New Wrangler Unlimited - Cool or Lame?

What do you guys think of the new Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited 4-door? Is it cool or lame? Do you think it will have as much of a following and aftermarket support as the TJ?  

With every revision, it seems to get further from its roots. To me the CJ was its peak.

I think the new Wrangler is ugly. Don't like the V-6, laid back grille, front fenders, bigger wheel size or the plastic bumpers and some other things that I can't think of right now. As for the Wrangler Unlimited, it is too long.

This is my opinion on the new Jeep.

I wish they would bring back the Cherokee and instead of the unibody, put a real frame underneath of it and of course (solid axles front and rear)

The next thing that they will probalbly do to the new Wrangler is put IFS on the front of it like they did with the Grand Cherokee and the worthless Liberty.

The new Wrangler will be a success just as they have been year after year.  People will continue to buy it based on its look and low price, but hard core offroaders will not accept the Mitsubishi based V6.  It doesn't develop its torque at low RPM, so it is really a grocery getter in that form.  However, they are offering it with a diesel in Europe and hopefully DC will get their heads out of their a** and realize that Americans will buy the diesel engines. 

They’ve sold all of the allotment of diesels for the Liberty, so it should be plain to see that is a viable engine in the US.

In any case I suspect you will see more engine options in coming years.  I’d stay away from the 2007 release model.  The 4 door model is a great idea, again they just need to put a proper drive train in it. 

The Patriot or the Compass (I forget which) is a reasonable replacement for the Cherokee, we’ll just have to see how well they execute it and what drive trains are available.

As for me, I refuse to buy a new Jeep until they release the Gladiator.

personally the four door wrangler is rediculous because if you want a four door jeep get a cherokee or a grand. i dont like the look and the back doors look so small that it just doesnt do it for me.  

i agree with you. a wrangler always had 2 doors! the unlimited was nice with longer wheelbase but still 2 doors. the new 4 door unlimited looks stupid and that is not what a wrangler is about. if you want 4 doors get a grad or a cherokee, totally agree with you! the newer they get the more they suck! jeep shouold get back to their roots and build reall 4x4´s again. let mercedes build the wanna be suv´s!  

Well, you are right the *Wrangler* has always had 2 doors.

But there have been 4 door jeeps going back to 1947.  The CJ6 only had 2 doors, but it was long enough for 4 as was the CJ8, the Willys Wagon was availble with 4 doors, as were the Cherokees and Wagoneers. 

Having a truely offroad capable 4 door is a plus.  With Jeep producing "not trail rated" vehicles for the 1st time in history, we should be glad for any new version that still can be taken off road and modified to get as extreme as you like.

You can thank Dalhmer, (Jeeps parent) for the loss of focus on what a Jeep is supposed to be. Kinda like the new "Commander" which is nothing more than a Jeep body on a exisiting Dodge chassis and drive train which means it is not really a Jeep at all if you want to get techical about it.------------------------------
  The SnoMan
www.thesnoman.com

I do not believe the V-6 is a Mitsubishi design. It is a pushrod, 2-valve design that was developed exclusively by Chrysler. I believe you are referring to the early 3.0 SOHC engines offered in the early minivans and other ChryCo products. But regardless, it's still a "minivan" engine.  

You may be right about that, I was quoting from a JP magazine article.  

I read the Commander was on the Grand Cherokee platform, basically just a rebody of the GC.

I am certainly no expert on platfoms, but thats what one of the 4WD magazines said.

They were wrong as the GC chassis was not big enough. It is built on a Durango chassis. A Dodge in Jeep clothing so it realy not a Jeep. They are slowly killing it off and it would be better to kill it outright than to die a slow death.

sure there was enough room for 4 doors in an cj6 or cj8, but they still only had 2!!!
if they wanna build an unlimited with 4 doors, ok, i don´t care for it, but some might! but i think they shopud also offer it as a 2 door as it used to be! there would be a lot of people wanting the longer wheelbase with 2 doors!

and what they are doing to "SUV´s" is a shame... basically they are big station wagons that sit a little higher but that´s it! and that is really bad! ifs and girly stuff is sth that shoud not be seen on any kind of jeep! buy a ricecooker for that! ;-)

I don't think the Commander is based on the Durango. Early speculation is that it was, but if you look at key dimensions (overall length, wheelbase, etc.) the Commander is much closer to the Grand Cherokee than the Durango. Also, Durango is body-on-frame, whereas the Commander (like the Grand Cherokee) is unibody. So if you're going by those criteria, the Commander is a "true" Jeep.  

Better look at it again and more closely as it is not a "Jeep" but in name only