Yamaha90

A few weeks ago on October 1st, while reading the paper i saw this pretty decent sized article, so i kept that section of the paper. I found that section this morning and figured i would post it up for you guys to read as well. It's pretty cool! If you click the link, they have some 2012 pictures offroading, makes it more appealing to read that way lol
Link:
http://w ww.fyidriving.com/article/2012-jeep-wrangler-brings-refinement-to-its-go-anywhere-ability/

"Portland, OR. – If you’re going to head for the hills, Oregon’s a great place to do it. For that reason, Jeep took us to the top of a mountain to drive the 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

When the top wasn’t challenging enough, they had off-road experts toughen up the trail a bit to show off the Wrangler’s abilities. The fact that the weather was clear and visibility was forever made this even more of an experience.

As we climbed into seriously steep ditches and through dramatic ruts studded with boulders, the ability of this sports ute was highly appreciated. Looking down three thousand feet to the tops of the trees when leaning 30 degrees sideways certainly helped keep the focus on just how good Jeeps are at doing this kind of thing.

But that wasn’t the message that Jeep wanted to make about the Unlimited; they talked about how refined it is. While a huge percentage of Jeep owners take their cars either off-road or at
least off-paved-road, the vehicle’s appeal is clearly moving towards a more competitive, smaller specialized sports ute market.

That just makes sense. Those who love Jeep and drive it through the wilds of the world aren’t going to walk away in disgust. It remains as capable as ever, if not more so. So marketers must find a way to grow the car’s sales, and that means getting people who don’t yearn for the wilderness to yearn for the Wrangler.

But unlike the great number of crossovers that are taking the place of traditional sports utility vehicle, the Wrangler isn’t a car that looks like a truck. It is a truck and if you don’t believe it, just turn left and head for the hills. You’ll soon understand the difference.

There are three models of both the two- and four-door Wrangler: the Sport Sahara and Rubicon. The starting price of the two-door Sport is $22,045 and the four-door is $25,545. Jeep marketing officials expect most of the growth in the market share to come from the on-road crowd, and that’s why they concentrated on the refinement issues. There’s a place for a completely utilitarian vehicle, but not as big a place as a comfortable, quiet, over-capable sports ute.

It’s interesting how different the buyers of the two and four-door models are. Four-door buyers are reasonably affluent married people with children. They use it more as a ute with additional capabilities and macho-ness for when dad’s driving it. Two-door Wranglers are driven by young single males, or empty nesters who couldn’t afford a Wrangler when they were young.

Interestingly, there’s not a lot of difference in the percentage of people who take them off road. When it comes to driving on dirt and gravel, 85 percent of owners do it, and driving in rocks, streams and mud, the percentages differ only a bit. Seventy percent of two-door owners and 65-percent of four-door owners are willing to get it really dirty.

There’s not even a lot of difference between models, although if you go to the trouble to buy the Rubicon, 95 percent will drive it off-paved road, and 90 percent will drive it in the mud and rocks. One wonders why someone would buy the Rubicon unless they planned to take it off road. Maybe they think it’s cooler.

Jeep engineers also worked on reducing noise, vibration and harshness, and it was quite evident on the highway that the effort had been successful. At highway speeds, the Wrangler Unlimited sounds no louder than any crossover sport ute.

The primary change is the powertrain, with a smaller engine, and a new automatic transmission and final drive. The mechanicals were aimed at making performance more efficient. So the Wranglers get a new 3.6-liter engine and five-speed automatic transmission. The new engine design maintains the Jeep’s ability to ford 30-inch deep water.

There are big differences to both the intake and exhaust manifolds to make the vehicle more efficient while maintaining its Jeepish capabilities. Officials say that best case, the mileage is as much as 13 percent better. These changes result in 285 hp. and 260 lb.-ft. of peak torque. If that doesn’t get you up the mountain, walk.

The transmission has a lower first gear for a better crawl ratio off-road. The standard transmission is still a manual, but this automatic eliminates any reason to get the manual. If you’re really into off-road stuff, you want an automatic. It you’re trekking to the mall, why shift? Jeep expects the take rate for the manual transmission to remain about 20 percent of sales.

There are few changes to the exterior appearance of the Wrangler Unlimited because it’s so fitted with iconic Wrangler symbols that there’s not much to change. A Wrangler must have round headlights, a seven slot grill, Jeep’s special trapezoidal fenders and a silhouette that screams “aerodynamics be darned.” That means the windshield is upright and the vehicle will have doors that you can remove.

There’s one difference in exterior offerings, and that is that buyers can now choose to have the roof and fenders body-colored. That, especially with the special 32-inch wheels, brings a somewhat discordant, and therefore appealing macho-sophisticated look to the Unlimited. Jeep officials expect this will appeal to those who buy the vehicle to use as a sport ute. Since that’s the growth in the Wrangler Unlimited, it makes sense to include all the models.

The interior was upgraded starting with the 2011 model. They increased the interior’s refinement, bringing it to the standard of car interiors. Hard plastic has been replaced with softer touch materials where they ought to be.

The new instrument panel is attractive, but the Jeep’s “industrial” stylishness is giving way to more conventional on-road features and feel. But, for the sake of authenticity, the bolts that you see inside are real, not cosmetic. The only touch I wasn’t impressed with was the printing on the passenger’s chicken bar, which read Jeep Since 1941. Just seemed a bit less than refined.

But I did like the clever, little imaginative touches of the vehicle’s front “face,” repeated in metal above the rear-view mirror, and the tiny image of a Jeep climbing a hill hidden on the side for owners to show off to the selected few.

The power steering was boosted a bit too much, making it a little too light on the road. But the steering wheel has a solid feel to it that diminishes this effect. It’s heavier, and that made driving smoother.

You can get heated leather seats in the Wrangler, and when you do take the roof and doors off, there are special places for the bolts, a feature that keeps them from getting lost in the bottom of the glove box when the parts go back on.

So will this strategy work? It already is working. Perhaps the best part of this refinement is that the Jeep old guard lose nothing of what they want in a Wrangler. It’s still better off road than most people who drive them there. It’s a safe and moderately simple vehicle, retaining its go anywhere, anytime attitude. But now it does it with a bit more sophistication."

So what do you think?