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Is a JL wrangler a good daily driver???

corvettebob

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Last month I drove my 2018 JLUR from Spokane to Salt Lake City in one day (740 miles.) The next week I drove it back in one day. My wife and I took it to Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Big Bear. and San Diego over the holidays in 2018. We enjoyed the whole trip. It's a great daily driver.
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txj2go

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Mine is not completely a DD partly because I still have my old car and drive it half the time, and partly because I mostly work from home and don't do much daily driving.

How you will accept the JL depends on you and what is important to you. I bought mine to do trails in Colorado and Utah, which means round trips of 1800-2500 miles. I don't mind long stretches of highway driving but it is nosier and a little rougher than some other vehicles might be.

I considered a Grand Cherokee and they can be made to work very well on trails, but I wasn't sure if I would exceed their ability and I didn't want to be disappointed with my choice so I bought a JLU.
 
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Aidenhardcore

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I appreciate everyone commenting. I didn’t realize I would get so many responses. My current truck gets about 15 miles per gallon and I’m fine with it so around there is fine. I was just asking how it drove because I’ve been in wranglers before but I’ve never really driven them. I’m renting one next weekend to see how I like it and I’m probably gonna take it on I want to two hour trip on the highway to see how it does. But from what I can tell from other people, it’s pretty good on the highway. I understand it might not be the perfect daily driver but I want a vehicle that’s also fun on the weekends where I can take it anywhere. There’s so many events I want to go to and I want a vehicle that can take me there lol.
Appreciate all the help and advice. You guys are the
 

Sital

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My Sahara is my daily driver and I actually find it pretty comfortable for driving around town as well as long road trips. Is it as comfortable and quiet as the Lexus I had before it? Of course not, but to me it's totally acceptable and still puts a smile on my face every time I climb in.
 

Austin23

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IMHO, The Jeep Wrangler is a great off road vehicle that is a very good daily driver. As opposed to a great daily driver that is a very good off road vehicle (ie 4 Runner, Landrover, Cherokee). I will say that Jeep Wrangler is the most fun vehicle I have ever owned, if that counts for anything.
 

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alksion

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Mike:

Would talk of possibly $5/gallon gas in the future, that I hear, at all inform your decision?
It’s well over $5 here in SoCal. My premium fuel on my tiny 392 fuel tank is costing me over $90 to fill.
 

gregus73

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Prior to Covid, I drove my 2 door sport to and from work. Was a great commuter in Bay Area traffic. 45 minute to work and 45 minutes to home.

I take my JLUR all over the place and very pleased with it.

For longer than 3-4 hours of driving, it is not the best. I prefer a large SUV or full sized truck.

I also found that the 4Runner and FJ did better for longer trips.
 

Speed331

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I drive the crap out of my 2 door. Not only is it my daily driver to work - 50 round trip freeway miles - but I use it quite often for work. I have a contractor company for the Postal Service and often use my Wrangler to carry a route. Sometimes by necessity, but more often by choice, as I simply love driving it.
It cruises @ 75 - 80 with ease. It feels a bit looser than my Audi, but not nerve wracking in the least. It may take a few days to get used to, but it's manners are very predictable and consistent.
I've been on several 700 mile trips in it and prefer it to my wife's Land Rover. No problems with fatigue, and love that it has 'character' - driving the LR feels very disconnected from the road. Like driving a big sofa.
It also gets wheeled on a regular basis and is pushed fairly hard in the dirt.
There is one big caveat to my opinion though:
I have great, smooth roads to drive on.
If you live somewhere with rutted, bumpy roads, your experience will be very different.
Also, check the tire pressure before any test drive. For some reason the dealers love to pump them up into the high 40's. I spent the first week of ownership worried about the skittish handling of my new Wrangler...until I discovered the tires were all jacked up to 47psi! Once it was set proper, she became stable and and a joy to drive...
 

