Does It Suck Daily Driving an Affordable Wrangler? 6 Month Jeep Ownership Update!

[Music] hey guys welcome to a really special episode of tfl car because it's long term update day and in this video we're going to answer a couple of questions can you daily drive a jeep wrangler what's it like to live with and this is my personal wrangler would i do anything differently now i've seen a lot of comments recently a lot of my friends are like oh you are absolutely insane for daily driving a two-door wrangler but i think that this is not the wheelbarrow a lot of people make it out to be online so in this video i'm gonna give you my six-month update because i bought this wrangler back in summer of last year and it has been overall an extremely good experience with a couple of hiccups throughout the way so let's get right into it now the story was that i wanted to buy a new vehicle i'd never done that before but as you know wranglers are very expensive and most of them on the lots are going to be 45 50 55 grand and now especially i mean oh my gosh it's not uncommon to see a wrangler that's over 60 000 my budget was like mid-20s but i did stretch to meet this one so i custom ordered this wrangler back in april of last year and it showed up in early summer this is what they call a willy sport so this is like full on stripper model with a couple of nice off-road goodies like the wheels and the tires and the rock rails and the limited slips so the msrp and this model was 33 000. i was able to get a slight discount so i paid 31 000 for it but then of course i forgot the whole taxes registration thing so i went in about 35 000 when it's all said and done but the question is i mean did i buy two bases of a wrangler is this too much of a bean can that it becomes hard to live with let's go over some of the features or lack thereof so no power windows no power mirrors no power locks which is quite unusual for 2021 or now 2022. to be honest i really don't miss any of them except for the power locks so like for example the power windows i'm sure it can be a little bit of a pain if you're trying to roll down the passenger side window but this being a two-door you don't have the rear windows to deal with i actually kind of like these kind of old-school very basic very utilitarian and less to break power mirrors never touch the mirrors right all you do you buy the jeep you go you manually adjust and then you just leave it be however powered door locks are one of those things which can be kind of a pain and i think hay stole my key can i grab it thanks buddy um what i mean by that of course is you physically have to stick the key in the door to unlock it now that isn't too big of an issue for the doors but i would greatly appreciate one for the rear uh gates so same thing if you want to lock and unlock the swing gate on this wrangler you do have to manually get out of the vehicle and unlock it this way there's no other way to do it like on the doors you can kind of do it from the inside back here you have to do it with the old-fashioned key now i actually owned the 19 was it 1990 daihatsu rocky which was this like bizarre little japanese four-wheel drive and that had a solution to this where the doors were manual but it had like an unlock for the rear gate and i think the jeep should do that that would make my life a lot easier but honestly like the power window power mirror thing has not bugged me once the other thing which i really thought i'd miss a lot but i don't heated seats i mean it's pretty common nowadays for wranglers to have heated seats and heated steering wheel and i haven't thought about either all that much it's been my first winter with this jeep and we've gotten temperatures you know in the three four degree range and i haven't missed any of them because the heater is absurd this is one of the quickest most fast-acting heaters in the industry and it gets so hot where you couldn't hold your hand in front of the vent for more than a few seconds without getting noticeably uncomfortable that's how hot this heater is so because the heater is so good don't miss any of the luxuries like the heated seats heated steering wheel also don't miss the automatic climate control really um not a big deal now i did pay extra for air conditioning it was like 1200 bucks jeep that should be standard you're killing me that is like clearly a cash grab thing in my opinion just make ac standard across the board one of the only new vehicles sold in the u.s that doesn't have standard ac and it needs to be done because i'm quite sure that the sales digits for the non-ac units they have to be like under what 20 30 that'd be my guess and even for the 2022 model in certain trims you still have to pay for it now let's talk about the powertrain so the jeep has like what seven different options there's a diesel there's a plug-in hybrid there's a v8 there's a standard turbo there's an e-torque v6 this one is just the standard old pentastar v6 3.6 liters some call this a corporate v6 what that means is that they use it across pretty much the whole corporate lineup so you'll find this in the challenger the charger the ram pickup trucks the minivans and