Video: 2018 Jeep Wrangler Redesigned But Still Rugged

Now casual passengers by might not notice this from the old Wrangler because a lot of elements remain. That was kind of the idea here. Obviously Jeep's seven slot grill is front and center. The headlights have a little more intricacy going on here. Check out this sort of horizontal unit inside the bezel. You come down here, it's sort of flared openings, these hollow openings to the bumper. Now that's something the old Wrangler Rubicons, certain versions of it, had a little more accentuated. Here, you come up here ahead of these fenders, there's actually turn signal lighting elements incorporated here. That's probably one of the key giveaways for this generation of the Wrangler versus the old generation of the vehicle, the JK generation. This is the JL generation. Now speaking of which the JL doesn't alter dimensions a ton. It's about the same dimensionally as the old Wrangler. Wheelbase is increased two and a half to four inches, depending on whether you get the two door version or the four-door version we have right here. The four-door version has another inch of rear leg room. It's actually reasonably roomy back there. Jeep has kind of move these seats back a little to give you more space. Now, capability. Certainly lots of it. Rubicon models have 10.9 inches of ground clearance. Up about an inch versus the old Wrangler Rubicon. There's still a two, four-wheel drive systems with transfer cases. So you can go four high, four low. Of course it wouldn't be a Wrangler if you couldn't take off the doors and fold down the windshield. And Jeep promises you can do all of that on this redesign. There'll be four different tops for the Wrangler. There's a base vinyl top that's a retractable. There's a sunrider cloth top that's retractable as well. Finally, there's a three-piece hardtop and a new top called the Skytop. That's actually a power retracting top. You just push a button and it goes back. It's available only on the four-door Wrangler. Now, the redesigned interior has a lot of different things going on in terms of buttons and features. Really good quality here in this car at the auto show, soft touch materials stitching, on top of the dash. Really, really nice to see all of that in a Wrangler. You can get a five-inch base screen. There's also a seven-inch touchscreen. There's an 8.4 inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android auto now available in the Wrangler. Wrangler comes standard with Jeeps 3.6 liter V6, slightly revised versus last year. Good for 285 horsepower, 260 pounds feet of torque, but there will be an optional engine, a turbo four cylinder. Good for 270 horsepower and 295 pounds feet of torque, give or take. That's nearly 15% more torque than the V6. Now you will still be able to get a manual transmission with the V6, even on a Rubicon. We will get a chance to drive this car next week in Arizona at Jeeps Media Drive. All of those details and a full video with soup to nuts impressions on what it's like to get behind the wheel and drive this up a rock trail will be available on December 13th. So be sure to check back at cars.com then.