2019 Jeep Wrangler JL

SPIELBERG, Austria: So here I am in the new Jeep Wrangler, powering up one of Austria’s most insane mountain trails – tree roots crisscrossing my path, deep muddy trenches all over the place and massive rocks daring me to take them on – and the only thing keeping them from hurling me out of my seat is the seatbelt. Still, even as I’m hanging on to the steering wheel with all my strength, my passenger in the seat next to me has managed, unbelievably, to fall asleep, start snoring, and yet somehow still hold up a can of Red Bull.

I’ve seen a lot of strange things, but this one takes the cake. How the hell is that even possible? But you’re probably wondering how I ended up here, so here goes.

It all started with an invitation to experience the new 2019 model at Camp Jeep in Spielberg, Austria, some months ago. As you can imagine I was eager to get a preview, but at the same time I was worried that it might be a disaster because the Wrangler is one of those iconic vehicles you just don’t want to mess with too much. Remember the rectangular headlight fiasco? Me too.

And so, ticket in hand after a night of no sleep, off I went to the airport. Be warned: Business Class on Lufthansa is ludicrous. The seats are the same size as in economy, but they just keep the middle seat empty, at your expense. You can’t even park yourself on the two seats because there’s a metal bar between them that wreaks havoc on your backside and sciatica.

Thankfully, the flight to Frankfurt, where I and my colleagues would transfer to a connecting flight heading to Vienna, was short, as was the connecting flight. Besides, it would be worth it: The new Wrangler was waiting.

We exited the airport, hopped into a pair of Fiat transporters that were to take us to Spielberg, and I promptly fell asleep, and stayed asleep through the entire two-hour ride, which terminated at the Schloss Gabelhofen Hotel in Fohnsdorf, Spielberg. Yes, it’s a mouthful, but one look at the place and the surrounding hills and you’ll start trying to pick up the sound of music emanating from those lush green hills. In fact, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Julie Andrews suddenly appeared and broke out in song. It just made me more irritated about Brexit than ever because, man, I couldn’t imagine a more inspiring and peaceful place to spend the rest of my life.

After a brief rest and a meal – and after I gawked at the hotel’s ridiculously adorable façade for a good half hour – we all hopped into vans again and were promptly transported to Camp Jeep actual, where we caught our first glimpse of the latest iteration of one of history’s most iconic off-road vehicles … and it didn’t seem any different than the previous one. Well, not at first anyway, or maybe because I didn’t want it to be different.

Seriously, think about it. We need constants in life, certain things that let us cling to the familiar in an ever-changing world. Sometimes these constants are people and families, or homes, or even certain dishes or sports clubs that reinforce our sense of connection. But they can also be concepts or styles, which just happen to also exist in the car industry and include iconic and timeless models like the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mini Cooper, the Porsche 911, the Land Rover Series and, of course, the Jeep Wrangler.

Of these, the Beetle was just put to rest, while frankly there’s no longer anything mini about the Mini. As for the 911, it’s evolved from a pure, “hang on to your britches” sports car which almost anyone could afford to one of the most sophisticated and expensive mainstream luxury automobiles on the market that almost no one can afford.

That leaves the Wrangler, one of the last remaining pillars in the car industry, and certainly not because of the name, because that has been changed a number of times since its inception. Let’s not forget that it was one of the heroes of World War II and helped win that conflict when it went by the Willys moniker in its original guise, and later became the CJ and a bunch of other nomenclature that I can’t even remember before it became renamed as the Wrangler.

And, of course, a host of other manufacturers have tried to copy the concept, most not very successfully, while a few used the idea as a launch pad for their own visions of what a rugged off-roader should be like.

It has also appeared in multiple beloved TV series with which we’re all familiar, including “Hogan’s Heroes,” the “Dukes of Hazzard” and “M.A.S.H.” to name but a few. Some of us may remember Radar shipping a Jeep home from Korea piece by piece using the U.S. Postal Service, or we may recall Daisy Duke more than the Jeep, but that’s due to Daisy’s shorts, and not the car’s fault.

