News & Articles

My relationship with Jeep’s new Wagoneer has been a curious collision of long-standing opinions and new revelations. And now along comes the 2023 Jeep Grand Wagoneer L, which complicates the situation even more.
For brief background, in my early days of writing reviews of new vehicles, at the Minneapolis Tribune, I had two or three Wagoneers that had one thing in common – they malfunctioned.
That was nearly 50 years ago, but everything from a refusal to start, to a horn that wouldn’t stop honking, to a fix that meant it only honked whenever I turned left.
When they came out with a new Grand Cherokee, I wanted to try a stripped down, basic model. But a Twin Cities dealer thought I should have a loaded Wagoneer instead, and nothing worked properly.
When the Wagoneer went away, my family was pleased. When Jeep proliferated to various new models of compact to midsize SUVs, time came to go bigger, and I was not thrilled when Jeep decided to name the new giant SUV the Wagoneer.
However, when I saw it at an auto show, I was blown away by what an amazing job Jeep had done in restructuring and loading up the vehicle with fancy features with great attention to detail.
I had to grudgingly admit, when I got one to test drive a couple years ago, it was impressive.
If you like big SUVs, the Wagoneer put itself into passion to require consideration against the best luxury giant SUVs from Ford and General Motors – vehicles such as the Navigator, and the Cadillac Escalade, even if you went beyond the Chevrolet Suburban.
Chevy, by the way, has the Tahoe for normal-sized family use, and the Suburban is an elongated Tahoe, with, in fact, an elongated model.
When a 2023 Wagoneer L was delivered to my house from the press fleet in Chicago, its mere appearance was intimidating. We’d just had one of what seemed like daily snowstorms, but the Grand Wagoneer L looms high in what we came to realize was a security blanket against the blanket of deepening snow.
Among the biggest alterations is the size – at least a foot longer than the ordinarily-huge Grand Wagoneer – although there is a lot more.
Under the hood, you can get the 6.4-liter V8, but in the “L” the engine is the new Stellanis/Ram/Jeep “Hurricane” 3.0-liter in-line 6, with twin turbochargers.
If you didn’t know that, you would assume you had the killer V8, because the hot 6 is plenty potent, and it is perfectly coordinated with the 8-speed automatic.
One interesting diversion is that the Grand Wagoneer has what I thought was the most luxurious interior I’ve ever seen in a vehicle, with fine leather and great attention to even the stitching as well as the fit and finish of everything inside. But on the Wagoneer L, Jeep has gone the other direction, making the interior less plush in an attempt to make it simpler and possibly more elegant in its simplicity.

The leather on the seats is soft and pliable, and the woodgrain on the dash has real aluminum inlays and leather trimming without being ostentatious.
What is ostentatious, but OK in my book, is the large lettering across the hood and the tailgate spelling out “Wagoneer” in case somebody doesn’t know what they’re looking at.
When you fire up the engine, and feel the excellent power as it surges out of your snowbound driveway –making snowblowers and even shovels nonessentia l– after the power and the slick-shifting, you become aware that it doesn’t feel as big as it looks, or as big as you know it is. It feels much more agile and maneuverable, whether on snow-covered roadways or smooth pavement.

Part of that is the air-suspension, which you can raise or lower for height, and part of that is the highly efficient driving mode switch, mounted on the console. It gives you a readout of your choices, which is something many such mode-switch devices lack. Y
ou can go from Sport, up to Auto, which automatically adjusts the power to whatever wheel has the best traction, to Snow, to Sand/Mud, and finally to Rock, for those who might venture off-road into the Moab or other rock-climbing venues.
True, the Grand Wagoneer L is far too huge to consider taking through the roughest off-road areas, which usually consist of unmaintained roads carved into rocky terrain.
But Jeep wants the L to act like it could handle that sort of thing, and the extremes usually reserved for Jeep Wranglers or Range Rovers are something Jeep wants us all to realize the Wagoneer can conquer all.
The vehicle was wearing black-trimmed aluminum wheels measuring 22 inches, and they, in turn, were shod with large 285/45R all-season and all-terrain tires. The black trim contrasted nicely with the “Baltic Gray” paint.
The test-vehicle had Quadra Drive II, one of three 4x4 systems Jeep deploys, and each has unique assets to accommodate an owner’s focus on how and where he wants to operate.
For all its size and equipment, I was somewhat surprised to see the sticker price was $71,080 as a base, with $6,500 worth of options running it up to $77,200. I figured it would be into the six-figure bracket.
The Baltic Gray paint alone cost a $645 premium, and the convenience group added such features as head-up display, 360 surround camera, parallel and perpendicular parking assists with a feature to stop you if you seem to be headed for a bump. Also, traffic sign recognition, semi-active damping, heated second row bucket seats and the air suspension.

A heavy-duty tow package provides trailer-brake control and hitch line-up assist. Those features are in addition to the usual connectivity and charging outlets, and such subjective things as the comfort and support of the seats are not something you can advertise, but they are worthy features nonetheless.

If we had a complaint, it was that the super-powered turbo in-line 6 engine is a 6 after all, and we anticipated decent fuel economy, The EPA shows 14 miles per gallon city and 19 highway for a combined average of 16 mpg, we got less than that in most situations, and only when we spent more time on highways and less time climbing snow-covered hillsides or warming up the engine to get the heater going, we got 16.7.

My guess would be on a trip on cruise control you might get more than 20, and with gas prices roller-coasting up to the $3.50-per-gallon range, that would be appreciated.
But if you need lots of room, lots of towing capability, and all sorts of creature comforts built into a vehicle that goes good and handles better, the new Grand Wagoneer L demands evaluation. If only they could do something about a new name.