The new 3.8-liter V6 that comes standard on all Wranglers is an overhead valve engine. It replaces the old 2.4-liter DOHC four and venerable 4.0-liter overhead-valve inline-6. It makes 198 horsepower (vs. 190 hp in the previous six-cylinder) and 232 pound-feet of torque at 4000 rpm. The old six-cylinder made 235 pound-feet at a lower 3200 rpm, and this 800 rpm difference is felt, at least with the four-speed automatic transmission in our test Sahara.
Acceleration is good, but on those long uphill 75-mph grades between Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, the Jeep kept kicking down out of overdrive, fourth gear, until we turned the overdrive off (our Sahara was equipped with the Trailer Tow Group option). More torque at lower rpm might have prevented this. We didn't have the opportunity to test the standard six-speed manual transmission, but we're inclined to suggest it might be more compatible with the Jeep than this four-speed automatic.
The Wrangler Unlimited would have been a different animal on this road. The ride is significantly smoother and the handling more stable, thanks to a wheelbase that's 20.6 inches longer; but it weighs 315 pounds more, so the engine will work a bit harder. However, all the 4x4 Wranglers are EPA-rated at 16 city and 19 highway miles per gallon.
When we drove the Unlimited around Lake Tahoe, there were a lot of other Jeeps on the road, and our four-door never failed to turn heads. At the view points, fellow Jeepsters came over to ogle and marvel. Every one of them said they wanted to go home and trade in their two-door on the new four-door Jeep.
We were also behind the wheel of an Unlimited with the six-speed manual transmission on the rugged Rubicon Trail, where its capability was downright dazzling; in low range and first gear on the most challenging sections, we drove without using our feet: merely steering over daunting obstacles, and letting the vehicle do the rest. It's safe to say that the two-door Wrangler would be fairly astonishing.
The only limitation with the Unlimited was its turning radius of 41.2 feet versus 34.9 feet with the two-door. Six feet is a big difference. In San Francisco, we used the two-door's tight turning radius to make a U-turn in the middle of a street to snatch a parking space on the other side, like all good San Franciscans. Next Page