In light of Jeep’s recent forays into crossover-dom—see the Renegade and Cherokee, please—we’ve been hit hard with nostalgia for the brand’s good ol’ days. You know, the ones filled with solid axles, real four-wheel drive with low-range gearing, and manly stick-shift transmissions. So we moseyed over to Jeep’s online configurator to start building out a Wrangler, only to remember that, holy crap, the things are expensive. (Oh, and they’re huge.)That’s okay,our ideal Wrangler isn’t some gussied-up, $40,000 toy—it’s a beastly, featureless strippermodel, and thanks to Jeep’s addition of a sweet new off-road tire option to the base Sport for 2015, that fantasy can once again be had for relatively little money. This is how we’d spec a Wrangler:
MODEL:
Jeep Sport Two-Door Manual 4×4(base price: $23,790)
There are no fewer than 9different Wrangler trim levels, two body styles, and—on most models—the choice of a manual or an automatic transmission. With the top-level, four-door Unlimited Rubicon Hard Rock pushing $40,990, and even milder versions like the sweet-looking Willys Wheeler running between $27,790 and $31,590, we needed to stay toward the bottom of the pile to satiateour base-model fetish. It doesn’t get more basic than the Sport, which starts at $23,790 and comes with steel wheels, crank windows, manual door locks, manual door mirrors, manual seats, a heater, Dana axles, four-wheel drive, four-wheel disc brakes, a six-speed manual transmission, fog lights, and a folding soft top.
Air conditioning is optional, as is Bluetooth, a hardtop, and satellite radio.The interior is washable—there are drain plugs in the floor for evacuating water—and although there are wisps of decadence in the standard cruise control, steering-wheel audio controls, eight-speaker audio system, and the 284-hp Pentastar V-6, this is as stripped as Jeeps come.
OPTIONS:
Sunset Orange Pearl paint($0)
Air conditioning bypass($0)
Half metal doors with manual locks($0)
Black Steel and 31-inch Dueler Tire Package($995) (regular rims get 225/75R16 on/off road; black package brings 245/75R16)
Connectivity Group($570)
As you might have noticed, our first three selected options are all no-cost. Free stuff is always good, but in the case of our dream Wrangler, it’s less a case of free stuff and more of a case of not paying money for things. For example, the paint is free, so we picked the brightest color we could find: Sunset Orange Pearl. Next, we chose not to add air conditioning for $1295; gotta love Jeep, the company actually has an option box for “air conditioning bypass,” which is really just a fancy way of saying “summer’s gonna be hot.” (Take off the roof and cruise, we say!) Finally, we shelled out zero smackers for half-metal doors with removable plastic side windows (not pictured above), which replace the standard full-metal doors and make top-down excursions feel even more open and more fun.
Now for the stuff we actually had to pay for. We’re fans of steel wheels, but the Wrangler’s standard steel-wheel/tire combo is a bit weak-looking. The tires are street-oriented and skinny, while the steelies are a boring shade of silver. Thankfully, Jeep introduced the $995Black Steel and 31-inch Dueler Tire Package for 2015, which includes meatier, 31-inch Bridgestone Dueler white-letter tires and the base Wrangler’s same steel wheels—only they’re painted black.Sweet. Vanity and enhanced off-road capability taken care of, the only option left (to us—Jeep offers many more, including different axle ratios, hardtops, a towing package, and even an automatic transmission) was the $570 Connectivity Group that brings functional upgrades such asa tire-pressure-monitor display, Uconnect voice recognition, Bluetooth, and what Jeep calls an “electronic vehicle information center.”
- 2015 Jeep Renegade Limited 4×4 Tested: We Hit the Rainforest—the Rainforest Cafe
- Report: Next Jeep Wrangler Keeps Solid Axles, Loses Folding Windshield
- Jeep Wrangler Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Reviews, and More
Would we consider $25,550 “cheap?” Not exactly, but in today’s Jeep Wrangler landscape, it’s a steal. And besides, to most folks, a Jeep looks like, well, a Jeep—no matter if it is a back-to-basics Luddite like our Wrangler Sport or a fully loaded Rubicon. We almost don’t want a nice Wrangler, because then we’d have reservations about scratching its body-color fender flares on brush or soiling its leather interior with mud or snow. A Sport, on the other hand, is ready to be grabbed by the scruff of its neck—or its padded roll bar—and tossed down the nearest off-road trail without stress. Yep, basic Jeeps still exist, but they’re getting harder to find; we hope Jeep can keep some of that stripperspirit alive in the next Wrangler coming out in 2017.
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Alexander Stoklosa
Online Editor
Alexander Stoklosa has been editing, writing, and reviewing cars for Car and Driver since 2010. Occasionally, he takes a subpar photograph or whips together a cheesy illustration to the chagrin of C/D’s art staff. More often he can be found taking needlessly contrarian positions in inter-office car debates.