Those appearances have cemented the design in our psyches, to the point that I’ve yet to meet anyone who hasn’t wanted to own a Wrangler at some point in their lives.

Think about it, why wouldn’t you want one? If cars in general symbolize freedom of mobility, Wranglers take that freedom to a new level. Not only are they perfectly suited to traverse city streets, highways and everything in between, but they can also pretty much handle most unpaved terrain. In fact, while the Sport version is perfectly capable of managing the wild, and the Sahara even more so, level up to the Rubicon and you won’t just manage the wild, you’ll bloody well bring it to heel.

Add to that the fact that besides affording the luxury of an enclosed cabin in either a two- or four-door version, you can lose the roof – you can get those in either soft or hard form, or both – remove the doors and fold down the front windscreen, and you’ve got open-top freedom as well. Which makes sense because, if we were meant to commute sitting under steel roofs, we would have all been born with steel helmets affixed to our heads

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s the unmistakable styling that harkens back to the original, including the classic seven-slot grille flanked by the round headlights – thankfully sanity has already prevailed and someone at Jeep realized a while back that the horrendous rectangular headlights were, well, horrendous.

So just think how disappointing it would be if Jeep, in its zeal to reimagine the car, were to strip this legendary off-roader of its unique attributes, departing from its familiar design and even more familiar capabilities and features.

You can also imagine my anxiety when I heard that it now had a revised body, revised interior and revised top, in addition to a better ride, and more comfortable cabin. It sounded like they messed with everything that made the car special!

I really was more concerned than usual because, although as a car journalist I often accept change with a shrug, in this case it was personal due to the fact that I was one of those people who really, really wanted a Wrangler. Still, I was here for a reason, and I needed to go figure this thing out.

But I was still drowsy, and I figured it would be best to get some caffeine in my system before I took a closer look. I really wanted to be awake enough to fully grasp what Jeep had done to the Wrangler. So, after a couple of espressos and one very large cup of American coffee, I warily approached the Wranglers, all lined up in tidy rows, for a thorough scrutiny.

With the fog cleared from my brain, mostly, I started detecting subtle differences, the first of which was the graphic line just beneath the beltline. Unlike the flatness of the JK, the JL has a crisp fold that runs from just beneath the side mirrors all the way to the back of the car. Whereas the older model just featured a flat surface on the sides, the new styling affords dimension to the sheet metal. I was already enamored.

The front fenders now feature vents just behind the wheel well which, as I understand it, evacuate air from the engine bay to reduce hood flutter while traveling at speed. Think about that for a minute: The Wrangler, one of the least aerodynamic cars on the planet, now actually puts emphasis on air flow management. I’m sold.

The windshield is raked at a steeper angle, which is really, really cool and makes the car appear more contemporary. As for the fascia, the headlights are a great deal more modern, even lavish – but thankfully still round – and they intrude into the outer grille openings, much like the classic Willys. And those slats – seven as is customary – rise all the way to the level of the top edge of the headlights and dispense with the curved tips in favor of rectangular ones, making the grille appear more cohesive in the process.

The bumper, meanwhile, feels edgier, more intricate and yet somehow more rugged, although the turn signals go from round to rectangular and relocate to the front edge of the wings, which themselves have grown more refined.

The door hinges, thankfully, are still right where they belong – on the outside. And the doors can still be completely removed. The hood still locks with latches on the outside, but now features a pair of chunky rubber moldings to support the lowered windscreen – yes, it still folds down – to rest on. As for the rear taillights, they’re bigger, and more reminiscent of the original’s design.

