Interesting Rental.... Jeep Wrangler.....

[lip277]

Hybrid.

Yes, that is correct - a hybrid.
It has a 2.0L 4 cylinder engine and... I guess batteries and electric motors in there (somewhere). If you see the blue trim bits on a Wrangler (see pic) - that means it is a hybrid.

Upon arrival at SFO on Thursday midday - I had choices of... 3 Tesla's and this Jeep. The Tesla is a non-starter for me. So, I stayed with the Wrangler. I had rented a 2 door (standard powertrain version) a while back.
I kind of knew what I was getting into (and was not disappointed - LOL).

The good -
Tight turning circle (came in handy in town)
Rode better than I expected. Not great, but less bad.
In that light - there are a couple of spots on the road near my brothers house that are not smooth (the road bed has shifted and settled). Regular cars have to be careful. HD trucks do ok - but really jostle you around doing so. The Jeep handled it great.
I guess this is good - had 22mpg in it during my time.
Headlights seemed very good.
Acceleration was ok out to 45/50 - after that, not so great as (I think) the electric motor petered out past that point. I figure this was also due to hauling around a fair bit of battery weight.

The not so good -
I could not get a comfortable driving position. NOT even close. I wanted at least 4" more seat travel back and more lower back support. It was a manually adjusted seat.
The transition between all electric and ICE/electric power delivery was marginal at best... downright jarring at worst.
It was very hard to come to a smooth stop as the car seemed to be trying to second guess what I wanted to do and optimize the regenerative braking.
Speaking of regenerative braking, there were two settings on how aggressive that was. Normal and SUPER heavy. Would have wanted something in-between.
Console storage is not good. Two cup's worth down at floor level between the seats and then the armrest console. Nothing more flexible.
Pushed around by the wind a great deal - but then again it has the aerodynamics of a barn door.
Drivers visor was broken. Passenger dash speaker cover popped off.
4,000 miles on it.

From there - Fun to have a rental knowing I would only have it for a few days.

[JST]

My brother in law has one of these. He loves it, but then he’s a Jeep guy. The hybrid bits are enough to get him to/from work most days without using gas. It’s actually a pretty clever application of plug in hybrid tech.

[SARAFIL]

These became very popular last year due to strong lease support - Jeep used to have a really high residual and also passed along $7500 EV credit on the lease so you could get one really cheap last year when nothing else had a good lease. Also held it’s value so alot of people flipped them. That market has cooled quite a bit though.

[robg]

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

These became very popular last year due to strong lease support - Jeep used to have a really high residual and also passed along $7500 EV credit on the lease so you could get one really cheap last year when nothing else had a good lease. Also held it’s value so alot of people flipped them. That market has cooled quite a bit though.

Yep-- they had really good lease deals on the Grand CHerokee 4xEs for a while too. Was kind of tempted but all the reviews were pretty bad.

[robg]

Originally Posted by lip277

Hybrid.

Yes, that is correct - a hybrid.
It has a 2.0L 4 cylinder engine and... I guess batteries and electric motors in there (somewhere). If you see the blue trim bits on a Wrangler (see pic) - that means it is a hybrid.

Upon arrival at SFO on Thursday midday - I had choices of... 3 Tesla's and this Jeep. The Tesla is a non-starter for me. So, I stayed with the Wrangler. I had rented a 2 door (standard powertrain version) a while back.
I kind of knew what I was getting into (and was not disappointed - LOL).

The good -
Tight turning circle (came in handy in town)
Rode better than I expected. Not great, but less bad.
In that light - there are a couple of spots on the road near my brothers house that are not smooth (the road bed has shifted and settled). Regular cars have to be careful. HD trucks do ok - but really jostle you around doing so. The Jeep handled it great.
I guess this is good - had 22mpg in it during my time.
Headlights seemed very good.
Acceleration was ok out to 45/50 - after that, not so great as (I think) the electric motor petered out past that point. I figure this was also due to hauling around a fair bit of battery weight.

The not so good -
I could not get a comfortable driving position. NOT even close. I wanted at least 4" more seat travel back and more lower back support. It was a manually adjusted seat.
The transition between all electric and ICE/electric power delivery was marginal at best... downright jarring at worst.
It was very hard to come to a smooth stop as the car seemed to be trying to second guess what I wanted to do and optimize the regenerative braking.
Speaking of regenerative braking, there were two settings on how aggressive that was. Normal and SUPER heavy. Would have wanted something in-between.
Console storage is not good. Two cup's worth down at floor level between the seats and then the armrest console. Nothing more flexible.
Pushed around by the wind a great deal - but then again it has the aerodynamics of a barn door.
Drivers visor was broken. Passenger dash speaker cover popped off.
4,000 miles on it.

From there - Fun to have a rental knowing I would only have it for a few days.

Sounds fun. I wouldn't mind trying one of those out as a rental for a few days.

[lemming]

I had high hopes for the electrification helping to push that vehicle along. But it sounds like it’s not implemented well? And it does not offset the added weight.

The Wrangler already brakes so terribly. I cannot imagine it being heavier and asking undersized rotors and “off road” biased tires to do more work under braking.

As much as I love Wranglers, it was dynamically terrible.

[lip277]

There is a meter on the dash that shows the amount of 'charge' that is going into the battery. Sometimes it is from the engine. Much of it is regenerative braking (feeding the battery).
My most serious quips are not really against the hybrid system - but the awful ergonomics and build quality.

[lemming]

Originally Posted by lip277

There is a meter on the dash that shows the amount of 'charge' that is going into the battery. Sometimes it is from the engine. Much of it is regenerative braking (feeding the battery).
My most serious quips are not really against the hybrid system - but the awful ergonomics and build quality.

Well. I had the JK and the JL. I thought the JL upgraded a lot of the not so nice things about the JK gen Wrangler.

I like the GUI in the Jeep (current gen) and the buttons.

Yes. Some cheap plastic bits. But overall still better than what I had lived with. So I guess it is context. Overall, I think Jeep interiors are decent now.

[lip277]

I could not get the seat to go back remotely far enough for me. Wife also felt like she was too close to the dash on the passenger side. Regardless of position, neither one of us could get comfortable seating situation. I spent Monday at home recuperating - LOL... My back is not good, and it was not helped by the car.
The drivers visor clip fell off and would not reattach.
The passenger dash speaker cover kept coming off....

I could see where this car would work for someone... once all the bugs were fixed (and presuming the seating position worked for them). As to the long term reliability of the powertrain and all... who knows. The car has 4,000 miles on it so new enough (for my time with it) that I wouldn't expect issues... regardless of long term issues - hopefully.

Don't know if there are different seats available that might have helped - but I suspect not.
The rest - that is what it is I guess...