that is a good thing because it means that this engine has been so well proven for so many years that i'm confident it will be reliable and actually it has been perfectly reliable over the last six months nothing has gone wrong with not a single check engine light not a single code it runs strong it's got a lot of power i mean look at the size of this vehicle this is a short wheelbase two-door wrangler it's very compact and it's got 280 some horsepower so this is kind of a little rocket ship for what it is and it's made it to the six-speed manual transmission we'll talk about the manual when we get into the vehicle and start driving it around but i love the engine it's fantastic and fuel economy over the last six months i've been averaging over 20 20 miles per gallon closer to 21 miles per gallon which for a vehicle shaped like a brick i think is very acceptable so love the engine whenever people ask what engine should i get in the wrangler get the standard v6 now i know if you get the automatic now it's still it comes paired with something called the e-torque system which is like a mild hybrid essentially a big beefy alternator that goes onto the front of the engine and i prefer to not have the e-torque but if that is my only option with the automatic i would still take the standard v6 over the 2-liter turbo so apart from that willy sport is a really fantastic trim and i would strongly recommend considering it because it's relatively affordable for all the stuff you get i think it's like under under two grand i want to say it really is pretty cheap and it gives you stuff like not only the cool willy stickers but the wheel and tire package so standard sports can have steel wheels and pretty much a road going tire this gives you the bfg mud terrain in this case the km2 now they built so many wranglers and because of shortages and you know the craziness that's been going on recently this may actually change g to jeep so sometimes the wheels will have fire stones this one i got the bfg km2 but that might change depending on your unit so kind of be flexible there it also gives you the rock rails you can get this aftermarket through mopar but it's nice to have it installed from the factory and then the biggest thing it gives you is not only the upgraded rubicon suspension but the limited slip rear diff so it's got a proper lsd in the rear along with the brake lock differential system means that this is a super uh super off-road worthy vehicle for what it is it's not quite a locker i wish you could get a wheelie for the locker maybe jeep will do that going forward but yeah it's great so let's go ahead and try this i don't want this to be an off-road test because we've done ton of those but we've got a little bit of a snow drift here let's go ahead and see if we can get the jeep up and through the snow drifts i'm gonna leave case out here and we'll see if we can get some mud flying and then we'll take it for a ride and talk about the daily drivability so into the wrangler firing up the 3.6 v6 let's go ahead and go into four wheel drive here and select the gear on the manual transmission now i have been driving this vehicle quite a lot in the uh last couple months i i kind of struggled with that a little bit early on because this was my first ever new car purchase and by far the biggest purchase i have ever made so i was very worried about getting it damaged and kind of scratched or you know mucked up but i'm kind of getting over that now and i'm not 2700 miles which is pretty abysmal for the last six months but uh i've gained a new attitude of let's just use it and enjoy it so here we go through the snow bank get some wheel spin going there oh yeah look at that pretty cool so this is low range it's going to go into second gear see if we can get it to fling around a little bit oh should have closed that window oh what in the heck all right that was fun case you want to come in and we shall uh we shall go ahead and talk about the drivability and the usability some windshield wiper there so let's talk about these seats really quick before you get in these are the heritage tan cloth seats you can get them in black and tan 10 is no cost option definitely get the tan i think it looks phenomenal although my black mountain dog blaze has certainly made this a challenge to keep clean so from an interior standpoint right very basic not a whole lot of buttons no driver assistance none of that down here but we do have the greatest infotainment system to exist in history i freaking love this little system it is perfect this is the basic i think it's a 5-inch screen but it just works so well it's got radio and it's got media for phone connectivity with bluetooth and absolutely nothing else you can tune it you can adjust the volume you can talk to people it doesn't have any fancy maps it doesn't have any crazy settings i guess it does have a compass technically but it's just lovely it does absolutely everything i need nothing i don't it's never crashed it's never failed the resolution is well it's kind of poopy but who cares it just works it's lovely fantastic little screen i also feel the same way about the center screen for the