It is a vehicle that is immensely customisable and, as I found out recently, equally capable. Sometimes, it does get challenging to do something special with a test car because most of the time, my colleagues and I need to be in the office. So when an opportunity arises to test a car for what it has been intended for, we normally jump at it.

Our journey

I was recently handed the keys to the Wrangler and a day later, headed off to Mozambique for the Easter long weekend. Luckily, I was with a few friends and our little convoy consisted of my bright red Jeep, a few Toyota Hilux bakkies, an old Land Rover Defender and a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.

Not long after departing, our idea of travelling on a quiet road was quickly proven to be a bad idea as the N4 towards Nelspruit was extremely busy with many accidents and broken down cars.

Nevertheless, we arrived at the border post at around three in the morning. I was quite impressed with the Jeep at this point. It had been a very long day and night, yet the car, despite its robust credentials, returned a comfortable ride and was averaging around 9.0-litres/100km despite being fully loaded.

The border hassle

The border post was packed, chaotic and took us a good three hours to get through. One tip I need to share is to make sure that all of your paperwork is sorted and to not give any documentation to anyone on the Mozambican side. Many ‘runners' pretend to be boarder officials and would take your documentation and refuse to return it unless you pay a fee.

Into Moz’

Heading into Mozambique as the sun kissed the horizon was truly special. Our destination was Macaneta Island close to the capital, Maputo. There are no tar roads on the island and to get there, one must navigate a rather poor muddy marshland road, something the Jeep did with ease.

On the island, we all deflated our tyres as one must do when travelling on sand. It gives the tyres a wider track and helps reduce the risk of getting stuck. I settled on a pressure rating of one-bar.

At home off-road

During our four-day stay on the island, I put the Jeep through its paces. I found a few sand dunes and conquered them; even some very muddy roads were no problem. We also managed to drive on the beach a few times, which once again saw the Jeep in its element.

Here's a little secret, not once did I engage low range and I was the only one that did not get stuck. The Wrangler was more of the recovery vehicle in the group and even helped recover some locals. It's also easy to get through tight, overgrown places due to its rectangular design. The large and extended front bumper, which many questioned, was very quickly utilised as a sitting area on our numerous stops to discuss how lost we actually were.

Under that classic bonnet is the familiar 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine, which develops 147kW/460Nm and offered effortless cruising and pulling power when needed. What's more is that one is able to pull the roof off of the Jeep. It's not easy the first time, but once I had consulted Google, it got easier. It gives you a completely different experience and even more so when you remove the doors.

All are held on by a few large bolts, but being Mozambique, both the roof and doors were quickly put back on as the heat became was incredibly hot, resulting in the air-conditioning being put on full blast.

Not all good

I always wondered why the Wrangler is so popular and now I can see why. It's a very versatile machine. It's rugged, capable and so to modify. It did not disappoint once, well maybe it did once. You see the biggest downside was the infotainment screen. It is very dated, so much so that there is no Bluetooth and the USB port won't read media from a smartphone.

You need to plug a USB into the port and through a very complex system download them to the hard drive. The screen itself looks like an aftermarket fitment and should be the first thing to go and replaced when you've purchased this car.

Verdict

In terms of pricing, you will need R775 900 for the 2.8 CRD Sahara which I drove. It is, however, money well spent. Everyone involved in this trip came back extremely impressed with the Jeep. It did what was asked of it and returned a pleasurable drive, is practical and massively capable off-road as well as on the road.