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Gladiator Review & Buying Guide


Manche757
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I'd totally drive one given 2 circumstances occur: 

 

-they bring out a decent diesel engine (should be happening soon)

 

-someone buys it for me (not likely to happen soon)

 

I'd throw a small camper in the bed and then use it to haul my MJs to car shows and trails. :D 

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I will get a tow rig for my Comanche once it's on 40s.  But the Gladiator isn't enough truck to tow the load I will be towing over the mountain passes.  I like to have a 20% or more margin on tow rating over the towed weight, just for safety.  And while the top tow rating for the Gladiator is impressive for what it is, it's not enough.  Same story with every other compact pickup. 

 

The new 1/2 ton pickups are all getting to some pretty significant numbers and may be enough.  And with their diesel engines all cranking out 440+ pound feet, they may even work well over the passes with the turbo keeping the power levels up at altitude.  The integrated brake controllers would make the run down the slope better, along with the big brakes they all seem to have.  If you option them right, you can keep the cost under $50K retail, with probably a mid 40's out-the-door price.

 

Of course, the heavy duty diesel trucks all have way more capacity than I need.  But they would tow a couple of Comanches on a trailer with a full size camper in the bed and hardly break a sweat.  But they get expensive quick.  And a lot of the electronics on diesels from the last 15 years seems to be not 100% reliable.  And like the early MJ, they switched around the whole engine management system before finally finding one that was good.  So parts are expensive and sometimes unique to a model year (or less).

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I will never buy or drive one, and here's why. *steps onto soapbox*

1. The bed size is ridiculously small. Why even bother? What makes a truck useful is worthless on this model.

2. The backseat is HUGE. Now that I am married and own a house with a nice bed, I don't need that much room back there. Its a waste of frame length and wheelspace. Give me something like the 90's dodges or tacomas had for a rear seating space.

3. At a bare minimum its $40,000 overpriced. But this goes for EVERY car being sold these days. I'm not that old, and I still remember when new cars were reasonably priced.

4. Soccer Mom Gadgets. Who needs all that crap everywhere? Its a truck, I don't need it to heat and cool my nether regions why I search the internet going 70mph down the highway on cruise and auto lane detecting, listening to the new boy band of the month on an overpriced sound system while my wife does her make-up in the lighted sun visor, waiting for the plug in blender to finish her margarita, and a travel buddy sleeps in the twin bed sized rear seat area. No-one needs rear-view cameras (mirrors for poor men) or onboard GPS systems (paper maps for poor men) or sound systems (conversations for poor men) or 7" displays in the dash to watch movies on (imagination for poor men). I mean seriously, where does it end?

5. Off-road look from the factory. The reason this is cool and desirable is because people put in time, money, and creativity to make their rigs look cool. Why should anyone be able to go out and just buy it? To me, its something that needs to be earned, not given.

6. Terrible body proportions. It just looks ugly. I figure the design guys could do better than "lets hacksaw the rear hatch off a new wrangler and the bed off a miniature truck and JB weld them together. That will look just fine".

 

*steps off soapbox*

 

Thank you for listening. That concludes today's TedTalkrx.

 

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On 1/21/2020 at 6:31 PM, JustEmptyEveryPocket said:

......alot of truth......

 

*steps off soapbox*

 

Thank you for listening. That concludes today's TedTalkrx.

 

 

<<insert Morgan Freeman meme "he's right, ya know" here>>

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I want to want one, but that is probably because I've been waiting for the Gladiator for 15+ years. I'd have to sell one of my vehicles to add a Gladiator to the fleet, but I just don't see that happening :rolleyes:

 

I like most things about them, but I do not like the back doors. The door is obviously the same as a JL door and is cut for the JL fender. It looks unrefined and like something that was put together in a hurry by a sub-par shop for SEMA.

 

 

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The Jeeps I own can be seen in my signature.  I will never buy a new car/Jeep/truck, prices are beyond ridiculous.  But, I'm glad that the Jeep brand is healthy.  The last time we had three models of the "Wrangler" available off the showroom floor was 1983 (CJ5, CJ7, CJ8).  I agree that all the whiz-bang gadgets are a horrible trend.  Hopefully in the future a big manufacturer will do away with it all, offer a model at substantial savings, everyone buys it, and it becomes the "new" trend.  I don't think the Gladiator is aimed at someone who really needs a truck.  Single cab trucks with an 8' bed are a rarity these days.  I do think it is well suited to the "overlanding" crowd.  Personally, I'd like to see a new Jeep towards the smaller end of the spectrum.  These are my favorite Jeep Concept models of recent years:

jeep_100345999_m.jpg

2013_jeep_wrangler_stitch_1_1024x768.jpg

6784678_orig.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't believe it yet, but I am considering the Gladiator, among other trucks. The diesel, though Italian, looks like a good redesign of the EcoDiesel, and it'll be available this year. However, a problem with that is the diesel will actually reduce the tow capacity of the truck, because of a cooling issue. I have to read more into it, but those 480 ft/lbs of torque would be wasted at a lower tow rating. 

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1 hour ago, Pete M said:

how much lower?

They haven't released numbers yet, but I'd venture to guess several hundred pounds lower. The Rubicon as it stands now tows 7000, I'd imagine with the diesel itd be 6k or even less, like the Overland. A diesel overland would probably put it in the 5k category. Not ideal, especially for the diesel premium pricing. 

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3 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Good ole recall VB1. Replace all defective EGR coolers on all eco diesels. Damn parts are on back order like the 5.7L tappets.

It's not a recall issue.  It's an airflow issue.  They even redesigned the JL nose to flow more air and it's still not enough to handle the heat of a turbo diesel.

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