The Jeep Wrangler is one of the few vehicles out there that can truly be called an icon. The four-wheel-drive Wrangler is the direct lineal descendant of the literally legendary MB Jeep that fought alongside American and allied forces during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of the rugged little MBs were built during the war and when the soldiers who drove them came back home, they wanted to bring their Jeeps with them. That led to the development of the CJ-Series of civilian Jeeps that were in production from 1945-'86. And it's the first Jeep Wrangler that replaced the last Jeep CJ.
To hard-core Jeepers — and every Jeeper is hard-core — the first 1987 Jeep Wrangler was known as the YJ. Wider and slightly longer than the CJ-7 it replaced, the YJ Wrangler retained the basic suspension design that had been under all previous Jeeps: solid axles on leaf springs front and rear. Powered by four- or six-cylinder inline engines, this generation of the Jeep Wrangler stayed in production through the 1995 model year and is most easily distinguished by the rectangular headlights set into its traditional seven-slot grille.
Technically there was no Jeep Wrangler produced during the 1996 model year, as the new Jeep Wrangler "TJ" was introduced as a 1997 and went on sale in the spring of 1996. Again powered by four- or six-cylinder inline engines, the biggest innovation aboard the TJ was the adoption of coil springs on its front and rear solid axles. An even more capable TJ, the Wrangler Rubicon, was introduced as a 2003 model. And a Jeep Wrangler TJ stretched 10 inches in wheelbase was introduced during 2004 as the Wrangler Unlimited.
The great innovation of the Jeep Wrangler "JK" introduced for 2007 wasn't its additional width or standard V6 engine, but that for the first time a four-door model was available. Using the familiar name Wrangler Unlimited, the four-door JK proved an instant hit. Jeep also produces a toughened version of the Jeep Wrangler JK for military use known as the J8 at Jeep's Toledo, Ohio, assembly plant.
Every Jeep Wrangler is among the world's most capable off-road machines.
