Listen to my advice, carefully.
Lol, yeah. Riding with the doors off and top down and listening to that badass Alpine sound system certainly makes the commutes in the JL just terrible. I'd stay far away from it. Buy a Camry. That won't wear you out. You'll arrive at work feeling refreshed, and clean, and ready for the challenges of the day!
I see what you are saying, but those are all individual preferences. Mine is to drive a Jeep every day. I've got a Mercedes E430 Sport that I love, but it sits in the driveway, jealous of the attention the JL is getting. After a long, 12 hour day, which are common, there is no stress relief or decompression like riding in that Jeep withe the Alpine blasting. It doesn't matter if the doors are on or off. Noise doesn't matter with that Alpine. Love it! No disrespect intended toward the Camry. It does what it does, very well. Just like vanilla ice cream. I just like more vivid flavors.
I agree with everything you said about the Taco.Hey Red,
Same decision process (recently). I had a 17’ TRD Off-road that I leased as a bridge vehicle while waiting for the JL to hit the lots. I was pretty sure I wanted a Wrangler. Had test driven the JK multiple, multiple times and always walked away thinking, its ok. Then, test drove a white on white on white JL Rubi and was sold! Same day put $$$ down to hold in in-transit JLUR in Stingrey (had a Cement FJ love the grey). Took delivery about 2 months ago and all never looked back.
We lease and have leased for over 20 years now. If trade in values, reliability, etc. are important, (Ill prob get hate for this) but, Toyota generally wins that race. However, because my wife and I lease everything, the cars are usually gone before the factory warranty is gone = we do not really spend that a lot of time considering reliability. Short version, the JL is still very new, there is not a lot of significant data that supports long term reliability, resale, etc.
Anyway, to your question, go drive one! Sport, Sahara, Rubi whatever and you will notice all of the differences. The immediate improvements I found important:
Looks cooler, will do things the Taco will not, better in head unit, BS aside the JL is getting the same or better mpg (at Rubi with steel bumpers and hard top and ko2s) compared to TRD off-road with factory Wrangler Kevlar, better ride (the Rubi has a stiffer feeling suspension than the TRD off-road does), better seating position, the engine and transmission in the JL is leaps and bounds better feeling to drive than the Taco - I put in about 40 miles per day on the highway at 75+ the Rubi’s cruise control locks a gear and goes the Taco was up down up down up down to the point where I stopped using cruise on the Taco and and happy as hell that i could start using it again in the JL, Taco JBL < JL Alpine system, heads up display has better resolution, my taco felt like a dog on the highway and on the the streets (acceleration) the JL is almost too jumpy (torquey) on the low end - its jumpy with the gas in a good way, the taco was sluggish. Blah blah blah ,basically the JL is more fun to drive and we off-road every opportunity we get so that is better to drive on and off-road.
If you take nothing from this post and all of the others who have responded - go drive a JL (sport, Shara, etc - doesn’t matter) you will feel the difference in how it feels to drive. That will help you make a decision.
- great question, hopefully any/all of this helps.
- also! First Post!
It's an 18. They want to sell it so they can get a 19 in its place. What all does it have? Soft top? Android Auto/Apple Carplay?
