JEEP WRANGLER

Jeep updates its brand-defining macho 4x4 as it enjoys a surge in popularity

- ILLYA VERPRAET

TESTED 25.4.24, YORKSHIRE ON SALE NOW

Not many car manufacturers, certainly not long-established ones, can boast of 248% yearon-year sales increases, but Jeep can. Of course, that's not because Brits have started buying Wranglers en masse: it's largely thanks to the new Avenger.

Does the fact that most of the cars Jeep sells in the UK are now small crossovers that send most or all of their power to the front wheels dilute the brand? Well, Jeep's people talk about "protect the core, broaden the reach". In other words, it's no good keeping the brand pure if it's not commercially viable, but the Wrangler is still a very important part of the range - not because of the sales numbers it generates but because it legitimises the whole operation.

So with that in mind, Jeep has made some small tweaks to the Wrangler, on the one hand to keep it fresh and on the other to ensure that it continues to comply with safety regulations.

The first goal was to improve the Wrangler's side impact protection. That has been accomplished by adding new curtain airbags and - in possibly the most Jeep way imaginable by adding rock rails.

If it works for bouncing off rocks when off-roading, it must work for bouncing off other cars as well.

The updated Wrangler also gains lane keeping assistance, speed limit warning and drowsy driver alert. When it comes to those, however, Jeep is running down the clock and not actually fitting them until it absolutely has to. As a result, our test cars, which were 2024-model-year examples but produced before February, didn't yet have them fitted. So I can't tell you how well they work or how hard they are to turn off.