Part of the appeal of owning a current-gen Jeep Wrangler is the ability to take the top half of it apart with hand tools, leave it in the garage, and go out on a completely open drive on a warm, peaceful Sunday. There are many ways through which open-air Wrangler motoring can be achieved, and Jeep wants to add another, in the form of an electrically-retracting hardtop.
It won’t be fitted on the present model, but its replacement may very well get it.
A report from Road&Track says it’s still very early in the development cycle, and even if it did make it to production, it would not be the standard top offered with the model, but a unique variant and a higher-priced one too.
However, with it, the Wrangler could give out one of its trademark features: the fold-down windscreen, as the electric mechanism would require solid mounting points that would have to come at the cost of fixed pillars; it would also have a positive impact on safety too.
Think of it as a much more rugged convertible Nissan Murano.
By Andrei Nedelea
PHOTO GALLERY
