I recently spent a week in Jeep’s new Wagoneer full-sized SUV. This particular model is sans the uber-luxury Grand moniker but still provides a feature-rich environment, fantastic ride, and plenty of utility in a three-row Jeep. Up until now, Jeep had nothing to compete with the Chevy Tahoes and Ford Expeditions of the world. The Jeep Wagoneer will have buyers taking a hard look at it over the competition.
I really enjoyed the Jeep Wagoneer Series III during my week with it. The Wagoneer comes in over $20,000 cheaper than its upscale sibling, the Grand Wagoneer, but gives much of the same exterior appearance minus some of the fine finishing and jewelry.
The interior of the Wagoneer Series III is a beautiful place to be, despite being the entry-level model of the Wagoneer family. Jeep calls the grey/white interior of our tester Rock Salt, with a fully black interior being the only other option. Missing are the opulent wood and metal inlays from the more upscale Grand Wagoneer, and some parts of the interior do look a bit on the cheap side, but generally, it feels like a very nice place to melt the whiles away.
As one would expect of a vehicle this size, there is plenty of storage for all the stuff that a modern family might carry. Cupholders are abundant, as are USB power sources. The UConnect 5 infotainment system on the 10.1-inch screen is a gem, as it is in all Stellantis vehicles.
Heated and cooled seats are present in both the first and second row, and the Alpine stereo is decent but not as good as the Bose setup you’d find in a GM full-sized SUV.
The Wagoneer is powered by a 5.7-liter eTorque Hemi engine, which is straight out of the light-duty Ram 1500 truck. Power is rated at 392-horsepower and 404 lb-ft of torque. The 48-volt eTorque system gives a little boost on the low end of up to 130 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.
Power is sent to all four wheels via a single-speed transfer case. A more advanced 4×4 system is available as part of the Advanced All-Terrain package. It’s worth noting that the 5.7-liter V8 will soon be replaced by Stellantis’ new global twin-turbo inline six-cylinder turbo engine, which on paper definitely looks like a great engine.
The Wagoneer’s Quadra-Lift air suspension is comfortable and handles both smooth and rough road surfaces with ease. With the touch of a button, the Wagoneer’s suspension can raise from having 8.3-inches of ground clearance to having 10-inches of ground clearance at max suspension height.
Cargo-wise, the Wagoneer is cavernous. With all three rows up, the Wagoneer has 27.4 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear row. This expands to 70.8 cubic feet with the third row folded, and 116.7 cubic feet with the first and second rows folded down.
Overall, I really enjoyed the 2022 Wagoneer Series II. It’s unique enough to stand out in the carpool pickup line, but also rugged enough to handle anything you could likely throw at a full-sized SUV. I loved the chunkier all-terrain tires on our tester versus the optional low-profile 21″ tires and wheels, which I feel goes well with the Jeep brand image.
At just a tick under $73k for our very well-equipped tester, the Wagoneer competes squarely with full-size SUVs from both the other domestic brands as well as the Japanese brands. A more basic Wagoneer starts at under $60k, so there are plenty of configurations to be had at every competitive price point.
