Jeep Wrangler

The drivetrain is not the variable. Every Wrangler is four-wheel drive and there is nothing to check — unlike the Grand Cherokee, where there is. The difference here is which system: Command-Trac on the Sport and Sahara against Rock-Trac on the Rubicon, with electronic locking front and rear differentials and a disconnecting front anti-roll bar. That is what the badge is worth reading for.

The engine is where the markets separate. The 3.6 Pentastar V6, 285 hp, is the American standard and roughly two thirds of the Wranglers we hold. It cannot be bought new in Europe: Stellantis withdrew the naturally aspirated engines over the emissions standards. A new Wrangler at a European dealer today effectively means the 4xe plug-in hybrid, with the 2.0 turbo petrol on a few markets including Bulgaria, in small numbers.

The diesel is the cleanest inversion of the two. Europe got the 2.2 MultiJet, 200 hp, which was never sold in America. America got the 3.0 EcoDiesel V6, which was never sold in Europe. Two markets, two diesels, no overlap. We hold thirty or so EcoDiesels — an engine with no European twin, no local service habit and no part on a shelf here. Worth knowing before buying, and in both directions.

The gearbox too. About a quarter of our Wranglers are manual. The 4xe is automatic-only, so a manual Wrangler is something the official European channel simply cannot supply. The 3.6 with a manual — the classic configuration — exists here only as an import.

The trims narrowed to two in Europe. Sahara is the comfortable one: body-coloured wings, hard top, 18-inch road wheels. Rubicon is the off-roader: black plastic wings, 17-inch mud tyres, Rock-Trac, lockers. Overland was offered before the facelift and later folded into Sahara. America keeps the whole spread — Sport and Sport S on steel wheels with cloth seats, Willys as the cheaper off-road pack, High Altitude and Sahara for luxury, Rubicon and Rubicon X above them, and the Rubicon 392 with the 6.4 HEMI and 470 hp, which Europe never offered. Stripped base cars like those are not imported into Europe officially at all.