I'm 99% positive that both are just appearance packages for the Sahara. The only differences that might affect the ride are the tires and wheels. 17 vs 18 inch and different tires. You can test drive any 2 door Sahara on a lot and the handling will pretty much be the same.
I would say 110% any 2 door Sahara is going to ride the same . I have not taken the time to look at the package but most of the differences will to be paint color and appearance items.
2 door/ 4 door, hard top or soft, Rubicon suspension / regular suspension
manual / auto transmission.
Those are you big choices.
Then it is what type of radio/ entertainment system, Navigation system, Leather seats, heated seats. paint color.
Sometimes an edition comes with a different bumper .
You should test drive it will not be smooth like a car. Off road tires make it a loader rougher ride.
re: "I drove a 2015 Willys 2 door manual and really did not like how much the vehicle bounced up and down and swayed in normal, slow, city driving. I doubt I will take my Wrangler off roading though I cant' like that I'm starting to think about how much fun that would be..."
considering a hallmark of the design is 'they ride like a rocking horse and handle like a lawn tractor' you will have ample opportunity to revisit this conviction.
Jeep is NOT a car and has different features and design goals. While mods are possible to affect the ride, until/unless you get some off-road time to learn to appreciate the advantages of such design, you're buying a fantasy instead of an actual vehicle.
I can't speak for the Willys ride, but my Chief is much more stable than my previous sport was. You should be able to address the springy ride with a shock absorber change if necessary. As others have said, both are built on the Sahara platform, and definitely ride different than a car. I have no complaints about the handling of the MT's on mine.
Also keep in mind, the supply of 2drs in either of those editions is very limited. From information in another thread, I believe 2drs in both editions with MT are already ordered out. So if you want one you will have to find it on a lot or incoming somewhere. This is the last month to order either of those editions.
My wife and I have always wanted to sail across an ocean or two but for now, we Jeep. Rough seas ahead
Seriously, she drove my Willys JK last Saturday because when we got to Golden, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. At any rate, she likes the choppy-seas ride and so do I
IMO the RM seems like quite an expensive appearance package. The tires tires look like the same Bridgestones that come on the Sahara, so they'll be quieter and smoother than the tires on the Chief or Willys. I don't know that the tires will effect the ride much, as the 18" wheels on the RM will have less sidewall and will theoretically be stiffer as a result. They all seem to have the same suspension, so the fact my be that the Jeep just rides rough and bouncy. It IS a very short wheelbase vehicle primarily designed for off-road use, so it's not going to ride like a Grand Cherokee. Try the 4 door, the longer wheelbase will make for a smoother ride.
IMO, the Big Bear is the way to go. It's MUCH cheaper than the RM, and comes with BFG All Terrains on 17" wheels, which will ride smoother then the Mud Terrains on the Willys, while looking better than the Bridgestones on the Sahara and the RM.
For 28K ish, the BB comes standard with the Connectivity group as well as the power and convenience group. For 6K more with the Rocky Mountain, you get the (IMO uglier) 18" wheels, color matched flares, and the power bulge hood (I prefer the flat hood).
Your money and choice of course, but to me, the RM just looks like one of those special editions designed to pull an inordinate amount of money out of your pocket.
It's like the Mopar "Black" package. Almost $800 list price for about $250 worth of stuff easily purchased in the aftermarket.
Yup. My wife researched her next Jeep and went with a Big Bear MT 2 door, Premium Top. As mentioned, it has the Sahara shocks but with the Sport S wheels in black. You can't go wrong with the KO2's, they are an excellent tire. Expect the shifter and clutch to be more "truck like", definitely not a sports car.
She is going on week 3 with it and absolutely loves it!
I would suggest doing some more test drives to make sure you're fine with the ride. A JK is going to ride rough and handle like the brick that it is, it will never be the same as a low CG car with independent suspension, although you can do a few things to make them ride a little better. The Willys you drove has the BFG MT's you can get AT's and it'll help a little and putting them at the proper (or a little lower) pressure.
