Wrangler Sahara: old and new

Recently, Allpar road-tested the Jeep Wrangler Sahara, finding a mixture of old and new inside.

Older items included the hard-drive stereo, complete with a tilting screen to show a DVD reader; the basic design, one of the oldest in the FCA empire; and much of the underlying hardware.

Newer items included welcome revisions to the stereo, including better USB thumb drive handling, and top-removal and window-lowering tools in the glovebox (which was not quite large enough for the owner’s manual, oddly enough).

The 2015 model year ushered in a standard eight-speaker stereo with a new sound bar; the optional Alpine Audio Package had nine Alpine speakers with a new all-weather subwoofer under the cargo floor), while the 2016 Saharas will have an olive green interior option, body color bumper, and different wheels.

The 2014s had minor and mostly cosmetic changes, other than the launch of a Rubicon X and Freedom III. The five-speed automatic replaced an older four-speed in 2012, as the old 3.8 “minivan engine” was swapped out for a new Pentastar V6. There were also some aerodynamic improvements and off-road upgrades for the Rubicon. The interior had been redesigned in 2011.

A “completely new” Wrangler is due in 2018 or so, but it will most likely keep the basic body-on-frame, solid-axle setup of the current Jeep icon.

Read more at: http://www.allpar.com/news/index.php/2015/12/wrangler-sahara-old-and-new-30868