2020 Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel - Brilliant But Flawed

the Jeep Wrangler is legendary for its off-road capabilities but the one thing that's been missing until now is torque this is the 2020 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon and it's got the brand-new 3 liter eco design so we're gonna take it on some trails and we're gonna find out if this is the best Jeep engine the eco diesel makes 442 pound-feet of torque that's a lot that's actually a third more than the base Pentastar v-6 to test things out we're gonna take it up the hill in four-wheel high now that is absolutely the wrong way to do it because we won't have Maxima traction but I want to see just how much the engine has to work so this look at the 8-speed automatic transmission here it has 40 different shift programs which is pretty interesting and it should be able to sort of keep the power in the power band so whoo it has maximum torque all the way down to 1,400 rpm and I'm going through some pretty pretty serious moguls here in 4-wheel high which is not the right way to do it oh whoa whoa ah maybe four-wheel high isn't gonna do it there we go there we go yes yes see that's for real hi ah back up a little bit for real hi let's do it let's do it let's do it there we go Wow yes all right so 2,000 rpm was the maximum hit we're making tons of torque so it made it up pretty successfully in four-wheel high that's amazing this would have been much more challenging in a regular old the v6 Pentastar you're gonna go up the same Hill again but I'm gonna do it properly this time I've engaged the transfer case the low-speed transfer case it's 4 to 1 so that's going to give me a 4x torque multiplication and I've also turned on sway bar disconnect so that's going to give me better wheel articulation so like I say the maximum torque is around 1500 it's so low so I'm just gonna sort of cruise up here and let the transmission do its thing and let's see where the engine stays I think the transmission programming is gonna keep this around the maximum torque so right now I'm like 13 1400 and these are some pretty pretty big moguls I'm sure you can see it on the cut side there I've got some good articulation going on I don't have anything locked up this is just a four-wheel low with the sway bar disconnect and I'm I've barely got my foot on the gas it's really really really torquey this is this thing is a torque monster it is awesome this engine is I want it I want this engine this is great [Music] the interior of the jl jeep so the jl was introduced first as a 2018 model so this has been around for about two years and it is a massive massive upgrade from the previous generation the heat and cooling controls are up down and it has an auto function now this particular cabinet has the leather trim package is about $1,500 it looks pretty nice it seems to be pretty durable leather not sure if I would get that for off-roading and it also has the upgraded infotainment system with the 8.4 inch screen the upgraded audio really good this has got an Alpine system it's got a big beefy subwoofer in the back and because this is sort of an SUV style cabin it actually makes really good bass I think most people are gonna be really quite happy with the infotainment system in here now I do have a couple complaints about the seats it really does need longer bolsters in front my thighs are not supported that well I'm just really not able to get that comfortable in here and for a vehicle starting it you know 42,000 dollars which is the base price of this I'd really like to see better seats this also has a really bright color display right in the dashboard in between the speedometer and the tack and it's very useful it actually provides a ton of information so when you're off-roading it gives you things like your coolant temperature your transmission temperature oil temperature oil pressure all that important stuff and it also has it shows you what your driveline configuration is if you're in for high or low it tells you if your sway bar is disconnected if your lockers are turned on or off and that's got a really cool pitch and roll feature I think it's a little bit of a parlor trick but it is kind of nice to know exactly how steep a grade you're going on and how much of a pitch you're really on how much of a pucker factor that's gonna give you I find when I'm about 16 degrees I start to go getting a little a little tight down there cuz I definitely get some at that level of role I'm in the backseat I'm five foot nine and there's plenty of headroom back here of course this has the incredible sliding OneTouch top that goes all the way back legroom behind myself is pretty decent I don't have an issue any issues with that I think if you're taller it might be a little bit cramped in here but this has actually got a fair bit of space for four people pretty comfortably now if you're like rocking out to some good tunes this has two speakers one here one here which gives you pretty good audio when things are loud you've got the top down you've got the windows down and the backseat people can hear it and the people in the front too so you guys can all rock out at the same time rockin like Dokken speaking of rocking out I think we need to check out the ground clearance when you're doing this has 10.8 inches of ground clearance we're gonna go up this rock garden here and we're gonna see how much ground clearance we have we can see we can get over these rocks I'm going to turn on the front and rear lockers so that I have lots of grip and I've got it in four-wheel low I've got it in automatic mode and I got the sway bar disconnected so it's in the maximum all-wheel drive or rather the four-wheel drive configuration right now all right let's see we're going to go over this rock I think I have enough clearance for that cleared it pretty good actually I do have a spotter outside my lovely cameraman over there so there we go not something you're probably gonna do on your Subaru but he's definitely doing yeah so this is the Rubicon of course which makes it the most off-road capable this has a transfer case a four to one transfer case which comes with the Rubicon package which gives you the most additional torque of of any of the Oh wheel drive packages and this is a 4-wheel Drive part time system and it has all these different modes that you can engage so it's really the most capable of the of all of the Jeep products let's see what kind of angle we're getting here let me see if I can pull this up on the display twenty-one