Both are trim packages. If you get the hard top with the Smokey Mountain, it will either be body color or black. It would have hood decals saying Smokey Mountain, then it has 18" wheels with Bridgestone A/T tires. The Chief appears to only have a white hardtop with a white trim decal coming forward over the two doors above the door handles and below the windows and continuing and tapering on the sides of the hood. It does appear to have the same tires as the Rubicon but as said blacked out Sport S wheels.
Back in 1974 Jeep introduced a 2 door version of the Wagoneer called the Cherokee. One trim level was the Chief. The new Wrangler Chief mimmicks that style.
Because of the short wheelbase of the 2 door the ride can be choppy in rough or undulating roads. However, on good pavement it should be smooth. If you test drove a Willys Wheeler on a dealer's lot the tires would have been at least 40PSI and maybe as much as 50PSI. They ship the vehicles with the tires a bit over inflated to seat and some dealers add even more to ensure they are at or above the sticker on the door frame, even after they have sat a while. Every time I take my Sahara in for an oil change I have to air my tires back down from 40 to the recommended 35 PSI. At 40+ PSI in a 2 door it would ride as if the wheels were solid steel.
It is a responsive vehicle and if you move the steering wheel, it will move NOW. If you carefully watch from behind a Jeep it will seem to wander, and they do. It is a side effect of the responsive steering, more aggressive tires than 90% of the vehicles out there and the driver always about a second behind. At 70 on the interstate my 4 door Sahara wanders about 6" or so from side to side. It is probably more noticeable from the drivers seat than from outside for you are constantly moving the steering wheel - but so are NASCAR drivers on the race track for roughly the same reason.
Get a Sport with the GY SRA street tires and it probably doesn't wander very much. Put 35" rock crawling aggressive tires on it and it will wander more.
As you will hear and see a lot of - "It's OK, it's a Jeep thing".
Between, the Smoky Mountain and the Chief, there are only a few differences. The colors (obviously), wheels, as noted, they have different feature hoods, and the Chief has Alpine audio, the SM does not. SM has body matched hard top while the Chief is white. So between the two, the Chief seems to be a better value with the Alpine. It mostly comes down to what color combos float your boat. I don't care for the blacked out look. I do love the white top on the Chief. BTW, the wheels on the Chief are a bright silver version of the Recon wheels.
As others noted, the Big Bear is the best bang for the option buck.
Any Wrangler will have massive ride quality improvement with a change of shocks...
I know that few want to spend $400 as soon as they drive off the lot, but put on a set of adjustable Rancho 9000XL and it's an entirely different vehicle.
I would like to add the Hellwig Rear Anti-sway bar for about $170. Big improvement in cornering and overall handling. Immediately after my install, my wife could feel the difference from the passenger seat.
I like them both. Prefer the Chief in Rhino. Love the SM in dark color too...Rhino looks great on SM as does black and granite. I would consider SM if a daily driver only. Also consider 4 door for smoother ride.
Check out the jeep webpage. Use zip code 43546 to search inventory. It's the zip for Ohio near where they are produced. Lots to choose from on dealer lots up there. Might give you a better idea of what they look like.
I purchased the Smoky Mountain JKU in granite about 3 weeks ago, I have since removed the factory wheels and replaced with the 17" BFG KO2 and XD Series wheels that were on the one that was totaled, I love this jeep, only thing is they should have rethought the power bulge hood because it does hold water, should have been some type of vent to let the water drain but not a big deal, mine came with leather, remote start, LED headlamps and fog lamps, fuel door, max tow pkg with 3.73, 430N with Apine Speakers, to me this is a lot more comfortable riding Jeep than the 15 Sport S I did have, yeah I know Jeeps aren't built for comfort, but I drive 85 miles a day round trip, anyway they had to go out of state to pick mine up from another dealer but I told them I wasn't signing anything until I have seen and drove it, it was there the next day, hope this helps and welcome to the forum!!!
losangelescowboy It's already been said but go back and drive a Sahara or even a SportS. The Willys you drove had a Rubicon's stiffer springs and stiffer shocks under it. So it bounced harder than the 'stock' versions of the Wrangler do. Adding wheel spacers will help with the lean in the corners or at least will make the turns feel flatter. Rancho shocks, as stated before, can change the springs bounce from rock hard to spongy. So you can tune your ride some after you buy it. However it will always be an oversized brick on the highway because it's a Wrangler and the 2 dr's short wheelbase just exacerbates the feelings you got.
