Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4xe - opinions?

Lovely wife is looking for a new midsize SUV.  We have rented a few jeeps and she is pretty hot to trot on them.  The Wrangler Unlimited 4xe is checking a lot of the boxes

• Wife wants a small to midsize SUV
• Her daily commute is 20ish miles
• Both garages on the property have enough power for a level II charger
• She wants something moderately loaded up - leather, heated seats, decent screen, heated steering wheel are all the must-haves.
• No sense in buying used cars right now since a used one is as much as a new one.
• She wants the doors off/roof off experience and has pulled the roof panels off our rentals by herself.  
• There is a $7500 tax credit on the 4xe through the end of the year.

I like it because I have a soft spot for Jeeps since my dad had one, their resale/desirability/retained value seems incredible, and I think having a hybrid would be very cool and is thus far uncharted waters for me.  The 4xe reviews all make it seem fairly outstanding, with almost as much usable power as the Rubicon 392.  Yeah the mileage sucks on gas and its noisy and a lot of $$$ for a Jeep.  Don't really care about that.  

We are considering the High Altitude model which gets you all the bells and most of the whistles, and then put some bigger wheels and tires on it because they look cool.   She asked me yesterday if we can get a winch bumper for it and then asked if they make fake winches since she would never actually use one.  

My coworkers wife has one and he says she loves it and he has had great luck with it.   

Other vehicles on the table include a RAV4 (yuck, but the most sensible choice) whatever the Kia midsize SUV is these days (also yuck, also sensible), and a 4Runner TRD Pro (Old tech, lotta $$$ for what it is, but dat resale doe, and it does have the look she is after)

Thoughts?  Opinions?

I don't know much about the 4xe, but since you mentioned the 4Runner, I saw yesterday that Toyota is building a 40th anniversary edition. 

https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-4runner-celebrates-historic-run-with-40th-anniversary-special-edition/

Old Toyotas had some cool graphics, but they could have done much better than this:

Somehow I lost what I typed along with that picture.

I looked at 4xe models but ultimately decided to order my wife 2.0 Altitude instead.  The 4xe have had some reliability issues beyond what the regular models have had.

If you ultimately want one, do two things.  First, join Tread Lightly.  For your $100 membership you will be provided Chrysler Affiliate pricing which will get you 1% below invoice at participating dealers.

Second, find a dealer that will accept that program and order what you want.  Chrysler prioritizes Wrangler orders.  Ours arrived in 5 weeks.

All of that said, this isn't a replacement for a regular suv in your household.  Even brand new they wander around on the highway and are easily blown off course.  The seats are stiff.  As a short trip commuter and beach car it's fantastic and my wife thinks she is the coolest thing on wheels.

If you need a long trip family hauler buy a Highlander.  I've owned many Jeeps and we are very pleased with ours, but go in eyes wide open about the difference between renting one for fun and living with one for several years.  I offer that respectfully of course.

Happy shopping!

A friend got the 2.0 Unlimited for his wife and get said it is way quicker for what it should be.

^great point.  The 2.0 really hauls the mail vs. V6.

I know 4 people that have them, they all love them. That's all I got..

Loweguy5 said:

If you ultimately want one, do two things.  First, join Tread Lightly.  For your $100 membership you will be provided Chrysler Affiliate pricing which will get you 1% below invoice at participating dealers.

Check that you can get Affiliate Pricing on the 4xe before spending $100 on Tread Lightly specifically for the discount. I don't know about the US but in Canada they are not offering any discount pricing on any 4xe model. My mom is a Chrysler retiree and my brother tried to use her employee discount on a Wrangler 4xe and couldn't. He decided to keep his 2 year old Wrangler instead of trading it in on a 4xe.

In reply to Schmidlap :

When I ordered ours the dealer told me it was no problem but that's been over a year ago.  You make a good point.

We have the Chrysler stablemate, the Pacifica Hybrid, and have been largely happy with it. The hybrid system works pretty well - you can cruise at freeway speeds on battery power alone and certainly around town without using gas. It is not powerful enough to run the heater in under 40 degree temps, so if you live in a cold climate, plan on it using the gas engine a LOT more in the winter. In the summer, we can go months without filling up.

Before we got it, we said we wouldn't buy a Chrysler with a hybrid because 1) they had no experience making them and 2) it's a Chrysler. But friends all had good experiences and so have we so far, knock on wood. 

In reply to Loweguy5 :

Is that factory ride height? The stance is lovely. I've been looking at a JLU and thinking about going lower, but that looks really perfect as is.

If you have the RAV4 on the list I would look at the CRV as well. When my wife was looking for a new car she was really wanting a RAV4 but after driving both she went with the CRV and we have been extremely happy with it. 

If the RAV4 is indeed on the list, try to get the plug-in RAV4 prime. You might also cross-shop the plug-in Escape. Both of them qualify for the tax rebate. 

Erich said:

We have the Chrysler stablemate, the Pacifica Hybrid, and have been largely happy with it. The hybrid system works pretty well - you can cruise at freeway speeds on battery power alone and certainly around town without using gas. It is not powerful enough to run the heater in under 40 degree temps, so if you live in a cold climate, plan on it using the gas engine a LOT more in the winter. In the summer, we can go months without filling up.

Before we got it, we said we wouldn't buy a Chrysler with a hybrid because 1) they had no experience making them and 2) it's a Chrysler. But friends all had good experiences and so have we so far, knock on wood. 

As far as I know, the Pacifica PHEV and the Wrangler PHEV don't really share any powertrain parts. The Pacifica is transverse ICE with a Toyota/Ford style hybrid eCVT:

The Wrangler PHEV is longitudinal turbocharged ICE with Chrysler/FCA/Stellantis mild hybrid accessory drive, backed up by an 8spd ZF traditional auto trans with an electric motor where the torque converter would normally reside:

They could end up with similar reliability, performance and longevity or they could be wildly different.

In reply to STM317 :

oh, I just assumed they would build similar systems for both, that's very different! TIL. 

buzzboy said:

In reply to Loweguy5 :

Is that factory ride height? The stance is lovely. I've been looking at a JLU and thinking about going lower, but that looks really perfect as is.

Thank you.  Yes it's a factory height Sport Altitude.  I considered a 4xe and then looked at a Willys.  I really liked the appearance of the Willys but my wife didn't need the locker and I knew the mud tires would be noisy and wouldn't wear well.

I ordered Cooper Discoverer AT3s in 265/70/18 from Tire Rack which is one size larger than stock.  It gives the Jeep a slightly more beefy look and handles well on dry, wet, and snowy roads.  Since the Jeep is a lease, we are enjoying these tires but if we don't elect to buy it at lease end I will throw the original tires back on that have only a few hundred miles on them.

I landed on the Sport Altitude because it included the 3 piece hardtop with insulation as standard and had the black 18" wheels.  I equipped it with the 8.4 nav radio, Alpine sound with subwoofer, heated seats and steering wheel, and remote start.

She has had it almost one year and absolutely loves it.  It serves around town duties really well and she loves the color scheme.  I think it looks great and wasn't crazy expensive as i had looked at some later model used Unlimiteds that were more than I paid to order this.

To add onto the Tread Lightly membership, if you are willing to travel, there are dealerships (in Tennessee, NOVA, NC for example) that will go below invoice pricing and stack the TL 1% on top of what they offer.  Check out the Wrangler and Gladiator forums for particular dealers.

I just picked up a Gladiator that I ordered new that ended up being 6.5% under invoice.