new Wranglers haven’t lost any of their off-road mojo, or gotten all Dr. Phil on us, Jeep had journalists negotiate about half of the 29 kilometres of the legendary Rubicon Trail during the first half of the one-day preview event held here at the edge of Lake Tahoe near the California-Nevada state line.

Called the Mecca of Jeep, for over 50 years, the Rubicon Trail has measured the mettle of both drivers and their of-roading machines. An off-roading icon itself, it’s the trail in Jeep’s Trail Rated vehicles.

After banging and crashing new two- and four-door Wrangler Rubicons for half a day—at times with vertical approach angles that had this driver seeing more sky than earth, and boulders bigger than a used Neon—trust me, existing Jeep TJ, YJ, or even CJ owners: don’t cancel your vacation plans for the next Jeep Jamboree if you considering a new Wrangler.



OK, so a Jeep is nearly indestructible off-road. Big deal, no news there.

But what about where most Wranglers will end up spending the majority of their time—on-road?

Even Dr. Z, himself, DaimlerChrysler’s Chairman of the Board, Dieter Zetsche, admitted that nobody’s going to buy a Wrangler because it’s too quiet.

However, during a too-brief, afternoon’s drive from the Rubicon trailhead back to civilization—this time in more road worthy, hardtop Wrangler Sahara’s with 18-inch rubber—in context with its TJ predecessor, the Wrangler is definitely quieter. And with an 89 millimetre rear track increase, more stable at higher speeds as well.

With apologies to the Andrea True Connection, one can easily now say,  “Ooh, how do you like your Wrangler?, More, More, More.”

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com



Q&A : Steve Ferrerio, Director,
Jeep Advanced Product Design

Q: Jeep’s displayed a lot of concepts at auto shows over the past few years. Which ones, if any, influenced the new Wranglers?
A: You could say the 2004 Rescue was a big influence. But that was built off a full-size [Dodge} Ram pickup chassis. But when we started working on [the new Wrangler], I wanted to make the surface and linework, simpler and cleaner. I thought the CJ-5, the post-war Jeep, had more robust surface development. I felt that when we got to that point [in the new design] we were in the right place.

Q: Jeep is saying the new Wrangler is totally different, yet totally the same. How?
A: It still has the round headlights, like the TJ. It still has the seven-slot, paper grille. But the headlamps are now halogen instead of sealed beam and the grille is now plastic instead of sheet metal. This alone freed up a lot of design freedom [on the front of the car]. The bumper is still free standing, but we have hidden crush cans. On the side of the car, the flares retain the trapezoid statement of Jeep, but again, they’re simplified. It’s now a one piece fender and can be more easily removed for customization. The door hinges are still exposed, but they’re now a forged aluminum instead of stamped steel. And on the rear end, it’s every bit still a Jeep. A swing out gate with a rear-mounted spare tire. The two-door is about five inches longer, but we added a bevel to the rear corner to hide that aspect.

Q: What were the challenges taking these key Jeep design elements and applying them to the new four-door Unlimited?
A: I almost feel reluctant to say this, but the four-door kind of fell together. It was a natural. We knew we wanted to give the rear seat passengers better ingress and egress, and more comfort back there. So that says the wheelbase has to be ‘this’. You can’t make it any shorter. And we also knew we wanted so much storage behind [the rear seats]. When we added the hardtop, function dictated the form.

Q: Yes, both new Wranglers get an all-new, three-piece modular hardtop, which features left- and right-front panels and a full rear panel. How did this come to fruition?
A: That resulted out of necessity. We knew we were going to do a hardtop. On the TJ, the hardtop one piece that takes two people to remove. We knew the car was getting bigger, and the hardtop was going to be huge. The question was, “How are we going to manage that?” So we came up with the dual-split pieces up front. This way someone could take one, or the other off and still keep the rear seat area covered. In fact, the two-front panels are shared by both the two- and four-door, which is kind of neat. Or, you can take all three pieces off and have the only four-door convertible on the market, which definitely says Jeep to our customers.

-JL

© National Post 2006. This article originally appeared in The National Post's Driving.