The next bit is my favorite part, and probably also for anyone who wants to make the most of the Wrangler’s open-top capabilities. Unlike before, the soft top is a piece of cake to remove and replace, with the cargo-area side and rear plastic windows sliding out easily – that’s right, you don’t need a degree in quantum physics to maneuver those things off the car anymore. As for the hardtop version, the panels above the driver and front passenger can be removed with a mere quarter turn on each latch. It’s just brilliant.

In a nutshell, the new body is almost completely different from its predecessor. In fact, it’s become a bigger car, with the two-door version gaining more than an inch in wheelbase and 2.5 inches in overall length while the four-door model adds nearly 2.5 inches to its wheelbase and 3.5 inches to its length. The increased size not only translates to a bit more legroom in the back, but the longer wheelbase means more stability on the stretches.

Naturally, those little changes can not only make it tougher to steer, but can make it more difficult to negotiate a ledge without scraping the car. To that end, Jeep has granted both the two- and four-door models a tighter turning circle as well as more ground clearance, ensuring that the longer wheelbase does not come at a cost.

Along with the larger body, which is lighter and more resistant to flex, the wrangler now offers two gasoline engine choices – a new turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and the familiar 3.6-liter V-6, which in fact is the only one available in the Middle East. Still, that makes it perfectly suited for Lebanon’s mountainous topography, and achieving 18/23 mpg city/highway with the automatic, that’s not too bad for a car of this segment.

The automatic, by the way, is a new eight-speed automatic – thankfully the archaic five-speed has been nixed. Also available is a new six-speed manual that isolates noise and from vibration much better than the previous manual.

The Sport and more affluent Sahara come with light-duty axles, open diffs and a standard 2.72:1 low-range. The Rubicon, as you would expect, expands your driving options by granting you electronically locking front and rear differentials, an electronically disconnecting front anti-roll bar, a 4:1 low range for its part-time four-wheel-drive system and reinforced axles front and rear.

More than anything else, the most noticeable difference for both body styles of the new Wrangler is the ride quality. There’s less noise on tarmac, and the ride is softer. Even steering feels much better than before, and overall this SUV has become as accommodating in the city and the highway as it is on the trails.

And be assured that on the trails it really shines. The routes that had been prepared for us to try the Wrangler’s capabilities were, as I mentioned, ludicrous, with mud, massive tree roots and insane ditches thrown in for good measure.

Not only did the different versions of the Wrangler overcome their respective trails without batting an eye, but we traversed and climbed those trails at breakneck speeds, with me hanging on to the steering wheel for dear life as the car bounced and skipped over rocks and tree roots. Meanwhile, my copilot, a fellow car journalist who had also not gotten much sleep, promptly started snoring even as the uncompromising terrain was still trying to dislodge us from our seats. Thank God for seats belts!

Seconds later he regained consciousness, and immediately went for the can of Red Bull still clutched in his hand. It was all I could do to keep from laughing hysterically while his mouth chased the opening in the elusive can, courtesy of the Wrangler’s acrobatics over that rough terrain.

Later, when it was his turn to drive, I politely declined to accompany him because, as much as I loved the Wrangler, I really didn’t want to die in those woods in the event he fell asleep again while plowing down one of those perilous trails at 80 kilometers an hour. After all, I was still set on buying myself a Wrangler!

I do know this: I came back from that trip more convinced than ever that the Wrangler was definitely an off-road vehicle worth owning. And the new one was even better than I could have hoped. The way I see it, it’s so much more accommodating now, not to mention sleeker, and its removable top and doors, along with its foldable windscreen, are as practical as its off-road abilities. Did they mess it up? Not in the least! It’s still thoroughly the Wrangler we all love, but so much better.

So, if you need the perfect all-around vehicle to transport your family, or to just explore the countryside, you simply can’t go wrong with this one. As for me, I can’t think of a better vehicle to use as a chase car to make videos of other cars in any terrain, without having to resort to an expensive rig. There really aren’t that many other options that afford the benefits of a foldable front windscreen and removable roof.

And take a look at the hotel pics below. Have you ever seen anything more enchanting?