gauges so um uh it's just it's not the big fancy screen you can get in the wrangler but it's nice now the previous a hundred and some miles i've averaged 19.8 because i've been driving it kind of hard through the snow but realistically 2021 is very achievable in a wrangler which i have to say is much more adequate than i was expecting now let's talk about the usability and the daily drivability of this jeep so for like i said for the first few months i was very hesitant to drive it because i wanted to keep the value high and i wanted to keep it clean and shiny and the last couple months have been like a let's just drive the beans off of it let's enjoy it i bought it might as well enjoy it and it's been very good so as a daily driver right it is a little bit compromised i mean this is not the largest vehicle i still think for taller drivers a seat could go back a little further and the seat comfort isn't great but the soft top has been remarkably quiet on road trips on the highway it's not unbearable i've driven it through many many snowstorms now haven't got a single bit of intrusion from ice or from snow or from frost none of it's been super well sealed and you can throw it back super easily the sound system bass sound system is incredible for what it is you just crank up the radio you got speakers above your head and it just works ac is excellent got a couple of usb ports that's it and to be honest there's nothing else i have needed now ride and handling solid axle vehicle we do have coil springs which is a nice luxury compared to my old jeep which was a least sprung vehicle it's not it's not a rolls royce there's no doubt about that but it is the best wrangler for daily drivability that's ever existed it's fairly comfortable and it feels fairly safe and secure even on the highway there have been i think only one instance where i kind of got a pucker moment i was on ice and this vehicle pulled out right in front of me and i hit the brakes a little bit too hard and things kind of started to get a little sketchy with the short wheelbase and the weight transfer but apart from that i felt very safe and secure in this whenever i drive it even on the highway at high speeds so off-road standpoint this thing will go well beyond what i would ever need it to i mean it really is an extremely capable vehicle everybody thinks they need the rubicon and 99 of people don't the the low range the the short wheel base the light weight of this vehicle is just such an incredible beast it's more capability than i'd ever need and the mud terrains they're not very good in the snow compared to a snow rated all-terrain like ko2 so something you may want to consider changing going forward but in this kind of slushy slick gross muddy mess they are excellent and these are the km2 so this is the older generation of bfg mud terrain but even still i mean the grip they provide i mean this is super slick mud andre was out here with a military truck the other day and he struggled to to make his way up this hill and look at that it just goes anywhere you point it brake lock differential kicking in there distributing power where it needs to go phenomenal manual transmission when i do it again it's not the greatest manual it's a little bit rubbery and the gearing is a little tall so really if you're going 35 you have to be in third if you want to maintain speed on hills typically i like to be in a higher gear and have the same speed capability i think it's like a 345 axle ratio i'd like this to be a little bit shorter but it's fun to drive you know and it's kind of a principle thing there's manuals are so hard to find now and being able to roll your own gears does give you an additional connection to the vehicle which you might not have otherwise now from a storage and utility back seat surprisingly roomy hard to get in and out but i've had friends back there and it's actually pretty decent trunk tiny trunk is too small but let's go ahead and get out of here wrap it up and talk about what would i change there is really only one thing i would change on this wrangler um the color i love the firecracker and it was my my second favorite color in the whole jeep lineup but i really like this bikini pearl metallic they do which is like this teal green it wasn't available when i ordered it so i went with the red but apart from that guys i mean that's obviously just a stupid preference thing it has beyond exceeded my expectations from refinement riot quality um the soft top's been good fuel economy 21 pretty decent i pay what is it 1200 bucks a year i believe for insurance so it's not too expensive to insure for what it is i just i i do love this vehicle it's been beyond exceeding my expectations i hope to really hold on to this for a lot of years to come because it was my dream vehicle and i feel very fortunate i could work hard and afford this but uh time to go clean it off because even though i don't mind getting it dirty i still prefer it clean and we'll see you on the next video ciao

Channel: The Fast Lane Car

Views: 302,930

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Id: LxSRx3oR5HE

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022