The Next Jeep Wrangler Could Be Radically Different

With the ever-tightening fuel-efficiency laws, manufacturers sometimes have to make heart-wrenching choices.

In the large Chrysler/Fiat family, one of the most problematic vehicles is the Jeep Wrangler. This 4x4 is not exactly up to date or loaded with modern technologies, and it is made using techniques that were developed at the beginning of the last century. Not only that, but it is also quite heavy (and not very aerodynamic!), and overall not very fuel-efficient. If it was just a low-production model, that wouldn’t be so bad, but the Wrangler’s success actually plays against it: it sells so well that it actually drags down the whole brand’s fuel economy average. In an effort to solve this problem, the next Jeep Wrangler could be radically different.

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First of all, the body-on-frame construction could go away, replaced by a unibody design. The current engine, a 3.6L Pentastar V6, could be downsized and maybe turbocharged for efficiency. And finally, the 4x4 could follow in the tire tracks of the 2015 Ford F-150 and trade its steel bodywork for aluminium.

All these changes would also mean that the Wrangler wouldn’t be built at the Toledo, Ohio assembly plant, where it has been built for the better part of the last 50 years.