Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 2019: off-road review

The Rubicon is the Wrangler line-up's flagship and the most off-road-capable of the range in stock-standard form. It is available as a four-door, four-seater only and with a choice of V6 petrol ($63,950) or 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine ($68,950). We drove the diesel this time.

As standard, the Rubicon's off-road-suited equipment includes BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tyres, rock-crawling 77.2:1 low-range gearing, front and rear locking differentials and a swaybar disconnect system to give this Jeep even more wheel travel than usual.

Other standard features include cloth seats, 8.4-inch touch-screen infotainment system with sat nav (including off-road mapping) and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, nine-speaker sound system, LED lights, 230V inverter, 17-inch alloys and more.

It comes with 17-inch alloys as standard. (image: Brendan Batty)

Driver-assist tech includes AEB, blind-spot monitoring, full-speed forward collision warning plus , active cruise control, tyre-pressure-monitoring, hill-start assist, hill descent control and more.

As tested, our Rubicon had a stack of extras, including exterior paint (Punk'N, $975), as well as the Rubicon Luxury Package ($1950), Trail Rail Management System (sliding tie-down points in the cargo area, $450) and 17” black wheel w/ polished lip ($950) taking the price to $73,275.

The Rubicon Luxury Package comprises black leather seats, gear-knob and handbrake handle, heated front seats and steering wheel, as well as colour-coded wheel-arches.

Our diesel Rubicon has a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, producing 147kW at 3500rpm and 450Nm at 2000rpm. It has an eight-speed torque-converter auto and dual-range transfer case with a stubby stick shifter.

The engine replaces the previous generation's 2.8-litre, so it's smaller but quite refined, even when pushed hard, and yields that handy 450Nm, right from the 2000rpm mark.

Unstoppable.

Well, not quite, but it's pretty bloody close. It's one of the few stock-standard 4WDs I'd drive out of the showroom and straight into the scrub and be confident of its ability to get me to anywhere I wanted to go with few, if any, alterations. All you need is fuel and a sense of adventure. (Oh, and food. And water. A swag. Some cooking utensils. Yes, and spares. But you get my drift.)

The Rubicon is a genuine 4WD with a dual-range transfer case, a ladder chassis, solid axles and proven 4WD heritage. Turns out, the new Rubicon simply improves on its predecessor and that it's still great off-road.

No matter how extreme the terrain becomes, steering retains a nice heft about it at lower speeds. (image: Brendan Batty)

But it's not perfect – and among its, admittedly minor, flaws was a characteristic we'd seen in the Jeep Wrangler Overland on a previous test.

On the way to our 4WD testing ground, over even small irregularities in the chopped-up bitumen country roads and then corrugated tracks, the Rubicon's steering suffered a bad and sustained case of the jitters. A bit annoying but nowhere near as unsettling as the Overland's jitters had been.

The little diesel donk ticks the Jeep along nicely at high speeds on dirt and finds the sweet spot easily when you drop the pace, and switch to 4WD, ready to tap into that low low-range gearing.

The Rubicon tackled the deep wheel ruts and mud holes that we pitched it into without strife. (image: Brendan Batty)

Rest assured, traditionalists: switching to 4WD High or Low range is still accomplished via a stubby shifter to the left of the main culprit.

And its low-range gearing is second to none, always getting maximum torque to the tyres as is possible.

The Rubicon has coil springs at all corners and those more than adequately absorb the bumps at any speeds, making for a generally high level of driver and passenger comfort.

The Rubicon is a genuine 4WD with a dual-range transfer case, a ladder chassis, solid axles and proven 4WD heritage. (image: Brendan Batty)

It has a listed 252mm running clearance (that's what Jeep calls it) and a standard wading depth of 760mm, so the Rubicon tackled the deep wheel ruts and mud holes that we pitched it into without strife – although the Jeep's belly did scrape on submerged rocks several times on water crossings as we bounced our way across them.

The Rubicon has approach, departure and ramp-over angles of 41, 31 and 21 degrees, and with the long wheelbase 'eating' into that ramp-over angle, this Jeep has to be driven with care on sharp and steep sections of rocky hill-climbs.

But no matter how extreme the terrain becomes, steering retains a nice heft about it at lower speeds.

It has a listed 252mm running clearance (that’s what Jeep calls it). (image: Brendan Batty)

When its Selec-Trac 4x4 system is ever in need of back-up, the Rubicon has those front and rear diff locks to use, and even though it has decent wheel travel as is, the Rubicon also has a sway-bar disconnect system, which sounds a bit over the top but comes in very handy when you want to gain even more articulation so you can get your tyres grabbing ground, rather than spinning in the air.

For those with recreational load-lugging on their minds, towing capacity is 750kg (unbraked) and 2495kg (braked). The Rubicon has a maximum tongue download of 250kg.

It has a standard wading depth of 760mm. (image: Brendan Batty)

The Rubicon has a one-star ANCAP safety rating but that's based on Euro NCAP testing, and up-to-date Australia-specific testing is expected to be undertaken soon.

The Rubicon has AEB, dual front and side airbags, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alerts, active cruise control, parking sensors, reversing camera, tyre-pressure-monitoring system and more.