Drove a Jeep as a Rental...

I spent the last 4 days driving a Sahara 4 door Jeep care of Avis. I was very interested since I was very serious about buying a Jeep before getting my 4Runner.

TL;DR: 4Runners are a wife of 22 years with a juicy trunk, perky up-tops, and a great mother to your kids. She works hard at her job, helps out around the house, and puts up with your shit. A Jeep is a cute co-ed that is thin, looks great in yoga pants, talks too much, and lives on daddy's money. She good for a booty call any day of the week but isn't worth taking to Europe to visit the museums in Paris and Bruxelles because she doesn't "get art."

Had the hybrid engine. What a piece of trash. Didn't have great power, didn't every really charge the battery enough to use the electric function. Steering was all kinds of mushy. No way I'd take it up to 85 mph. Seat doesn't go back very far. I'm tall and need some knee room. Windshield wipers were trash. My back seat riders bumped their head on the stupid speaker box attached to the roll bars. I couldn't find a damn head light...because IT WAS BEHIND ME MOUNTED TO THE SPEAKER BOX!!!!!! The headlights sucked and had a terrible light pattern. Instrument cluster was meh. I am sure with some 35's it is bad ass in the mountains going 4 mph. I've rented them before and they get the job done. There is no WAY I would enjoy it as a daily driver. The seats were terribly uncomfortable.

 

Photo of the dash.

 

Agree. They suck. I took a 4hr trip on one last time and my lower back was killing me for days. So rough on the roads.

 

I drove 2 hrs back and forth to Baltimore. My lower back is killing me. I blamed the hotel bed but it might have been the Jeep.

 

So you didnt take it off road, even touch locking the hubs or lockers in. Ya know,.. fun jeep things. And why 4 runner owners "think" their rig is reliable. Gotta say, i see WAY more jeeps on trails, than our runners.

Got it.....

 

Had a very similar situation with my rental Rubicon 4xe

-Hybrid system was interesting. Made great power but wouldn't last more than 45 minutes before the battery was depleted.
-Very rough on washboard roads. Even with swaybars disconnected.
-Lots of wind noise on the highways.
-Uncomfortable seats. Can't imagine road tripping that rig the way I do with the 4Runner.
-Swaybar disconnects and lockers would take forever to activate.

The only pro was it actually was very fun to drive on mountain roads. Could really feel that low center of gravity and thick swaybars working here. A little tendency for safety understeer and almost no tendency to oversteer. It honestly felt great there. Coming down those mountain roads was done completely with the electric motor and it was able to regenerate about 25% for the battery. The hybrid system seemed to work seemlessly.

Of course, once I got back to the major highway I wanted to feel that combined 375hp... Well one on ramp later and that 25% was gone. Back to 270hp from the I4 turbo.
Overall not a bad experience though. Just pros and cons like every vehicle.

Was happy to rent one and experience it. I think for real rock crawling I'd prefer an old TJ or maybe JK... Build it up for wheeling and be prepared to fix it constantly. It'd be a toy at that point and I'd need another daily driver.

I was considering a 392... But I'd be worried about owning one outside of it's warranty period. I have some confidence in the powertrain but the electrical issues I read about sound like a headache. For the price tag I could build one hell of a TJ and have the cash for a daily driver.

I'll stick with my jack of all trades 4Runner for now

 

This is fantastic! Thank you for this!

 

Jeeps are obviously better for technical trails. I don't think think anyone would argue that point.

We see plenty of Toyotas on the trails around here. But, there's very little in Wisconsin that would be challenging enough to rationalize a Jeep.

I'd still love one as a toy.

 

So what you're saying is, Jeep's are the strippers of the automotive world. They're fun to play with, but you never keep them around for long and you HAVE to take a shower after you are done riding in one to get the stank' off ya (and the glitter!).

 

Sounds like you asked a cute co-ed out, she said yes, and you took her to a museum for the afternoon. Next time, buy a box of condoms and get a room at a 5-star hotel, and order room service all weekend.

Next time you rent a Jeep, make sure it's a Rubicon. Drive a trail that always seemed exciting, but you were too afraid you'd get caught with your pants down driving your 4Runner on.

 

I owned an XJ. It was nice, but couldn't do the trails my TJ could, nor my JLs. Although, it would definitely keep up with my 4R.

 

He said he thinks the 4R is much better to live with and daily drive than the Sahara he drove. I don't think he was interested in providing us with a trail report.

 

I had a Sahara V6 as a rental for a week in Hawaii. I was expecting a rough ride like older jeeps I had driven but was surprised by how well it drove. Plenty of power and fun to drive. Their current pricing being much less than a 4Runner is a big plus. It might be a smart buy as long as you plan to trade in before high mileage.

 

Everyone wants that SFA for the mall though.

 

I just checked out my local Jeep dealers website. $14K off a Sahara hybrid. $51K current price.
$7K off a non hybrid Sahara. $49K current.
I would say a Sahara is similar to an Offroad Premium 4Runner which are $58K

 

I had a 2024 4dr Rubicon with the v6 as a rental for a week. I was soo glad to get my 4runner back. I hated it, I felt so cramped (6'3" 200lb). I get they are great offroad but on the street no fun. Shit at 75mph it felt so unstable.