Am looking at the smoky and the Sahara and I cant choose either.
I cant decide on a color either lol
I plan on keeping it a long time and want to get it right..
I also would consider a 2014 or newer
There is two for sale on this forum I totally love but there far away..
Can someone tell me if you had 10k in mods what would that do to the selling price?
Like on a used one say a 2015 that had 10k worth of extras lift tires ect...
It certainly won't increase the value by that 10k, unless it's a new one being sold by a dealer. In that case, it will have 5k in mods and a asking price 10k over stock, haha.
With used, however, unless you have someone specifically looking to buy a modded Jeep, and likes your specific mods (mods are very personal, and depend on use), they may even DECREASE the value over stock.
Probably not that extreme though, as people seem to love lifted Jeeps. I've been looking a lot lately, and it seems like lifted 4 doors go for a premium, while modded 2 doors don't seem to get as much over stock. I actually just saw a modded '13 JK with some pretty good mods for about the same price as stockers with the same mileage are going for.
When I buy, I'm looking to buy stock, not someone else's project or shoddily thrown together dealer eye candy.
Also, seems like lift kits/wheels can add money/value (to the average person) since they look cool, but good luck getting any extra money for gears and lockers.
Personally, when I see the modded 4 doors, I think street queen, when I see modded two doors I assume they've been wheeled.
"But for a jeep I have no idea what to look for..
Am not looking to off road in it just something super nice its been 15 years sense I had a toy and this is a little treat for myself..
Any tips would be very helpful and thx"
start with the basic un-modified version of whatever you like; Mostly those mods everyone likes so dearly (like lifts) are not really much advantage if you use your Jeep differently than whoever sold their project off so they could start over with one they haven't screwed up with over priced often poorly done hack jobs that detract from the original model.
I spent a year driving a couple dozen wide variety used & new.
The one I was personally most interested in~so I thought~ actually WAS a 4" lift.
Good thing I put a few highway miles on it, as no matter how close it resembled what I thought I wanted, it would NOT stay in it's own lane, especially with the big clown tires & wheels. It practically killed us both (me & the lot sales guy) lunging around corners & bouncing off rough road patches. Plus the dealer wanted more for it at 80000 miles than I new one.
Of the many lifted used JK/JKU I drove, almost ZERO had decent ride or handling.
Almost ALL the unmodded NEW one had far better both.
Had decided on 'new model' and was a day away from order, but a like-new full tilt Sahara JK with an attractive price & NO MODS and the right options just materialized. With 15000 miles (literally driven by a little old lady) it fit perfectly.
Not that you can't make them right. If you really want to do it, it's a good addition to your Jeeping experience. Later, after you learn what to like and want more of, in your new Jeep.
Personally the silly electronic gizmos do nothing for my own use. The $2000 audio/nav system unneeded as I rarely listen to radio much less music. Old enough to have done all that for 50 years (since the big 5 watts 8 track revelation) and no longer care for the distraction, cost, or noise.
My $100 garmin serves well enough. There, saved $1900, enough for tires & wheels...oh, what's that? It comes with a very serviceable set of each, until you either wear them out or have enough off-road miles to let such as functional improvement drive your decisions on such replacment.
Of course the stock headlights benefit from something more serious. And yes I did add bumper/winch......salvaged from my old Sahara. And yes, they have been handy around the estate.
After 91000 miles on my 08JK, I knew what my options list was, mostly solved by the JKWW stuff. Now at 23000 miles I'm going to actual 'do a mod'. Shortly to add Ranchero 9000xls. Oh, the reject rear bumper off my buddys JK as he couldn't live without another upgrade so he could run his 37s....sheesh....he's got more in mods than the JK cost new....but that's fine with me.
OP, hope this helps. If you like making decisions based on 'your own needs'....start with the basic model & add anything you want. I preferred the AT/373 & power windows the WW option presented.
Awesome, glad you found one!! Be sure to post pics!
Now I just gotta get one myself, haha.
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