for one thing, its not stock! and some people don't know what they are talking about when they say its the best one ever built
it is dumb to go pay twice as much to jeep for the same after market parts you can buy and add to a "stock" jeep to make it a rubicon
the second generation traction controlled land rover is a much more capable vehicle as far as off road ability, but you wont see them on the trail nearly as often because of the price.
the new chevy pickups use this same traction control and i have one of them, it is the first one in a long time i bought without positrac, i thought i would hate it, but it turns out, it is more capable than anything i have ever driven "stock"
while i do like jeeps, the rubicon is an over priced version of most wheelers on/ offroad daily drivers, and they clutter up the trails with kids who's daddy had enough money to buy one for there kids but not enough sense to know better, so we drag them out of the river and watch as they get hauled back to the dealers to be fixed because these people have any idea how to fix them because they didn't build them up to start with!
it isn't as funny as watching the hummers go in only to be towed out, but it is funny none the less.
i will hook on to anybodies beat up old river truck or rock crawler for free and lend my tools to help fix it or get in there and help till i have bled as well
but it's gonna cost you when i drag that "stock' hummer or rubicon out of there! lol
What does a Rubicon offer to justify the increased cost? Electric sway bar discos. Locking Dana 44s front and rear. BFG KM2 rubber. Better shocks and higher rate springs. It also has the 4/1 Rock-Trac crawl ratio transfer case not offered on other Wranglers. Trust me on this... If you bought a Wrangler Sport and wanted to bring it up to Rubicon specs, it would cost you far more in total than the difference of simply buying the Rubicon.
Do not confuse the the current JK Wrangler with the previous TJ series. Out the dealer door, the JK is more capable than the TJ. Substantially more capable. That may freak out our TJ owners, but it is a fact.
Here's another fact. A Wrangler Sahara (optimized for the street) was tested head to head against a new D110 Defender, both on and off road. The winner? The Wrangler. I really do get tired of that weary mantra of how the Defender or any other Land Rover is much better than a new Wrangler. Pure hogwash. I've driven Defender D90s, several Discos and the LR2. I liked every one of them. A used Disco can be a great choice for a weekend off road vehicle. However, their general lack of electrical system reliability (especially in early generation Discos) and high cost of all parts would discourage me from considering one as a daily driver. There's also the very limited upgrade aftermarket for LRs.
Some of their test comments... "There’s nothing the Defender does the Jeep can’t do better." "Defender ills persist as Jeep shows how it should be done."
Test conclusions: "The Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 2.8 CRD Sahara is the resounding winner in this test. We thought it would be a much closer contest between this pair of iconic off-roaders. But it’s clear that Jeep have done far more to make their new 4x4 appeal to a broader range of buyers, while retaining its core strengths of off-road ability and functional good looks. Land Rover have certainly kept these same two attributes with their Defender update, and over the old TD5 model, main road performance is much improved. But it still looks expensive and under equipped, even though it will always be worth more used. That’s appealing but, for us, not enough to make up for the rest of it. Apart from being cheaper to buy, the Jeep has far superior safety credentials and is also quicker, more refined, easier on fuel and better to drive on-road while still being great off-road. A
massive gap has grown up between these two legends.
If this all sounds like doom and gloom for Land Rover, we’ve no doubt the Defender will carry on selling in significant numbers to commercial customers who need a serious off-road machine for serious work. There are also dyed-in-the-wool Land Rover enthusiasts who will only ever have eyes for Solihull. But we, like the great majority of potential buyers, belong in neither camp, and therefore have no hesitation at all in recommending the Jeep."
Read the entire 4X4 & MPV Driver test report here:
http://zool.xsion.gr/blog/wp-content/uploads/JK/wranglervsdefender.pdfThis Sahara lacked locking difs, sway bar disco and M/T tires.
I'm going to reiterate this point, because it seems that most want to compare a heavily modded vehicle to a stock Wrangler.
Out of a dealer showroom, there is no other factory stock vehicle you can purchase that is as capable off road as a Wrangler, and the Rubicon sets the bar even higher.
This includes the FJ, Taco, the Xterra, the H3, the Frontier or any other 4x4 available in the USA. Every one of these vehicles will require some level of upgrade to equal the Wrangler Sport, and significant expenditure to compete with a stock Rubicon. Yet, everyone of those vehicles is better on road than a Wrangler. That is the compromise the various manufacturers elected to make. They sacrifice off road ability for comfort and convenience. If the owners of the above vehicles want Rubicon off road ability, than they must spend a considerable sum in aftermarket upgrades. There's nothing wrong with that. However, you still can't pull off the doors and fold the top and windshield.
My regards,
Widewing
