Diesel power is going to be pricey if you’re hankering for a Jeep Wrangler. And that diesel engine comes with a few caveats. The main one? You can’t get the diesel on any 2 door Wrangler model regardless of trim. The diesel is only available on the 4 door. And even then its not available on every trim. You can get the diesel on Sport, Sport S, Sport Altitude, Willys, Sahara, Rubicon and Sahara Altitude. But not on Black & Tan or Freedom. But let’s look at the pricing.
One of the reasons that the Wrangler diesel goes up in price so quickly is that its only available with the 8 speed auto, as many of you may already know. Selecting the diesel engine (a $4k option) requires an additional $2k for the 8 speed auto. And this is the requirement on every single trim.
“Well I’ll just stick with a bare bones no option base Wrangler and come out fine!” Nope. A base Wrangler Sport starts at $33,290. Bare bones, with no options (and I’m talking NO options at all. Even selecting a paint color choice that’s $0) and just selecting the diesel engine takes the price to $39,290. Add in tax, title and license and this is a $40k+ bone stock Wrangler with cloth seats and 17” steel wheels.
The real money though is on the top and popular trims. Let’s start with the Sahara. Starting at $40,140, just adding the diesel engine takes the price to $46,140. Want to load it out? Things like the Sky one touch power top, 18” wheels with off road tires, leather trimmed stitched seating, advanced safety group, LED lighting etc takes a Wrangler Sahara Diesel to $59,300. And it’s still just getting started.
How about the popular Wrangler Rubicon? It starts at $43,485. Adding the diesel with no other options takes the price to $49,485. This means a loaded out Wrangler with similar options as the one above will be $62,450.
The top of the Wrangler hill is the Sahara Altitude. Starting at $43,435, adding the diesel engine and no options like before takes the price to $49,435. Load it out and...its actually cheaper than a fully loaded Rubicon. You’re looking at $56,260 for a Sahara Altitude, which is weird. Something tells me that Jeep knows that the Rubicon is the sweet spot for the lineup, which is why you can push it into the $60’s. If that’s the case though, why not make the Rubicon the top of the Wrangler trim line? But anyway…
Every way you cut it to me, this is all CP pricing for a Wrangler. Wrangler pricing is already crack pipe, but the addition of the diesel engine for 2020, while welcome, further enhances its crackpipe pricing.