My only prior experience driving a Wrangler was during one of my long-ago college summer jobs at a Chrysler dealership. And it is truly an "experience": there's no street-legal vehicle that's really anything like the Wrangler. Here it is, 2012, and Jeep's iconic trail crawler is as raw-boned and elemental as it's ever been. It's been spruced up somewhat to incorporate some of the gimme-gimmies that modern consumers demand, but "refined" it is not. Oh boy, is it ever not. Come to think of it, it's amazing that such a vehicle is even capable of being successfully marketed to today's soft and fussy motoring public. I recieved our Wrangler Rubicon test vehicle on the eve of the first and only big dump of snow Seattle would get for the winter. And I knew I was in for a wild ride...

Your first spin in a Wrangler is likely to be terrifying. It feels like you're in a big, galloping, plastic bucket with only the most crude implements to control its speed and direction. It crashes gracelessly over potholes and has no manners whatsoever on the highway, with the wa-wa-wa-wa-wa of its big 32-inch Goodyear Mud Terrains drowning out anything that might be going on in the cabin. Spend a little time with it though, and you get used to it pretty fast. And once you do, you postitively want to throw this beast around. Short wheelbase and powerful new Pentastar V6 makes both scooty and ultra maneuverable (if a bit imprecise in the steering: the big tires and solid front axle sees to that). Its powerful acceleration was what really stood out, and it's one of the things Jeep worked really hard for in this iteration: the Wrangler gets Chrysler's 3.6L Pentastar V6, scoring 285 hp and 260 ft-lbs of torque, all while gaining 2 highway mpgs over the outgoing powerplant.

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