JoeFromPA
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Joe
- Joined
- May 7, 2019
- Threads
- 11
- Messages
- 46
- Reaction score
- 52
- Location
- West Chester PA
- Vehicle(s)
- 2015 M3
- Thread starter
- #1
Hi all,
In 2003 I bought a '97 TJ Sahara 5-speed and sold it a year later due to being a broke college student. Loved it but haven't had a Jeep since then.
Yesterday my wife and I picked up our Firecracker red on black cloth JLU Sahara 6mt. Packages include Infotainment, LED, cold weather group, remote keyless entry, premium softtop, and polished tech gray wheels.
Oh and we promptly threw a full size rear facing car seat, a full size front facing car seat, and a booster seat in the rear to fit our 3 boys
I've put 150 miles on it so far and wanted to share a bunch of initial impressions. By way of background: I daily drive a 2015 BMW m3 with a manual transmission (year round), my wife daily's a honda minivan, and we have a history of various fun cars we've tried at different times.
..... on to impressions:
Powertrain: The 3.6 is one of the smoothest and tractable engines I've ever enjoyed. It's just an easy going rev happy engine with a great match to the vehicle. I'm still learning it and breaking it in.
The gearing is taller than I'm used too. First is short (and difficult to start smoothly in), 2nd is perfect, 3rd drops a good bit but is a great all purpose gear from ~30-55mph or so, 4th-6th are pretty much highway/overdrive gears. In 6th gear at 65mph I went up a modest incline and couldn't maintain speed without potentially lugging the engine. At the same time, the Jeep will pull up to 80mph smoothly and cruise happily.
The clutch pedal travel is a tad too short, and the throttle a tad too sensitive during gear engagements, but the shifter is perfect and I'll learn the clutch and throttle sensitivities. Not a hard vehicle to drive smoothly at all - taking off from 1st is not smooth though (yet).
Overall the drivetrain as a whole is just smooth and very well delivered. If I'd do anything I would add rev-matching to the manual transmission - if you haven't experienced it, it's glorious for working the gearbox while minimizing clutch and transmission wear and drivetrain lash.
Suspension/Steering: Wow, the suspension on this thing is unreal for a solid axle off-road machine. It drives beautifully on road. Steering is also very direct, positive, and predictable. My tires are at ~41-42 PSI from the dealer- so far. I'm enjoying so much the road feel of this thing - a tad bouncy but very connected feeling.
Brakes: Superb stock braking, simply superb. Predictable and confidence inspiring - easy to modulate. No complaints, especially on AT tires.
Interior: I got the infotainment package, it's a Sahara, and black cloth. I find the interior to be just about the perfect balance of "nice" and rugged. It's very attractive throughout - nice touches, not too spartan or too loaded up. The backseat is JUST wide enough to fit my configuration of kids - 51" which becomes 19" for the baby seat, 17" for the full size front facing seat (Diono Radian RXT), and ~15" for the booster seat. Literally not 1" to spare - hell not .5".
A few minor quibbles on the interior: Jeep threw in their floor mats package - but no rubber mat for the trunk? Seems an oversight. When they re-designed the softop - which was fairly well done - they should have figured out a way to make the soft top rear window fold up during load. It's ridiculous to have to remove the rear soft top panel to have full size access to the trunk with the soft top on. I know this is a long-standing Jeep thing - but it's not good design.
Exterior: Man this thing is gorgeous and I love all the little touches on the exterior. The paint is beautiful and well done - no orange peel that I can see, even application, and all painted parts show great. Haven't seen any imperfections either.
I love the upgraded wheels more than I thought I would. The side steps. And the softtop looks perfect - very nice fit.
Quibbles on the exterior: The front grill and headlight surround feels like cheap plastic. I pushed on it gently last night to clean a bug off and it creake
In 2003 I bought a '97 TJ Sahara 5-speed and sold it a year later due to being a broke college student. Loved it but haven't had a Jeep since then.
Yesterday my wife and I picked up our Firecracker red on black cloth JLU Sahara 6mt. Packages include Infotainment, LED, cold weather group, remote keyless entry, premium softtop, and polished tech gray wheels.
Oh and we promptly threw a full size rear facing car seat, a full size front facing car seat, and a booster seat in the rear to fit our 3 boys
I've put 150 miles on it so far and wanted to share a bunch of initial impressions. By way of background: I daily drive a 2015 BMW m3 with a manual transmission (year round), my wife daily's a honda minivan, and we have a history of various fun cars we've tried at different times.
..... on to impressions:
Powertrain: The 3.6 is one of the smoothest and tractable engines I've ever enjoyed. It's just an easy going rev happy engine with a great match to the vehicle. I'm still learning it and breaking it in.
The gearing is taller than I'm used too. First is short (and difficult to start smoothly in), 2nd is perfect, 3rd drops a good bit but is a great all purpose gear from ~30-55mph or so, 4th-6th are pretty much highway/overdrive gears. In 6th gear at 65mph I went up a modest incline and couldn't maintain speed without potentially lugging the engine. At the same time, the Jeep will pull up to 80mph smoothly and cruise happily.
The clutch pedal travel is a tad too short, and the throttle a tad too sensitive during gear engagements, but the shifter is perfect and I'll learn the clutch and throttle sensitivities. Not a hard vehicle to drive smoothly at all - taking off from 1st is not smooth though (yet).
Overall the drivetrain as a whole is just smooth and very well delivered. If I'd do anything I would add rev-matching to the manual transmission - if you haven't experienced it, it's glorious for working the gearbox while minimizing clutch and transmission wear and drivetrain lash.
Suspension/Steering: Wow, the suspension on this thing is unreal for a solid axle off-road machine. It drives beautifully on road. Steering is also very direct, positive, and predictable. My tires are at ~41-42 PSI from the dealer- so far. I'm enjoying so much the road feel of this thing - a tad bouncy but very connected feeling.
Brakes: Superb stock braking, simply superb. Predictable and confidence inspiring - easy to modulate. No complaints, especially on AT tires.
Interior: I got the infotainment package, it's a Sahara, and black cloth. I find the interior to be just about the perfect balance of "nice" and rugged. It's very attractive throughout - nice touches, not too spartan or too loaded up. The backseat is JUST wide enough to fit my configuration of kids - 51" which becomes 19" for the baby seat, 17" for the full size front facing seat (Diono Radian RXT), and ~15" for the booster seat. Literally not 1" to spare - hell not .5".
A few minor quibbles on the interior: Jeep threw in their floor mats package - but no rubber mat for the trunk? Seems an oversight. When they re-designed the softop - which was fairly well done - they should have figured out a way to make the soft top rear window fold up during load. It's ridiculous to have to remove the rear soft top panel to have full size access to the trunk with the soft top on. I know this is a long-standing Jeep thing - but it's not good design.
Exterior: Man this thing is gorgeous and I love all the little touches on the exterior. The paint is beautiful and well done - no orange peel that I can see, even application, and all painted parts show great. Haven't seen any imperfections either.
I love the upgraded wheels more than I thought I would. The side steps. And the softtop looks perfect - very nice fit.
Quibbles on the exterior: The front grill and headlight surround feels like cheap plastic. I pushed on it gently last night to clean a bug off and it creake
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