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Sahara Wrangler as daily driver

Jacob

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Hello, I currently own a 2016 jeep cherokee Trailhawk. I am thinking of buying a new vehicle. I am always impressed by availability of aftermarket products for wranglers. I also like the look of it. Do newer wranglers provide a smoother ride for a daily driver? I will test drive one soon to see what has changed in terms of ride, comforts, features etc. I am wondering what your opinions/recommendations are for someone coming from an suv life style. Thanks for your inputs.
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AlexJeepVB

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Hello, I currently own a 2016 jeep cherokee Trailhawk. I am thinking of buying a new vehicle. I am always impressed by availability of aftermarket products for wranglers. I also like the look of it. Do newer wranglers provide a smoother ride for a daily driver? I will test drive one soon to see what has changed in terms of ride, comforts, features etc. I am wondering what your opinions/recommendations are for someone coming from an suv life style. Thanks for your inputs.
Yes go buy one ASAP.
 

aldo98229

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A Wrangler will never ride as smoothly as a Cherokee. But it will put such a big smile on your face it wonā€™t matter.

Get it. You won't regret it.
 

brewtus98

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Daily driver and love it. Came from full size crew cab pickup. No regrets. Ride is just as good as the truck - steering just not as good. But can not compare a rack and pinion Independent vs. solid axle ball nut gear anyhow.
 

Jimmy_jak

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Sport S daily driver. It's a great vehicle.
 

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Chemy350

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Rubicon daily driver for me.. 3rd wrangler in my life as a daily - like the others have said, do it.
 

DadJokes

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Test drive as many as it takes to find one you like without or with a minimal dead spot in the steering. Mine is minimal (~1/2ā€) and can still drive with one hand most times but itā€™s a only little precarious on some back roads where constant corrections are needed for twisty curves and imperfections in the roads. Thatā€™s the most likely downside in my opinion.

A family member offered me to drive their 19 Cherokee Trailhawk and it was nice riding but my longer wheelbase Sahara was at least as nice. I prefer my Sahara overall but the Cherokee would be fine as a second vehicle. As far as options, you donā€™t have to give up anything.

Go test drive a few and I think youā€™ll want one.
 
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JIMBOX

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The jeep WRANGLER is a special vehicle--if you want one for off-road use--they can't be beat, but

If you want one for a DAILEY DRIVER--it won't begin to compare to your CHEROKEE--

Getta WRANGLER to be proud of, but don't compare to your CHEROKEE on hiwy--solid axle front end VS IFS--no way to be even equal--

Good luck

JIMBO
 

Gee-pah

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Hello, I currently own a 2016 jeep cherokee Trailhawk. I am thinking of buying a new vehicle. I am always impressed by availability of aftermarket products for wranglers. I also like the look of it. Do newer wranglers provide a smoother ride for a daily driver? I will test drive one soon to see what has changed in terms of ride, comforts, features etc. I am wondering what your opinions/recommendations are for someone coming from an suv life style. Thanks for your inputs.
Jacob: I could talk until I'm blue in the face about the pros of a rig I own and am positively biased about.

More important, if you check out some of the professional reviews of the rig on YouTube you will find that a recurring theme is that the JL drives...like any old SUV--a complement to its relatively far smoother ride than predecessor Wranglers, including the JK.

For someone "coming from an SUV life" as yourself, in terms of smoothness of ride and creature comforts, I believe nothing about the JL will cause you to make tradeoffs in these metrics.

In short, my Honda Pilot does not ride as smooth as a Lexus Sedan, but my JL Sahara rides as smooth as my Honda Pilot. : - )
 

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cOtter

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Previous daily driver was a Toyota Highlander. I drive a fair amount for work. Itā€™s a 2013 that we picked up the last day of July that year. It currently has 170k miles on it. We bought it new. We have kept that vehicle.

My new daily driver is a ā€˜20 Sahara that we ordered. It has the 2.0L. Ocean Blue Metallic.

We LOVE it. We are out and about a fair amount as a family (me, my wife and daughter). We NEVER take the Highlander on these outings!!!! It is ALWAYS the Sahara.

Took delivery early September. 2ā€ Lift and added 35ā€™s the following week. Put around 500 miles on it the first 5 days prior to lift and tires. We live in South Central Indiana. In addition to numerous trips in Central and Southern Indiana, the Sahara has already been to Eastern Tennessee, Southern & Central Illinois, Southern Michigan (Detroit area), Northern Kentucky and Southern Ontario Canada. All separate outings. IT IS A JOY!!!!!

Good Luck!!!!!
 

SouthLeb

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Have 2019 Sahara. Its the road noise that you need to be ok with. Drive is smooth, we have driven taken 500 mile trips (each way) with premium softtop and with hardtop.

I test drove them for several months before ordering it. I felt slightly more comfortable in Sahara. No regrets, great family car to have fun with.
 

Pingbling23

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wife went from a 2012 limited explorer to the 2020 sahara. we do not feel like we lost any luxury with this jeep. the interior is incredible (dark saddle leather and 8.4 uconnect), has all the options we would want, and rides really well. we havent taken it on vacation yet. the explorer was great for this especially with the large third row.
 

aldo98229

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Have 2019 Sahara. Its the road noise that you need to be ok with. Drive is smooth, we have driven taken 500 mile trips (each way) with premium softtop and with hardtop.

I test drove them for several months before ordering it. I felt slightly more comfortable in Sahara. No regrets, great family car to have fun with.
Same here.

Iā€™ve owned five Rubicons and four Saharas. Rubicons look great and are amazing on the trail, but for me Saharas provide that sweet spot between daily comfort and trail capability.

Modding is a slippery slope: we start little by little with a 2.5ā€ lift, then replace the five 40-lb OE tires with 80-lb MTs, steel bumpers, a 100-lb winch, thicker armor, etc. By the time we are done, and despite what we like to think, weā€™ve added 800-lbs and the Jeep doesnā€™t really handle, ride or drive as well as the day we drove it off the lot.

This time I added a 3/4ā€ leveling kit and 33ā€ KO2s, but otherwise Iā€™m purposely leaving this Sahara close to stock. I want to enjoy the cushiness of the factory specs for awhile.
 

BRuby

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You def gotta go for an extended on/off road test drive to do this vehicle any justice. Found the cabin noise intrusive but not overly. Best to just turn up the tunes for that and all is good. Steering on mine was actually amazingly tight with zero slop and zero wander so no issues there. Ride was perfectly acceptable for a high clearance rock crawler on OEM 33 KO2s on-road - and fantastic off-road aired down to 18 crawling on single track and blasting down FSRs.

Our Rubicon will never match our lower COG vehicles for sporty handling. Also will never match our more powerful vehicles for acceleration and top end speed. But this vehicle takes us everywhere we need to go in comfort and ease and in style.

So key is to get the model that best suits your needs - and you should be a very happy camper making it all your own. We needed lockers and extra articulation so the choice was super easy for us.
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