Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Evan]

Rented a 2013 Wrangler to take on the beach over vacation.
Not going to waste much time writing about this POS, it doesnt deserve it.
First time driving a wrangler, though I owned a 93 cherokee for years.
Immediately after driving off from the rental shop, the handling was so awful I thought the guy who rented the jeep before me had left the tires at 10psi after driving on the beach.
So I pulled over, popped on the air gauge. 35psi. Plenty of air.
Floaty, vauge, completely disconnected, feels like driving on marshmallows. So thats just how wranglers handle. Chrysler has redefined "base model" with this vehicle. Roll up windows. No power locks. Im surprised it has a radio. I had to check the registration to believe its a 2013 vehicle. I laughed out loud when I went online to check the msrp. $24k. My wife's loaded focus cost less than that.

Not a fair comparison really, so I thought, why DO people buy wranglers? I always assumed it was kind of a butch convertible, and convertibles are pretty awesome, so maybe that makes it worth it. So I started to put the top down. After 10 minutes wrestling with the engineering product of whatever high school dropout union employee chrysler hired to design the abortion of a retractable soft-top, I took off down the road, but due to the big fat rollbar/padding and framed windows, it had zero of the open air convertible feeling and really was more of a big sunroof.
It did do just fine on the beach, but so did a luxo land rover with 20" wheels and summer tires, and Im quite sure my CX-5 would have too, so Im not sure that was a good test. The beach patrol nazis made everyone lower tire pressures, which is quite stupid. I had taken my cherokee on much softer sand without touching the tires, but perhaps idiot yuppies on vacation figure out new and exciting ways of getting themselves stuck.
The motor had some scoot, but it took a second after mashing the pedal to respond. Maybe due to the slushbox, maybe due to the stay-puft suspension. Who knows.

Overall I was glad to turn it back in, and annoyed I had paid (too much) real, actual money to voluntarily drive it for a couple days.

Far and away the worst vehicle I have driven, taking over the spot previously held by a rental nissan sentra from a couple years ago.

Ok, I did waste too much time writing about this thing.
I can only imagine that chrysler can get away with selling this thing is that it essentially has zero competition.