Photo: JL Wrangler Forums
Sergio Marchionne recently hinted that the all-new Wrangler may debut at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show. Based on the following leak, which comes from JL Wrangler Forums member FS90, it sure looks as if Jeep is just about ready to take the veils off the most heavily anticipated 4x4er for the 2018 model year.
“Why does it look pretty much the same as the JK Wrangler?” Here’s a pretty good question to answer the said question: If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Jeep is fully aware that the Wrangler is in a class of its own, and people love its retro styling. Therefore, it was expected for the 2018 JL Wrangler to look this way.
The pictured example is a JLU. More specifically, a five-door Unlimited with Rubicon goodies inside and out. And from the two images uploaded on the cited forum, it’s easy to tell that it features a fully removable roof and doors. The roll cage, meanwhile, is fixed and incorporated into the structure of the windshield. The flatter windshield is, as with the JK, of the fold-down variety, and it features two side hinges instead of the current model’s center hinge.
Up front, the more upright grille features two kinked slats at its extremities, which bend slightly in the middle to make room for the round headlights. A duo of LED light strips beautifies the slightly higher front fender, whereas the fog lights moved from the middle of the bumper to the edges. On the sides, there’s a Land Rover Defender-like character/belt line that runs just above a quarter of pull door handles. As for the windows, they boast rounded corners.
All in all, kudos to Jeep for not ruining the Wrangler with the JL generation. It’s exactly what the world was wishing and expecting from the JL, and then some. Under the skin, the Pentastar V6 will soldier on alongside a 2.0-liter inline-four turbo dubbed Hurricane. A 3.0-liter V6 turbo diesel is also said to be offered, a torquey VM Motori design closely related to the A 630 engine.
Having said these, does the all-new Wrangler float your boat?
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