Taking a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon home

It’s not the first time we’ve had that sound either during the past two days of driving on California’s Rubicon Trail, but that doesn’t make it any easier. The Trail is rated as one of the toughest off-road courses in the world and it’s certainly living up to that reputation.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the skid-plate, the car’s fine,” the off-road guide reassures us. We could think of hundreds of words to describe that noise of metal versus rock and not one would be ‘fine’. Under normal circumstances, you’d be pulling over and on your hands and knees to immediately check out the condition of the car’s underside.

Then again, the Rubicon Trail is about as far from normal as it’s possible to get and so is this new Jeep Wrangler. It’s no mistake that Jeep puts the Rubicon badge on its flagship Wrangler. Alongside the Trail Rated logo on the front wing, these are matters that Jeep takes very seriously indeed.

While other manufacturers use the likes of the Nürburgring as a testing ground, Jeep frequently uses the Rubicon. That’s not hard to see why either. Aside from Land Rover, no other manufacturer has its off-roading ability underpinning its entire image and reputation, to quite the extent that Jeep does.

That’s echoed by its owners. In its US homeland, Jeep estimates that an incredible 98 per cent of Wranglers are accessorised in some form or another, often to further improve its off-road ability with winches or larger wheels and tyres.

Those owners are keen to demonstrate that ability too. Jeep Jamboree organises off-roading weekends throughout the US for around 7,000 people each year, with many boasting waiting lists. Places for its 2018 Rubicon Trail weekend sold out in just four hours…

That said, the Wrangler that we’re driving on the Trail, the new 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol, is essentially standard (or ‘stock’ as they like to say round these parts) albeit with some pretty aggressive BF Goodrich off-road tyres. And, as Jeep rightly and proudly claims, just how many other so-called new off-roaders could, or would, you drive straight out of a showroom and down this challenging Rubicon Trail? It only takes the first of those wince-inducing scrapes early on in our drive to prove that the answer is very few indeed, if not none.

After all, with the absence of the Land Rover Defender from showrooms, the only other 4x4s you could possibly even think of taking down the Rubicon would be the tiny Suzuki Jimny or perhaps the Mercedes G-Class and even then, we’d still question either.

However, hardcore Jeep fans might still raise their eyebrows at the thought of tackling the trail in this particular Jeep. On paper, this 274PS (270bhp) 2.0-litre is more than a match for the traditional 3.6-litre V6 engine only available in a handful of global markets, but in the UK it’s expected to power two-thirds of all-new Wranglers leaving showrooms.

So can such a relatively small engine cope with the challenges and harsh, boulder-littered reality of the Rubicon, especially when matched to an eight-speed automatic gearbox? Throughout two days of crawling at slower-than-walking pace, we get our answer time and time again. In fact, as we follow our lead guide in another Wrangler, following his carefully chosen line through the sharp-edged rocks all around, it never puts a tyre wrong or out of place.

The scenario gets repeated so many times during the course of our day that it almost becomes comedic. We drive along the trail, slow up as we get to a particularly tough section, the dust settles and my co-driver and I simultaneously swear at what lies ahead in the windscreen. Despite knowing the Wrangler’s prodigious talents, we sit there, momentarily stunned as we both wonder how on earth the route ahead can be traversed. It’s not that we struggle to see a route, it’s that we’re faced with a vista ahead that looks hard enough to cover on foot, let alone attempt to drive up.

Yet we follow the instructions given by the guide, engage low range enabling the Wrangler to creep ahead. The tyres slip on the dusty slick rocks, before finding some purchase and then steadily and inexorably they push the Jeep over the obstacle ahead for it to continue on. There’s barely any time to register its achievements either, as yet another challenge lies just past the next bend in the trail.

And this is how we progress down the trail, one obstacle after another, frequently scraping the Wrangler’s underside and with the Jeep shrugging off every upright rock and every tough section without even breaking a sweat. By the end of the two days, we’ve finally finished the Rubicon Trail. On paper, our journey looks distinctly under-whelming - just over 15 miles over the course of two days and just under eight hours of driving.

However, the trail has certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest off-road courses in the world. In sore need of a cold beer, a hot shower and a comfortable bed and also to rid ourselves of the inch-thick dust that coats us and the car, we’re both mentally and physically exhausted. The Wrangler looks ready to do it all over again and it’s obvious where the only weak link of the Jeep’s package lies – it’s staring back at us in the driver’s mirror.

Stat Attack

On sale: January (diesel is on sale in autumn)

Engine: 1995cc, turbo-petrol

Transmission: 8-speed automatic with low-range

PS/Nm (bhp/ lb ft): 273PS@5250rpm/ 400Nm@3000rpm (270bhp/ 295lb ft)

0-60mph: 8.0 seconds (est)

Top speed: 111mph(est)

Price: £38,000 (est)