degree grade right now and I'm pretty much just going straight up this crazy wall of rock here and this is a lot of fun this is definitely a lot of fun and I want to thank FCA for bringing me a Jeep that is on brand yellow and black the brand color is hey thank you so much for that I really appreciate the fact that you're you're thinking of me that way in terms of the color combinations because color is really important so all I can see is the sky right now just sky and it's not having any difficulty getting up this thing at all Wow 24 degrees I think I think I think we did it I think we did it hopefully the skid plates protect us too so this also has a lot of skid plate everything is protected with skid plates on this it's got skid plates until next Sunday it's got them under the oil pan the differential the center lock the gas tank it's got skid plates everywhere so that's part of the Rubicon package as well and that's one of the reasons why if you want to do some serious off-roading you definitely want to get the Rubicon [Music] [Applause] so one of the first things that you notice is that this does not sound like a gas-powered engine it definitely has a diesel sound but it's not the sound of the old-school diesel truck engines with the heavy duty clatter this is pretty modern and refined sounding now in terms of acceleration it's pretty good you can really feel the torque right off the line it's pretty snappy it definitely feels pretty good for a jeep probably about the same as the other models but there's definitely more of a feeling of that torque so there's one thing about this and it is pretty noisy now it's a pretty windy day I'm going about 40 miles an hour right now and there is just a lot of wind noise from this top also these tires are big beefy off-road tires and there's a lot of a lot of noise from these tires too if you're looking for an SUV like experience a crossover like experience something that drives like a car this is not that this is definitely geared towards off-road this is primarily an off-road vehicle and part of the reason is I feel that way is because it has solid front axle and they've done a lot of work since the last generation but still when you're driving and the steering wheel is on center it tends to move around a little bit in the lane it tends to you've got to really do minor steering Corrections to kind of keep the vehicle in its lane when you're on the freeway and you're trying to keep a constant track around a big corner you've got to do a little tiny steering Corrections all the time and after a while it gets a little bit tiring like I said this is really primarily aimed at the offroad if you're looking for that perfect compromise vehicle that you can daily and take it off-road yes you can definitely daily it but it's not something that I would personally want to do it's just not relaxed enough to drive it on a daily basis if you're doing a long freeway commute if you're just going around the city and short trips absolutely but it's just it's you know it's really much more aimed at rock crawling and going through the sand and going to the really difficult places that's the focus of this vehicle now the ride comfort it actually rides pretty well again with a solid front axle it is a little bit compromised it doesn't have sort of the soft ride that the Toyota 4runner does especially the TRD pro it does not feel like a crossover by any means but it's it's pretty soft the Rubicon definitely has a more compliant suspension than some of the other models so it's you know it's pretty good it doesn't beat you up alright this is a very very steep hill indeed here we go go Jeep go deep so I've got everything locked up I got the front and the rear is locked up gonna go over that big 18 inch rock now I think I'm just about on I'm on it whoa okay I can feel it I'm gonna have ear to the left a little bit here and we're going we're going we're going go Jeep go Jeep that is a pretty serious Hill Climb oh my god I'm getting over the top let's see how the breakover angle is we just made it wow that is a serious serious hill climb and a little challenging you had like a little moment of a little moment of worried there for a second but it made it pretty good so once again Jeep is really good in off-road situations and I'm sure the Jeep is capable of putting it you know itself in a more extreme situation than I'm putting it in so for me this is pretty impressive let's get into the pros and cons I think the interior overall is pretty good it's pretty roomy the infotainment system is really good I like the 8.4 inch screen and I like this color screen on the dash as well it gives you a lot of information it's very easy to use overall of course the engine is amazing this eco diesel engine has got so much torque it's pretty refined for a diesel I would definitely get this engine if I was looking at doing a lot of off-roading the Rubicon package is amazing off-road and the ride quality is pretty good for what it is - considering you got a solid front axle now in the negative category it's obviously not the perfect all-round vehicle it's you're looking for something that is really comfortable driving around the city and it's pretty good off-road it's not perfect for that the steering feel on center is definitely kind of a con for me the diesel does cost $4,000 and this entire vehicle is optioned up to 62 thousand dollars that's that's pretty expensive that's kind of eye watering ly expensive I think you can figure it to about $50,000 and you're going to get all the necessities that you want to take it off-road with the Ecodiesel Jeep is legendary for a reason and is its ability to go places that no other vehicle can go I think from that perspective you really don't have a lot of other choices for the most off-road capable vehicle so I really like this I really recommend it if you're looking to go and do some heavy-duty off-roading my name is Eric I've got a jeep renegade review up on screen as well please support the channel and subscribe join the patreon if you like and I will see you soon thanks for watching

Channel: RevMatchTV

Views: 38,927

Rating: 4.8132043 out of 5

Keywords: revmatchtv, jeep, jeep wrangler, 2020 jeep wrangler unlimited, jeep wrangler ecodiesel, jeep diesel, jeep ecodiesel, jeep wrangler review, 2020 jeep wrangler review, hella yella, off roading, jeep review, off road test, jeep wrangler price, purchase jeep, lease a jeep, jeep dealer, jeep wrangler rubicon

Id: 0x9EDv65tiA

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020