The Jeep Wrangler Sends the V8 Off With a Bang

by Chris Teague

Published: March 20th, 2024

the jeep wrangler sends the v8 off with a bang

Back in the early 1990s, when I was in high school, a friend’s dad owned an off-road parts distribution company, and we had a ton of fun with his Chevy big block-swapped Jeep CJ. I specifically remember shredding the driveshaft on at least three Tennessee backwoods trails. Modified Jeeps are nothing new, but the automaker is jumping into the fray with a send-off model to honor the rowdy V8 it offered for the SUV’s last few model years.

The Jeep Wrangler 392 Final Edition brings a close to the automaker’s eight-cylinder efforts, but at a cost. Loaded down with almost every option available, the new Wrangler will cost around $102,000 to start. That said, the price tag buys not only the Jeep, but a serious tool kit, a Warn winch, and more.

Under the hood, the 6.4-liter Hemi remains the star of the show. It produces 470 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque, and sends it to all four wheels through an eight-speed transmission. Jeep claims a 4.5-second 0-60 mph time, which would be terrifying in a Wrangler, but the bigger admission here is the torque number, which makes the 392 a formidable powertrain off-road.

While those acceleration numbers in a Wrangler on the highway could be terrifying, almost 75 percent of the torque is available from just above idle. That makes rock crawling and climbing tough terrain much less of a hassle, and the 2.72 low-range gear ratio helps crank the SUV over exceedingly difficult obstacles.

Jeep also includes a 35-inch tire package, acoustically-insulated glass, and the Wrangler’s first power seats. The SUV’s interior is massively improved for the 2024 model year, with a new look, better tech, and revised styling.

This might be the V8 Wrangler’s last year on sale, but Jeep will continue selling the plug-in hybrid Wrangler 4xe, and an all-electric Wrangler is expected soon. At the same time, the gas-powered Wrangler is available in a range of configurations in 2024, including with a V6 or turbocharged inline-four.

[Image: Stellantis/Jeep]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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2 of 18 comments

MrIcky on Mar 21, 2024

I've said it before and I'll say it again, everyone makes assumptions about these because they've seen one in a mall. Go to S. Utah and Nevada and you'll see a bunch of these, very popular-and they get used off road. I've met people with these who have done big chunks of the BDR routes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. No I don't think all of them go off roading beyond driving on the beach- but there are a lot of 392s that aren't mall-crawlers.

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Michael Del Rosso on Apr 11, 2024

Just remember To pack an extra hundred gallons of gas for the trip..

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Recent Comments

Bill I bought a 2013 base mini convert manual with less than 30,000 miles last year. While I don't have the beautiful aural sensations of the inline 6, I have been having great fun on the rural roads of western Massachusetts. Kind of a modern version of an old English sports car. I ditched the run flats immediately, went to Conti extremecontact dws 06+. I like them so much I put them on my wife's Audi TT. The shocks I have been eyeing but don't really need yet are Koni special active with FSD technology. Supposed to suppress the sharp nasty bumps but remain firmly sporty otherwise. I had also been looking at the Z4's but couldn't pass on the super low mileage of the mini.
Paul Another beemer boy, immune to the laws of man and physics, driving his M3 through a school zone at 45 since Waze said it would cut 15 seconds off his commute.I bow before your righteous anger.
Paul Oh, the irony. 10 years ago they had solid entries in all these categories - C-Max hybrid and PHEV, Fusion Hybrid and PHEV, Focus Electric. 20 years ago you could get an Escape Hybrid.Ford and their dealers tossed these over the wall and walked away from them, never doing anything to promote or improve them over their life cycle. They still have a newer version of the Escape PHEV, which isn't a bad vehicle but I doubt if the buying public knows they exist & I rarely see one on the road.The Maverick hybrid is a nice idea and they could sell more if they would build more but again, I rarely see one in the wild.Feckless and clueless management and board - they richly deserve their coming bankruptcy.
Lorenzo If Bill Ford wants to see Ford Motor survive another generation, he'll have to hire a replacement for Farley soon, one with an engineering degree and experience with automobile assembly lines and a love for cars, and surround him with other engineering degree executives. Any executives with BA degrees and MBAs don't belong in manufacturing, they're finance people, at best.
Lorenzo The price is a bit steep for a daily driver, and that's what I'd use it for. If you live in California, a benefit is that it's smog exempt. It's so old, there's nothing to be "flashed". Any flashing would have to be done manually by the driver.