Michael Satterfield
by Michael Satterfield – 02/09/2021
There is something about a real Jeep, sure their standard range of SUVs are excellent, we recently just turned in our Grand Cherokee a few weeks ago. But as nice as they are, they lacked a lot of that quintessential American grit that made the original Jeep an icon. The Gladiator, however, is 100% pure Jeep.
The Gladiator descends from a long line of utilitarian Jeeps going all the way back to the 1947 Willys-Overland pickup, the first truck to be called a Gladiator debuted in 1963 and remained in production with some minor tweaks until 1987. While the old Gladiator was more of a conventional pick up the 1980’s Jeep Scrambler was closest to what the modern Gladiator is today, just in a regular cab configuration.
The Gladiator Rubicon is far from a basic off-roader, and this is the Rubicon edition loaded with options, after all the extras and the destination charges it stickers at just over $67,000. While the base model Gladiator starts at just over $35,000 the higher trim levels really do offer a lot of content. Plus this truck features the new 3.0-liter V6 turbo diesel that produces 260 horsepower and 442 lb-ft of torque, which delivered a surprising 26 mpg average for us.
On or off-road the Gladiator was far more comfortable than I first expected, seeing as it rode on 33-inch off-road tires, but around town and even on the highway the Gladiator was surprisingly quiet. Some of that added silence could also be attributed to the hardtop, which Jeep calls the Freedom Top. The body-colored multi-panel hardtop is a $2,395 option that is well worth considering.
