Why Driving A Jeep Wrangler JL On My Honeymoon Made Me Want To Buy One. But Not Anytime Soon

For years I’ve been going back-and-forth on whether I should buy a new Jeep Wrangler JL — the only vehicle I ever helped develop. How cool would it be to say “See this car I drive? I helped engineer it.” That’d be great; plus, it’s exactly the kind of machine I tend to love — a dual-solid-axle off-road beast. But I just rented two in Hawaii during my honeymoon, and now I’m glad I chose my BMW i3S instead. But I still want one.

I’ve been pretty much off the grid for the past 10 days thanks to a delightful honeymoon in Hawaii, a cluster of volcanic islands that it took me 33 years to visit. My overall impression: It’s not nearly as touristy as I feared, and in fact, in many ways it felt like an authentic, largely undisturbed natural wonder. Of course, I only visited Kauai and The Big Island, and I understand that Oʻahu is a bit busier. Still, I was impressed.

You know what I wasn’t impressed by? Our rental car’s powertrain. Like every other tourist in Kauai, I drove a Wrangler:

The one I chose was a 4xe, and I drove it the entire time in hybrid mode. That’s because the rental agency didn’t charge its 4xe plug-in hybrids, so the vehicles were all pretty much just running on gasoline. This is exactly what a lot of PHEV-detractors complain about: Too many people don’t actually plug their vehicles in.

 

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But I get it. In the case of the 4xe, the 22 mile EV range will only get you 1/3 the way around the small island; that tiny thimble of juice runs out quick, and it doesn’t help that not all hotels charge EVs overnight, so once you’re out, you’re out unless you want to make a charging stop…somewhere. And I don’t know about you, but on my vacation I’m not stopping to charge a car so I can get an extra 22 miles of EV range. Nope.

Anyway, the 4Xe is still a really enjoyable, open-top off-road vehicle, and the ultimate Hawaii rental. But that owes little to the powertrain, which is middling at best — especially once the tiny battery is empty. That 2.0-liter turbocharged GME-T4 under the hood is buzzy, and the way it jolts on when it fires up combines with all the buzzing and whining from the electric powertrain to yield a car that just feels unrefined and maybe even a bit half-baked.

The number of noises you hear from the 4xe — the electric power steering pump, the motor itself, the pedestrian protection, the engine itself — it’s a bit strange, and the often-abrupt power delivery when you roll onto the accelerator pedal didn’t help. Maybe it was somehow related to this being a rental car, but the 4Xe powertrain is just not the one I’d ever want. Yes, at $50,000 minus whatever EV incentives you qualify for, you could probably nab a Wrangler 4xe Sport S for not much more than a similarly-equipped 2.0-liter non-PHEV Wrangler four-door, and if you factor in the fuel savings, that might be the smart bet if you believe this 4Xe wont end up costing you in maintenance given all its complexity.

For me, I’m sticking with a six-speed manual.

Anyway, after picking up the rental car, I drove us to this hotel, which looks just like one that might have a few velociraptors running through it:

Speaking of, you remember this tree that the first-gen Ford Explorer landed in in that movie?:

My wife Elise (not her real name) and I visited that tree! It’s the far one here:

Behold:

Apparently this is the root that was damaged during the car’s fall:

To be clear, I will be buying a Jeep Wrangler JL at some point in my life; the easily-removable roof panels were amazing, there was tons of room, the ride quality isn’t really that horrible, and the off-road capability is prodigious. In fact, I used that off-road capabililty to get a parking spot that nobody else dared to even consider as an actual parking spot:

Look at that articulation; easy.

But last year I had a decision to make: Do I buy a Wrangler or a BMW i3S? Most would have figured I’d buy a Wrangler, since I am a Jeep man. But I chose the i3S; why?

The answer is simple: The BMW i3S offers something I cannot easily get in an older, cheaper vehicle (other than another i3). It’s a carbon fiber, modern-ish EV with a range extender. There’s nothing else like it.