 

I had a 2024 JLU Sport S (second from lowest trim) for a few months last year. I really, really, really liked it. In fact, it may be my favorite vehicle of any I've owned. It was just fun to drive, very engaging, visceral, you felt connected to the project. I loved the Freedom tops, with those off it was basically like taking the whole roof off since you couldn't really see the roof behind the B pillars while driving. 4wd was basic (no modes, no lockers) but SFA was noticeably better on trails than the IFS 4Runner. I hate the duck thing but I enjoyed the immediate camaraderie of all the other Jeep owners waving at each other. 3.6 gasser was perfectly fine and actually felt fairly powerful and fuel economy wasn't awful. I had the 6MT which was not great; 1st gear was really hard to successfully engage from a stop without stalling; but the 8AT I think would be just fine, or the lower gear ratio in the Rubi 6MT would also probably be okay. I also really liked the way it looked. The infotainment and dash was brilliant. Like, Toyota can come suck my dick for how badly they butchered the newer 4Rs infotainment by comparison to how good the Jeep is (OP's images are of a pre-2024 model with the old system). Finally, the aftermarket is insane for those and really you can outfit one to be ruthlessly efficient as an all-arounder for not a lot of money - there's so many vendors that prices are not unreasonable unlike the scarcity of vendors and higher prices for something like my GX. Unlike OP I found the seats to be very comfortable and supportive. Heated seats and wheel were great and about a million times better than my old 4R or my current GX's seats / wheel. Also unlike OP I think it was a great DD. If all I was doing was commuting in it, and just like a day trip trail sort of thing, it'd be great.

The reason I sold it (and bought the GX) - it was just too small for the kind of 2-person-living-out-of-the-truck-for-a-couple-weeks-at-a-time camping that my wife and I do. We took it out west for 2 weeks and had a great time but were cramped, both in the back while sleeping and in the front while driving. The front seat passenger is basically just locked in place, can't even cross your legs. Makes for a long trip...

Prior to taking the plunge and demo-ing one for a day and a 150 miles, and then buying one and owning it for 7,000 miles, I had the typical Toyota fuckboi mindset that Jeeps were pieces of shit and I just generally sneered at them. After pulling the trigger and owning one, I have a lot of respect for the capabilities of the JL/U; I just wish they could make the interior a bit bigger while still keeping the overall size the same.

I still would be reluctant to own one long after the warranty was up though.





Tight quarters for 2:

 

We traded our 4R in for a 24 JLU, i think the screen layout looks very well planned and not an afterthought. I have no complaints with the ride on or off road. SFA takes a bit to get used to. The turbo 2.0 has great pick up and low end torque.

but yeah, got the longest mopar warranty they make, because its a jeep

 

Wranglers are great if your young and don’t care about comfort or if your older and have it as a second vehicle.

 

I’ve been told here that a Camry hybrid is the ultimate vehicle for on road handling. You should get one of those next time.

 

Have you thought about a gladiator with a cap?

 

8.8 inch Ford rear axle, 4.56 gears, Detroit Tru-Tracs. Little scary on the Freeway, but it goes places I wouldn't dream of taking my 4runner. It's so ugly I really don't worry about trail damage. To me it's a great extra vehicle/winter beater.

 

No, a truck doesn't really work for my needs. I've tried it a few times with Tacomas over the years, thinking I can make it work, and the first camping trip I am like "fuck this, I should have kept the SUV". The Gladiator front interior is as tight as the JLU anyway, so it's doubly no bueno.

 

Hmm. Yea I won't drive a compact/mid size sedan.

 

I have rented Jeeps and ran them off-road. I'm very clear about what they can do. I've never had one as a daily driver. I made that clear above. Said it in the post.

Got it....

 

My friend had an old CJ with a 350 dropped in it. That was a solid ride.

 

Off road you say !!!!!



Rented.

Right.

Got it.
What year jeep was it? what model? what trail? What state?
And its ok if you say your wife drove. Its ok man. And no. Someone like you, should NOT daily a jeep. Of any kind. But, if you have different looks on what you do on the weekend, a decent Jeep, will make a 4 runner look stupid, doing actual work. Period.
Own 2 Toyotas here. And will forever.

 

This guy gets it. And would make 99 percent of the runners on this forum look stupid on a "actual" trail. Before and after bending a tie rod going up anything remotely above average.

 

Yes, actual offroad oriented SUVs are not idea for commuting and long road trips. News at 11.

The overwhelming majority of comments in this thread show the reason why Toyota doesn't want to sell the 70 Series in the US even if they could, or Hilux that they could produce in Mexico, or why Suzuki has no plan of selling the Jimny here ever since the Samurai was withdrawn.

 

True. But, the OP was honest about it.

I totally agree with what you're saying about the 70, Hilux, Jimny, etc. The market for those types of vehicles is just too small to be worthwhile for them.

I think this is why the 4Runner is so popular. It's capable enough for what most people will ever actually do, and pretty easy to live with on a daily basis.