Jeep leaks first pictures of next-generation Wrangler

November 2, 2017 by Alastair Sloane

Jeep has just released the first official photos of the JL-generation Wrangler, ending many months of speculation about whether the new model would be radically different from its predecessors.

Clearly it’s not – Jeep was never going to monkey around with the design of the iconic off-roader.

But it has made some classic changes that Jeep fans have been calling for, like the flatter mudguards and the hinged windscreen, for instance.

Also, the windscreen looks to be angled back further, and the front end has been given a more refined look.

The new model will go on sale in New Zealand next year. Only a few weeks ago the owner’s manual for the 2018 Wrangler found its way on to the internet.

There were details about the user interface, engine options, how to remove the doors, how to lay the windscreen flat on the bonnet, and so on. There was also a reference to “dozens of different door, top, and windshield combinations.”

Jeep observers in the United States expect engine options to run to four to cater for different global markets – a reworked version of the current 3.6-litre Pentastar V6, turbodiesels of 2.2- and 3.0-litre capacity, and a boosted 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder.

The JL Wrangler will go public at the Los Angeles motor show later this month. Also doing the rumour rounds is the name of the pick-up, to be built on the four-door platform. It is claimed Jeep will resurrect the name Scrambler, last used on a pick-up of sorts in the early 1980s.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

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The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.