2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon: Improving the World, Since 1941

I love a lot of cars. I’m a bit of a philanderer that way. When it comes to my personal tastes, they’re only restricted by a vehicle’s ability to meaningfully fulfill its purpose. If a fun car does a good job of being a fun car, well, I’ll probably love it. Conversely, if a truck does a good job of being a truck, then it’ll be a great vehicle in my books. The Jeep Wrangler, however, transcends this… it does everything better than just about anything else.

Let’s begin with the fun car aspect. Obviously, being a Jeep product, the name alone guarantees a certain capacity for fun. And the model I tested being one of the longer wheelbase, larger capacity, off-road prepared Rubicon models, that fun quotient was even more prevalent.  Endowed with the ability to traverse more varied terrain than any other vehicle you will find on a dealership floor, and a roof that departs from the bodywork in three different (and relatively easy to manage) segments, it’s a package that’s pretty hard to beat. Be it a beachside boulevard or a boulder-strewn trail, there’s nothing quite like its combination of a tall and commanding seating position and open roof. Giving the same open air experience as any other convertible without the encumbrance of a low seating position and the associated vision problems, it doesn’t matter what seat you’re in… all four are the best seats in the house. 

And they’re all damn practical, too. Although previous years of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited have suffered from an overly busy pair of front seats, this year’s revision features a pleasant dashboard rewrite that substantially improves the situation. Instead of a variety of geometric shapes protruding quite abruptly from the dashboard, the 2011 model features a much more organic centre control stack that seems to give a substantial improvement in knee room, even if it’s dimensionally identical. And it both looks and feels about a billion times better, too.  While the old model featured some pretty funky textures molded into the overly soft plastics (of which there was too much, anyway), the new one is downright luxurious by comparison. The dials and switches no longer feel as if they’ve been lifted from a Playskool toy, and their replacements all feel first rate. Even the steering wheel is substantially improved, now being shared across the Jeep line and possessing a variety of controls, as well as being of a much more suitable shape and design. 

And the practicality story doesn’t end there, either. Your rear seat passengers won’t find themselves hemmed in by the Jeep’s confines with plenty of leg room, reclining seatbacks, and of course, plenty of headroom. Even with the roof fixed in place, it’s still not a bad place to be with relatively large windows that roll down all the way, and a supportive back seat that’s moderately comfortable. And should you find yourself saddled with a full complement of passengers, and a serious amount of their personal belongings, the ample trunk will undoubtedly come in handy. However, on that particular note, there are two things worth noting; the first of which is the presence of a relatively secure storage area beneath the floor of the trunk. With handy compartments and holes to store all the roof and door hardware (should you live in a province where door removal is legal) and a nicely sized bin for small to medium sized parcels and objects, the lid to the space is secured by the rear tailgate. The second point, though, isn’t quite as cool. Although a relatively large space unto itself, the mandatory roll cage and optional stereo subwoofer both conspire to limit your trunk space, effectively reducing the width of much the area to that of a much smaller car. 

But, as fun and practical as it may be, the Jeeps biggest party piece may be this: it’s ridiculous, bargain basement price. Starting at just $18,345, the standard two-door Jeep finds itself just about $500 more expensive than Honda’s much less useful Civic coupe, while the basic four door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited bests the base MSRP of the ultra-popular Toyota Camry by just over $3,000. And yet, there doesn’t seem to be any sacrifice to be found over any of its similarly priced “competitors.” Capable of doing almost all of the same tasks you would ask of any similarly priced vehicle, the Jeep Wrangler also offers such amenities as four wheel drive, a removable roof, a V6 (soon to be of the more efficient, more powerful  Pentastar variety!), decent cargo and towing capacity, and ridiculous amounts of interior space; all features nearly nothing else can match. In fact, perhaps the most amazing thing about the Jeep Wrangler is this: that since 1941, it still hasn’t found a worthy competitor!