• Lumpy, soggy on-road dynamics
• Rough sole petrol engine option
• One of the best off-roaders you can buy

Petrol engine

Your sole choice of engine with the Wrangler is a 2.0-litre petrol engine developing 272hp and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Regardless of whether you choose Sahara or Rubicon spec, the Wrangler will accelerate to 62mph in 7.5sec. The top speed of the Sahara is 112mph, with the Rubicon reaching a maximum of 99mph – limited due to the standard all-terrain tyres.

The engine itself is nothing special. There’s a revvy noise when it accelerates, which sounds sporty and yet rough at the same time. Given the Wrangler’s off-road engineering like its differentials and transfer case, there’s a lot of additional whirring and humming coming from driving one at any speed. This noise is amplified when you choose the Rubicon model; its knobbly all-terrain tyres make a lot of additional noise.

It’s a shame the UK market isn’t offered Jeep’s Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid. Our experiences with that model would say that it would be the best version of the Wrangler to buy, but Jeep doesn’t sell it here due to low expected demand.

What’s it like to drive?

A Wrangler will spend almost all of its time on the road, just like any other car – and yet it’s not a good one to drive on tarmac or in regular driving conditions. You feel very detached from the driving experience.

The steering is very loose and vague, with very little communication provided by the steering wheels and a lot of input needed by yourself to turn. That’s only exacerbated when you go for the Rubicon model with its all-terrain tyres.

Add to the mix pedals that don’t feel very accurate; the throttle feels almost binary at low speeds, taking plenty of time to get used to when crawling in traffic. The brakes, too, feel soft and a little weak. And yet, all of those problems go away if you ever want to drive off-road. The Wrangler is quite possibly the best car to buy for those who regularly go off-road in the UK – arguably better than any Land Rover on sale, or the Toyota Land Cruiser.

While all models have a good amount of off-road engineering including lockable differentials and a low-range model, it’s the Rubicon model with its detachable front anti-roll bar and additional toughening that will be the one to choose if you regularly tackle rough terrain. We’ve literally climbed a mountain in one.