BASIC TRAINING ROAD TEST BY TOBY AIKEN JeepWrangler 2 drOverland 2.8CRDAuto, Model on test: £34,140
TheWrangler is, quite simply, an icon.When it comes to small rugged off-roaders, theWrangler is effectively an indirect progression fromthe SecondWorldWar Jeeps; sturdy, dependable,military- inspired and utilitarian. But let’s get one thing straight. This car does not handlewell on
the road. It’s jumpy, jittery andwill skitter across your lane like a frightened horse if you’re heavy on thewheel, and it hits speed bumps like they’re trees laying across the road. Iwish thatwas unfair, but it’s not.
Mywife took this to ameeting in Worcestershire and textedmewhen she got there to askmewhatwas
wrongwith it as it had no power and felt terrible. I pointed out that it had a 2.8 litre turbo-charged engine; how could it not have power? The reason is that all that power is geared towards torque, not acceleration. Putting out just 200 horsepower and takingmore than ten seconds to get to 60miles per hour, speed is notwhat this thing is about. Going back to basics… this is a
rugged off-roader. So, I took it off road to see if itmade sense in that environment. And (thankfully) it did. The gearbox handled inclines that
I felt surewould beat it, but it just kept climbing, evenwith loose gravel underneath. It’s designed for this and let’s face it, Jeep have quite the
heritagewhen it comes to tough terrain -when you supply vehicles to the biggestmilitary force in the world, theremust be a reason for this. Take this onto anything other than
tarmac, and it starts tomake sense. A lot of sense. Its handling capabilities off road are, in aword, immense. Incredible, really that something so bad on the road can be somuch fun off road. Everything about it is aimed at this, so the performancematches the rugged, robust nature of the beast. It’s clunky, sure, but at the same time reassuring. Take this anywhere and it will see you through to the best of its ability. So, bad on the road, great off it;
what else can you expect? In terms of the interior, it’smore
“Going back to basics…this is a rugged off-roader. So, I took it off road to see if it made sense in that environment. And (thankfully) it did.”
48 MARCH/ APRIL 2018 THECHELTONIAN
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