mingoglia
09-15-2006, 03:22 PM
Called Darner this afternoon and they had one. They said they sold one yesterday and had this one left on their showroom floor. The got both at the same time. The other was a 4wd Unlimited Sahara. This one is a run of the mill 2wd Unlimited. I rushed down there because after all, if it's in the showroom I can crawl under it on my back in my work clothes AND stay nice and cool. Can't beat that.
I initially hop in and it's a pretty nice interior for a Jeep. I have no negatives about it from behind the drivers seat...although I had no negatives about the "old" one either. I'm once again a bit disappointed about the power locks/windows not because it's a nice feature to have, but that it attracts a new demographic that's going to demand more and more "features" in the future. This IMHO will continually water down the brand. I'd much rather people say, "I'm going to buy the H3 because I can get power vibrating seat" and look elsewhere... but obviously the bean counters want to sell units.
About this time one of the salesmen walks over with a couple around Don's age (had to throw a stab in there). The guy had his socks up to his knees and his wife was probably carrying his teeth in her purse. What I'm getting at is I thought it was ironic because my fear is a wider demographic. I think this proved it. Anyway, the salesmen reminded me of why I had going to dealers. He popped the hood and was giving his sales pitch, "this here is the same engine out of the Grand Caravan. That thing had the highest horsepower/torque in it's class. This thing blows the doors off the old model. It also blows the doors off a H3" (the couple had announced when they came in that they're considering a H3 and wanted to check the new Jeeps out)...remember what I said about demographic?
The salesman continues on about the new size (at this point I'm lying on my back under the JK). He says this new Unlimited is 5" wider than the old Unlimited. He said if you want wider yet wait for them to get a 2 door Non-Unlimited model in as they're 2" wider than the 4 door model. At this point I believe I smacked my head on the bottom of the new 5-6" diameter driveshaft in laughter. :D :D
Back to my observations. There's a lot of room in front of the engine between the engine and the radiator. I believe the engineers have left a lot of room for a planned larger engine (ie, slapping on 2 more cyliners in the front) or a larger CRD. The engine compartment looks as long as the current model with the inline motor. ACtually, not quite as the V6 is partially under the cowl, but total length looks to be about the same.
Underneath I was looking at what needed to be cut off in order to increase approach angle. It has a subframe up front probably to conform to the new safety standards for SUVs (the lower car friendly bumper). This really kills approach angle. Although difficult to say for certain because of all the plastic up there it looks like 8 seconds with a Oxy Ace torch, 4 seconds with a Plasman, or about 90 seconds with a Sawzall will solve the problem. Other than that the front bumper is complicated looking with all the darn plastic in the way. I'd have to spend more time looking at it to envision what it would look like with less bloated bumpers.
The rear bumper is a bit better. The center tow hook (it didn't have a receiver hitch) was pretty beefy and looks good. It's also easily removable by bolts that bolt to the frame.
Back up front the 2wd is interesting. Typically 2wd rigs have completely different suspensions. This looks to be identical to the 44d rig. Instead of a pumkin however there's just a straight tube. It looks like the control arms, track bar, and steering is all exactly the same. This could be nice for someone buying a trail rig a few years from now. Pick up a cheap used 2wd model, pull off the pseudo axle in the front, convert this pseudo axle into a 60" tall spud gun or fireworks launcher and pop in a front JK axle directly in place. Buy someone's used transfer case (or put in a Atlas) and be done with it. It looks like a 2wd to 4wd conversion is actually pretty straight forward.
Back inside... (I have A.D.D, BTW). The speaker bar on the roll cage is back to a single unit and not pods. This means Griswald will be unable to weld tubes back to a spreader bar unless the customer pulls out the speaker bar or replaces them with some pods. The roll cage does look shorter but once again it's hard to tell with 5" of padding. There's a second "speaker bar kinda thing" over the back passengers.
I unzipped some of the top and it looks to be pretty close. I didn't want to piss them off so I limived it to the back half. I mainly wanted to climb in the back to check out how the seats fold (not made to remove anymore but they fold flat). I also wanted to make sure the carpet was easily removeable. The rear tailgate has a limiting strap with the wire to the 3rd brake light built in unlike the current 2 metal electrical contacts. This brings me to the doors. The doors of course are removeable. Without removing a plastic panel I can't tell if the electrical (for the door locks/windows) is easily removeable. Under the dash at least it appears to be one of those typical funky electrical connectors that are a pain to get off.
