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Stick ranger gladiator4/10/2023 ![]() No thanks to the dunes, our average fuel economy is up 1 mpg, now to 16 mpg. Even with a decent 285 horsepower on tap, we often had to engage the four-wheel-drive system's low range and abuse the six-speed manual's clutch to make any meaningful progress in the dunes. And the high-strung 3.6-liter V-6, with its 4400-rpm torque peak, is not ideally suited for traversing deep sand. Some takeaways from those adventures are as follows: Our truck's soft tonneau cover is not secure enough to prevent hungry raccoons from loosening its fasteners and climbing inside the bed in search of foodstuffs that we thought were safely stowed away. ![]() Yet our rig has stayed relatively active within Michigan's borders, including a trip to the west side of the state for an outing on the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, plus a camping excursion to the Upper Peninsula. Long-distance travel remains a chore in Jeep's mid-size pickup. A Road Trip Falls Apart Only If You Let It.Jeep Gladiator Adds Wrangler’s Gecko Green Paint."It looks badass, but I wouldn't want to commute in something with so little sound deadening and tires this noisy," read a logbook comment that went on to point out how the truck's upright dashboard forces even diminutive drivers to grasp the wheel with scrunched-up arms. ![]() But as our Gladiator Mojave rolls (slowly, noisily) past the halfway point of its 40,000-mile test, praise for its eccentric character has become less common as its day-to-day frustrations grow more prominent.īy now, our gripes about the Gladiator are familiar: It's loud inside, plodding on the move, and its steering seems to have only a casual relationship with the front wheels. Everything about the way this truck drives is clunky, awkward, and uncomfortable-and yet I loved every minute behind the wheel." For an old-school pickup with two solid axles and the added novelty of a convertible top, that's a high compliment. Staff editor Drew Dorian summed up our initial take on the Jeep Gladiator with a recent gem in our long-termer's logbook: "I can't think of another vehicle on sale today that is as flawed but still utterly charming. There's a reason desert racers abandoned that setup decades ago in favor of independent front suspensions. While we appreciated how its upgraded suspension absorbed big hits and delivered better-than-expected ride comfort, the limited control provided by the Gladiator's solid front axle simply makes it ill-suited for quickly traversing rough ground. The Mojave trim level is the only Jeep so far to wear the brand's Desert Rated badge, which denotes a greater proficiency in higher-speed off-road conditions, but it also left us wanting. ![]() What's more, troubles with our truck's transmission ultimately resulted in its full replacement under warranty at 8424 miles, a fix that took it out of service for a whopping 29 days. After 30,000 miles, we're convinced that the eight-speed auto is the way to go in any Gladiator, frustrating as that may be for savers of manuals and the Jeep faithful's most devout members. The Gladiator's optional 260-hp 3.0-liter V-6 turbo diesel may have been a better fit for us, but it's not available on the Mojave trim. HIGHS: Highly unique among pickups, decent ride for a solid-axle Jeep, good fun in short doses. Our truck's sleepy 8.5-second run to 60 mph made it slow, significant amounts of road and wind noise inside the cabin (71 decibels at 70 mph) made it taxing to pilot, and a dismal 15-mpg result on our 75-mph highway test and a 16-mpg average overall made it woefully inefficient. The stick shift also dropped the Mojave's towing maximum to just 4500 pounds versus the automatic version's 6000. That was fun at first but eventually grew tiring. With fewer gear ratios and the engine's 260 pound-feet of torque arriving at a high 4400 rpm, we had to really work our truck's clunky shifter and clutch pedal to generate meaningful speed. ![]() Choosing the Mojave's six-speed manual transmission instead of its optional $2000 eight-speed automatic did the standard 285-hp 3.6-liter V-6 no favors. We bear some of the brunt for our test truck's disappointment. But we weren't terribly sad to see it go. The Gladiator would eventually leave us before it could complete its 40,000-mile test, having bumped up against Stellantis's 12-month loan agreement limit. Unfortunately, our initial excitement began to fade as mechanical issues and day-to-day frustrations beset our Jeep pickup. Despite not being our top pick for pure pickup duty, as a third-place finish in a comparison test proved, the Gladiator was (and still is) a bolt of freshness in the mid-size truck segment, a novel workhorse with rugged presence, a convertible top, and a solid-axle Jeep lineage. In the wake of the Jeep Gladiator's 10Best win for its debut model year, our hopes were high as we welcomed a 2020 Mojave model into our long-term fleet. ![]()
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