But the Jeep Wrangler JL, if we’re being honest, isn’t that different than my Jeep Grand Cherokee 5-speed. It’s got the same suspension and ride similarly poorly, it’s got the same steering mechanical bits so it steers similarly poorly, it’s got a more complicated engine, its manual transmission isn’t as fun — it’s really not that much of an upgrade over an older vehicle.

The the reason for this is that the Jeep Wrangler JL has retained many of the traits that have made old Jeeps so great, and I do love that. I also can appreciate that the engine is more powerful and efficient and the structure is safer (though the vehicle is way, way heavier than my old Jeep), but because I can wrench on old vehicles, I just didn’t see the point in me spending $35 grand on a vehicle that is mechanically that similar to my other Jeeps. And what’s more, spending that much money on a vehicle that will only do about 20 MPG given California fuel costs also made very little sense to me.

By now it should be clear that this post is really just an excuse to share a bit of my honeymoon with you, dear readers. But since we’ve gone this far, I may as keep typing. Here’s the last bit of car-talk before I just show you Hawaii pictures:

It turns out, aqua is a culturally significant color in Kauai; I’m not entirely sure I understand the history (purple is the official color), but I saw tons of aqua-colored cars to the point where I had to look it up. It turns out, there is some meaning behind the color, and in fact, Behr has a paint color called Kauai:

Anyway, check out this gorgeous canyon my wife Elise (not her real name) and I hiked to in Waimea Canyon State Park:

That’s right here, in case you’re as familiar with Kauai as I was the day I arrived on the island:

Check out this waterfall, which was an extremely anticlimactic end to a rather grueling, muddy hike:

In Hawaii, chickens are everywhere, and they are rarely eaten (they’re considered friends, and some say the wild ones don’t taste great). This one walked with E(NHRN) and me for about a mile; a fellow hiker referred to these birds as “spirit guides”:

On a subsequent day, E(NHRN) and I went Kayaking, where she rightfully chided me for my poor paddling form:

This kayaking trip took us to the bottom of a 120 foot waterfall, which I swam under. According to legend, touching the back wall of a waterfall adds four years to one’s life, which might make up for a small portion of all that motor oil I had in my bloodstream pretty much constantly between 2015 and 2022.

Later, we attended a Luau, which was thoroughly touristy but still fun:

Then E(NHRN) decided we should foster a dog for a day, so we headed to the humane society and picked up Kimchi:

Kimchi liked the Wrangler so much she urinated on the rear seat. (We tried cleaning it, but hopefully the rental company won’t bill us for that!). She also enjoyed the beach:

(If you want to adopt a dog, Kimchi is available at the Kauai Humane Society; shipping to the mainland is only $200, it turns out — that’s not bad.).

On the Big Island, E(NHRN) and I were also lucky enough to see Kīlauea have a bit of an eruption; I’d never seen a volcano before, so this was awesome.

Also awesome was the wildlife we saw on our honeymoon; we visited a botanical garden and saw lots of amazing plants and trees.

We saw multiple sea turtles:

The avian life was incredible:

And how about this endangered Monk Seal? Apparently there are under 1,400 still in existence! This one seemed to be enjoying life:

Anyway, let’s see if I can somehow bring this back to cars.

The Jeep Wrangler JL, the beloved machine that I spent two years of my life helping engineer, is an incredible machine. Its off-road capabilities are incredible, its refinement compared to Wranglers of yore is significant, and I want one badly. But I learned during this honeymoon that I definitely do not want a 4xe, and I definitely don’t think the vehicle is worth $30 grand over my five-speed Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ, which shares the same suspension and steering architecture, gets far-too-similar fuel economy, and is easier to wrench on.

So I’ll have to wait a while before JLs become cheap before I take the plunge. Until then, I’ll drive old Jeeps and my i3. If I ever go back to Hawaii, though, I’m getting a Wrangler again and enjoying that top-down goodness.