ErAcEr

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It’s well over $5 here in SoCal. My premium fuel on my tiny 392 fuel tank is costing me over $90 to fill.
Thats a good point to make for the OP. FCA recommends premium fuel (91 or higher for the unleaded ICE). However I put premium in every piece of equipment I own now knowing how fuel is designed to work.
 

Equitasforall

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I could tell you, but then....
I used my 2018 2 Door JL Rubicon as my daily for almost 3 years before selling it this past May. Well, 2 years is more like it as it basically sat for a year while I was assigned overseas, but you get the point. At the time of sale it had nearly 41,000 miles on it which were combined on/off road miles with about a 70/30 split.

It did very well overall and had few reliability or other issues. Did pretty well on gas with the V-6 and automatic, averaging about 23 on the highway. I had the premium soft top, which was more quiet than previous Jeep soft tops, but still considerably louder than any other convertible I'd owned, especially as it got up there in years. The premium audio helped to drown out the noise, and the noise was a small price to pay to have the top off in 5 minutes on the nice days. The biggest issue I had using it as a daily was that it was small enough and square enough to get blown all over the place by tractor trailers or the prevailing winter winds in my area. Again, worth it though to me for the agility and ability that came with it.

Other observations: the leather wore great and was in just as good a condition when I sold it as when I bought it... even with my big a$$ in it as much as it was. The stock BFG KO2s continued to do extremely well (original skins still on it when I sold it, despite adding aftermarket wheels... bought to accommodate 35's that I never got around to adding.) Power was great from the 6 cylinder... and the 8 speed automatic was money.. so much so that I very quickly got over my thoughts of "settling" for it as opposed to the manual that I wanted.

My new Jeep will also be my daily, so a repeat buyer for the same basic use case sums up my thoughts. Happy to help if you have any questions. Good luck with it!
 

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2nd 392

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Mine is my DD while my GC is a garage Queen except for long trips. Driving enjoyment is more than ride and refinement.
 

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I appreciate everyone commenting. I didn’t realize I would get so many responses. My current truck gets about 15 miles per gallon and I’m fine with it so around there is fine. I was just asking how it drove because I’ve been in wranglers before but I’ve never really driven them. I’m renting one next weekend to see how I like it and I’m probably gonna take it on I want to two hour trip on the highway to see how it does. But from what I can tell from other people, it’s pretty good on the highway. I understand it might not be the perfect daily driver but I want a vehicle that’s also fun on the weekends where I can take it anywhere. There’s so many events I want to go to and I want a vehicle that can take me there lol.
Appreciate all the help and advice. You guys are the
This is really the best thing to do. Everyone else is going to just give you their opinion and that could be a lot different then what you want. My answer would be a resounding no it is not a good DD.

Also the other thing to think about is I am sure your rental will be fully stock. Yet you say you want a “weekend” fun car so that will usually mean that you start to modify it which makes it a horrible DD. Your mileage may very but keep that in mind.
 

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Is a JL wrangler a good daily driver???
My wife likes her '20 JLU Recon as a dd. She has a 40 minute commute, about 50/50 highway/local roads. While not as smooth as my '18 Grand Cherokee, it's not too harsh and we've taken it on long trips of 7+ hours without any problems.
 

Bulletbill

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Your question is highly subjective. I wanted a Jeep for a while and when I finally bought mine I had people coming up to me at work to share that they had owned one in the past.

They either loved it and missed it, or couldn’t wait to be done with it due to its on road manners. The latter warned me that I would probably sell it within a year because daily driving it would be a chore.

For me, I love it. My old vehicle was a Toyota Tundra and the Jeep to me is just more fun. Hard to describe, but even on pavement it puts a smile on my face every time I climb in.

On a separate note, prior to buying my rubi, I rented a JLU sport and the ride and overall feel between the two are night and day different. This will be controversial, but to me the Rubicon drives 10 times better than the sport and it may be worth it to spend some time in multiple trim levels before you make a decision.
 

omega145

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Go test drive different versions and come up with this decision yourself instead of going off of opinions from strangers.

The JL Wrangler does drive better and is more comfortable than any previous iteration of Wrangler and IMO makes a great daily driver.
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