has anyone here driven one?

[wanderer]

Has anyone here driven one, I just came off the trail really just a semi graded dirt road. and my JKU was rattleing like a spray can in the hands of Graffiti punk. I sur hope the JL handles the stutter bumps better. I am guessingit is night and day but I really want to know.

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[dwoodwo1]

I drove one on Saturday that had just landed the night before at the dealership. It was very different from the JK that I had a couple of years back. The backup camera is actually great, crisp picture on a large screen. The hood really does stay sealed down nicely at speed. The whole experience in general was a smoother ride. Of course, it was an automatic and I ordered a manual, but the 8 spd actually had me considering it... smooth shifting and quite a bit better acceleration than I was expecting. It was not a lexus, but it was much improved from prior offerings. The interior is definitely an upgrade. Everything was improved - though you can only tell so much from a 10 minute test drive. I still have questions about the soft top and some other things, but I will just have to wait 6-8 weeks =(.

 

[Jrbrannan]

I only got about 10 minutes as well but came away very impressed. It felt very tight, no rattles or the typical "it's a Jeep thing" compromises that I grew accustom to with my previous Jeeps. With that said it better be tight as a drum with 26 miles on it, the true test is how it does with 50k miles.

It really is a day and night difference. I came away very impressed and even my wife said she might want one now. It is not as refined as a normal SUV but it is getting pretty close.

 

[DanW]

Can't wait to hear what someone says about it after going off-road.

My JK, after 10 years and 120k miles, is still pretty tight. I'm running load range E KM2's and stiff Rancho RS5000X shocks, and I still think the ride is decent. The only rattle I've got is something either in the tailgate or soft top. With the hard top on, I have zero rattles. That's pretty impressive. I'll bet the JL will feel like a solid gold bar.

 

[MEO73]

I drove one around for about an half hour. The ride is substantially improved-at least on road. The vehicle seems tighter and smoother-not quite the lumbering “jeep feel.” I was driving a Sahara though, so not my off road wheeled Rubi. The differing tires might make the smoother “feel.” For some, that might be a drawback!

Acceleration seemed markedly better as well. I have a stick, and the JL was an auto, but certainly it was snappy coming out of a dead stop. Again, this is no Porshe, but compared to even my manual, a noticable improvement. The turning radius is noticably tighter as well. Less like turning an aircraft carrier around-it’s just more nimble than before. Same for steering responsiveness. Much better than my two door JK and I didnt experience any wheel shimmy-and I dont think that’s all just related to the tires. Braking is fine, but I couldnt really test it with the dealer in the car with me. Haha

The dash has really gone digital. The gauges are limited to a speedometer and tach-not even a fuel gauge. They are smaller than on the JK and offset more. The digital display is front and center and far larger than before. I didnt care for that at all. Im not keen on all the digital read outs. But then again, that’s personal preference. I still lament the loss of the battery and oil pressure gauges!

The leather interior is nice. Seats are pretty confortable. The hard top is much lighter and actually feels kind of cheap/flimsy compared to the current top. I am definitely going with the head liners for this reason. The vehicle actually seemed noiser at highway speeds and I suspect this has to do with the less dense top. There is, however, less headroom than before. At least that was my impression. I checked the seat adjustment, but even at its lowest position, it had less headroom. There is also more of a gap between the roll bar and the top. And the roll cage stops earlier in the back-it looks like they retained the same size roll bars while lengthening the vehicle.

The knobs and dial seem well positioned. The touchscreen is enormous! Like sticking an imax theater in a tiny venue though. The back up camera is teriffic-crisp and wide-ranging. Of course if you use a bike rack, it will be wasted.

I dont know how I feel about the red dash. Its more of a rust red than a firecracker red. I guess it would grow on me. They line up the vents, so the cabin is very linear. I dont care for that. I prefer the earlier design. It breaks up the monotony. They do, however, have indentations in the doors where the netting is so you can stuff a bit more than a business card in there. They also have hand indents for removing the doors. That is pretty handy for those who take the doors off.

Overall, it’s a much more refined vehicle, with a much improved ride. Hopefully it’s off road abilities are improved as well.

 

[dwoodwo1]

I drove one around for about an half hour. The ride is substantially improved-at least on road. The vehicle seems tighter and smoother-not quite the lumbering “jeep feel.” I was driving a Sahara though, so not my off road wheeled Rubi. The differing tires might make the smoother “feel.” For some, that might be a drawback!

Acceleration seemed markedly better as well. I have a stick, and the JL was an auto, but certainly it was snappy coming out of a dead stop. Again, this is no Porshe, but compared to even my manual, a noticable improvement. The turning radius is noticably tighter as well. Less like turning an aircraft carrier around-it’s just more nimble than before. Same for steering responsiveness. Much better than my two door JK and I didnt experience any wheel shimmy-and I dont think that’s all just related to the tires. Braking is fine, but I couldnt really test it with the dealer in the car with me. Haha

The dash has really gone digital. The gauges are limited to a speedometer and tach-not even a fuel gauge. They are smaller than on the JK and offset more. The digital display is front and center and far larger than before. I didnt care for that at all. Im not keen on all the digital read outs. But then again, that’s personal preference. I still lament the loss of the battery and oil pressure gauges!