That's about it. Sorry my thoughts were unorganized but it's hard to write this long of a message at work...can't really go back and spend much time editing it. :rolleyes:
Mike
I initially hop in and it's a pretty nice interior for a Jeep. I have no negatives about it from behind the drivers seat...although I had no negatives about the "old" one either. I'm once again a bit disappointed about the power locks/windows not because it's a nice feature to have, but that it attracts a new demographic that's going to demand more and more "features" in the future. This IMHO will continually water down the brand. I'd much rather people say, "I'm going to buy the H3 because I can get power vibrating seat" and look elsewhere... but obviously the bean counters want to sell units.
About this time one of the salesmen walks over with a couple around Don's age (had to throw a stab in there). The guy had his socks up to his knees and his wife was probably carrying his teeth in her purse. What I'm getting at is I thought it was ironic because my fear is a wider demographic. I think this proved it. Anyway, the salesmen reminded me of why I had going to dealers. He popped the hood and was giving his sales pitch, "this here is the same engine out of the Grand Caravan. That thing had the highest horsepower/torque in it's class. This thing blows the doors off the old model. It also blows the doors off a H3" (the couple had announced when they came in that they're considering a H3 and wanted to check the new Jeeps out)...remember what I said about demographic?
The salesman continues on about the new size (at this point I'm lying on my back under the JK). He says this new Unlimited is 5" wider than the old Unlimited. He said if you want wider yet wait for them to get a 2 door Non-Unlimited model in as they're 2" wider than the 4 door model. At this point I believe I smacked my head on the bottom of the new 5-6" diameter driveshaft in laughter. :D :D
Back to my observations. There's a lot of room in front of the engine between the engine and the radiator. I believe the engineers have left a lot of room for a planned larger engine (ie, slapping on 2 more cyliners in the front) or a larger CRD. The engine compartment looks as long as the current model with the inline motor. ACtually, not quite as the V6 is partially under the cowl, but total length looks to be about the same.
Underneath I was looking at what needed to be cut off in order to increase approach angle. It has a subframe up front probably to conform to the new safety standards for SUVs (the lower car friendly bumper). This really kills approach angle. Although difficult to say for certain because of all the plastic up there it looks like 8 seconds with a Oxy Ace torch, 4 seconds with a Plasman, or about 90 seconds with a Sawzall will solve the problem. Other than that the front bumper is complicated looking with all the darn plastic in the way. I'd have to spend more time looking at it to envision what it would look like with less bloated bumpers.
The rear bumper is a bit better. The center tow hook (it didn't have a receiver hitch) was pretty beefy and looks good. It's also easily removable by bolts that bolt to the frame.
Back up front the 2wd is interesting. Typically 2wd rigs have completely different suspensions. This looks to be identical to the 44d rig. Instead of a pumkin however there's just a straight tube. It looks like the control arms, track bar, and steering is all exactly the same. This could be nice for someone buying a trail rig a few years from now. Pick up a cheap used 2wd model, pull off the pseudo axle in the front, convert this pseudo axle into a 60" tall spud gun or fireworks launcher and pop in a front JK axle directly in place. Buy someone's used transfer case (or put in a Atlas) and be done with it. It looks like a 2wd to 4wd conversion is actually pretty straight forward.
Back inside... (I have A.D.D, BTW). The speaker bar on the roll cage is back to a single unit and not pods. This means Griswald will be unable to weld tubes back to a spreader bar unless the customer pulls out the speaker bar or replaces them with some pods. The roll cage does look shorter but once again it's hard to tell with 5" of padding. There's a second "speaker bar kinda thing" over the back passengers.
I unzipped some of the top and it looks to be pretty close. I didn't want to piss them off so I limived it to the back half. I mainly wanted to climb in the back to check out how the seats fold (not made to remove anymore but they fold flat). I also wanted to make sure the carpet was easily removeable. The rear tailgate has a limiting strap with the wire to the 3rd brake light built in unlike the current 2 metal electrical contacts. This brings me to the doors. The doors of course are removeable. Without removing a plastic panel I can't tell if the electrical (for the door locks/windows) is easily removeable. Under the dash at least it appears to be one of those typical funky electrical connectors that are a pain to get off.
That's about it. Sorry my thoughts were unorganized but it's hard to write this long of a message at work...can't really go back and spend much time editing it. :rolleyes:
Mike