The leather interior is nice. Seats are pretty confortable. The hard top is much lighter and actually feels kind of cheap/flimsy compared to the current top. I am definitely going with the head liners for this reason. The vehicle actually seemed noiser at highway speeds and I suspect this has to do with the less dense top. There is, however, less headroom than before. At least that was my impression. I checked the seat adjustment, but even at its lowest position, it had less headroom. There is also more of a gap between the roll bar and the top. And the roll cage stops earlier in the back-it looks like they retained the same size roll bars while lengthening the vehicle.

The knobs and dial seem well positioned. The touchscreen is enormous! Like sticking an imax theater in a tiny venue though. The back up camera is teriffic-crisp and wide-ranging. Of course if you use a bike rack, it will be wasted.

I dont know how I feel about the red dash. Its more of a rust red than a firecracker red. I guess it would grow on me. They line up the vents, so the cabin is very linear. I dont care for that. I prefer the earlier design. It breaks up the monotony. They do, however, have indentations in the doors where the netting is so you can stuff a bit more than a business card in there. They also have hand indents for removing the doors. That is pretty handy for those who take the doors off.

Overall, it’s a much more refined vehicle, with a much improved ride. Hopefully it’s off road abilities are improved as well.

I could be wrong, but I believe you can customize the central digital display to show battery and oil pressure, so that will be nice if true. Didn’t take the time to play with it.

 

[Jrbrannan]

I drove one around for about an half hour. The ride is substantially improved-at least on road. The vehicle seems tighter and smoother-not quite the lumbering “jeep feel.” I was driving a Sahara though, so not my off road wheeled Rubi. The differing tires might make the smoother “feel.” For some, that might be a drawback!

Acceleration seemed markedly better as well. I have a stick, and the JL was an auto, but certainly it was snappy coming out of a dead stop. Again, this is no Porshe, but compared to even my manual, a noticable improvement. The turning radius is noticably tighter as well. Less like turning an aircraft carrier around-it’s just more nimble than before. Same for steering responsiveness. Much better than my two door JK and I didnt experience any wheel shimmy-and I dont think that’s all just related to the tires. Braking is fine, but I couldnt really test it with the dealer in the car with me. Haha

The dash has really gone digital. The gauges are limited to a speedometer and tach-not even a fuel gauge. They are smaller than on the JK and offset more. The digital display is front and center and far larger than before. I didnt care for that at all. Im not keen on all the digital read outs. But then again, that’s personal preference. I still lament the loss of the battery and oil pressure gauges!

The leather interior is nice. Seats are pretty confortable. The hard top is much lighter and actually feels kind of cheap/flimsy compared to the current top. I am definitely going with the head liners for this reason. The vehicle actually seemed noiser at highway speeds and I suspect this has to do with the less dense top. There is, however, less headroom than before. At least that was my impression. I checked the seat adjustment, but even at its lowest position, it had less headroom. There is also more of a gap between the roll bar and the top. And the roll cage stops earlier in the back-it looks like they retained the same size roll bars while lengthening the vehicle.

The knobs and dial seem well positioned. The touchscreen is enormous! Like sticking an imax theater in a tiny venue though. The back up camera is teriffic-crisp and wide-ranging. Of course if you use a bike rack, it will be wasted.

I dont know how I feel about the red dash. Its more of a rust red than a firecracker red. I guess it would grow on me. They line up the vents, so the cabin is very linear. I dont care for that. I prefer the earlier design. It breaks up the monotony. They do, however, have indentations in the doors where the netting is so you can stuff a bit more than a business card in there. They also have hand indents for removing the doors. That is pretty handy for those who take the doors off.

Overall, it’s a much more refined vehicle, with a much improved ride. Hopefully it’s off road abilities are improved as well.

I completely agree about the lack of headroom, that was a big miss, on the bright side the seat seems to be elevated off the floor a bit and I think you could create brackets to lower it.

 

[JaybearWL]

I completely agree about the lack of headroom, that was a big miss, on the bright side the seat seems to be elevated off the floor a bit and I think you could create brackets to lower it.

At least for us non-sasquatch height folks it'll be comfortable.

I sat in (didn't drive) one. I'm a full 6'0" and sitting quite upright I didn't feel too close to the roof. I am also proportionally more torso than leg, so I probably sit a "tall" 6'.

 

[crash13]

I'm 6'1" and drove Rubi with cloth seats for 20 minutes this weekend. No problem with height, in fact wanted to put the seat up a bit for better visibility. I was expecting a rougher ride, but was pleasantly surprised at 120kph, very little road noise. And that's without headliners! Was leaning towards a Sahara since i do a lot of freeway driving, but now reconsidering.

 

[MEO73]

I'm 6'1" and drove Rubi with cloth seats for 20 minutes this weekend. No problem with height, in fact wanted to put the seat up a bit for better visibility. I was expecting a rougher ride, but was pleasantly surprised at 120kph, very little road noise. And that's without headliners! Was leaning towards a Sahara since i do a lot of freeway driving, but now reconsidering.

I’m only 6’ 2” (barefoot), so not that much taller, but definitely felt like there was less headroom than my current JK-with the seat all the way down. How were the cloth seats? Are they all cloth, or timmed with vinyl/pleather?

 

[crash13]

Are they all cloth, or timmed with vinyl/pleather?

Seats were all cloth, and actually a very nice quality. I was heavily in favor of leather, and almost changed my mind. Main reason for me going leather is that I bike in messy conditions and so feel that the cloth seats would be much harder to clean and would stain more easily.

 

[macintux]

Seats were all cloth, and actually a very nice quality. I was heavily in favor of leather, and almost changed my mind. Main reason for me going leather is that I bike in messy conditions and so feel that the cloth seats would be much harder to clean and would stain more easily.

Good seat covers can solve that problem. Bartact makes quality covers that are easy to clean.

 

[crash13]

Good seat covers can solve that problem.

sounds like my Italian friends who cover their living room furniture

 

[Jrbrannan]

At least for us non-sasquatch height folks it'll be comfortable.

I sat in (didn't drive) one. I'm a full 6'0" and sitting quite upright I didn't feel too close to the roof. I am also proportionally more torso than leg, so I probably sit a "tall" 6'.

LOL, well I am on the high side of 6'7" so yes some might put me in the Sasquatch category, and to be fair I do not "fit" in many cars short of my friends fully loaded new F150. So I adapt. The roll bar is right at the top of my head, I am worried that if I get rear ended that I could smack my head against it. It has a large chuck of plastic so I think that would help but if I could drop the seat 1" that would fully solve the problem.

 

[LVP Filmin]

I drove one around for about an half hour. The ride is substantially improved-at least on road. The vehicle seems tighter and smoother-not quite the lumbering “jeep feel.” I was driving a Sahara though, so not my off road wheeled Rubi. The differing tires might make the smoother “feel.” For some, that might be a drawback!

Acceleration seemed markedly better as well. I have a stick, and the JL was an auto, but certainly it was snappy coming out of a dead stop. Again, this is no Porshe, but compared to even my manual, a noticable improvement. The turning radius is noticably tighter as well. Less like turning an aircraft carrier around-it’s just more nimble than before. Same for steering responsiveness. Much better than my two door JK and I didnt experience any wheel shimmy-and I dont think that’s all just related to the tires. Braking is fine, but I couldnt really test it with the dealer in the car with me. Haha

The dash has really gone digital. The gauges are limited to a speedometer and tach-not even a fuel gauge. They are smaller than on the JK and offset more. The digital display is front and center and far larger than before. I didnt care for that at all. Im not keen on all the digital read outs. But then again, that’s personal preference. I still lament the loss of the battery and oil pressure gauges!

The leather interior is nice. Seats are pretty confortable. The hard top is much lighter and actually feels kind of cheap/flimsy compared to the current top. I am definitely going with the head liners for this reason. The vehicle actually seemed noiser at highway speeds and I suspect this has to do with the less dense top. There is, however, less headroom than before. At least that was my impression. I checked the seat adjustment, but even at its lowest position, it had less headroom. There is also more of a gap between the roll bar and the top. And the roll cage stops earlier in the back-it looks like they retained the same size roll bars while lengthening the vehicle.

The knobs and dial seem well positioned. The touchscreen is enormous! Like sticking an imax theater in a tiny venue though. The back up camera is teriffic-crisp and wide-ranging. Of course if you use a bike rack, it will be wasted.

I dont know how I feel about the red dash. Its more of a rust red than a firecracker red. I guess it would grow on me. They line up the vents, so the cabin is very linear. I dont care for that. I prefer the earlier design. It breaks up the monotony. They do, however, have indentations in the doors where the netting is so you can stuff a bit more than a business card in there. They also have hand indents for removing the doors. That is pretty handy for those who take the doors off.

Overall, it’s a much more refined vehicle, with a much improved ride. Hopefully it’s off road abilities are improved as well.

This describes my experience as well. I agree with the dash setup observation, as well as the hard top one. Definitely need the head liners.

I did take mine on a beat-up parking lot with lots of potholes and mounded snow. Felt very similar to the JK (of course it was a Sahara, versus my Rubi). Not truly an off-road test, but it certainly felt like a wrangler.

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