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The Recon is Jeep’s answer to VW’s Scout, the Rivian R1S, and the Ford Bronco—let’s see how it compares to the Rivian and Ford, not to mention the Jeep Wrangler itself!
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0:00
Hi there. This is Dave from Stall Power
0:02
and Motel, and I'm here to talk to you
0:04
about how Jeep thought that they would
0:07
deal with the threat from the uh Ford
0:09
Bronco and later the Volkswagen Scout,
0:13
which is to say the Jeep Recon, an
0:17
independent suspension off-road focused
0:19
vehicle, which I might add is
0:21
considerably larger than the Wrangler
0:23
being on the STLA or Stella large
0:27
platform. So, it should be smaller than
0:30
the Charger, smaller than the Wagon ERS
0:33
probably, but maybe uh but much bigger
0:36
than the Wrangler, especially inside.
0:38
And I suspect largely to maintain the uh
0:42
vintage style look, it has a front
0:45
trunk, although it doesn't have a whole
0:47
lot of usable space in there. It's about
0:49
a year over a year late to production
0:52
and it appears as though they spent that
0:54
time fixing the bugs which plagued the
0:56
Dodge Charger Daytona and to a lesser
0:59
degree the Wagon Ear S. It has a
1:02
ridiculous amount of power at 650
1:04
horsepower and 620 lb feet of torque.
1:08
That is much more than the Jeep Wrangler
1:10
392. And the Jeep Wrangler 392 has much
1:14
more power than the Ford Bronco Raptor.
1:17
So, it is quite a powerful vehicle. It
1:20
is more powerful than the base Rivian
1:22
R1S, but not as powerful as the top
1:25
model, which is over 1,000 horsepower
1:27
and also costs over $100,000.
1:30
So, 0 to 60 is ludicrously fast by any
1:35
Wrangler standards. It goes 0 to 60 in
1:38
3.6 seconds. That's 2 seconds off the
1:42
Wagon Era S, 3 seconds off the Charger
1:45
Daytona.
1:47
very very good for something that's also
1:49
a rock crawler. But of course, if you're
1:51
a dedicated off-roader, you're going to
1:52
be interested in the fact that that
1:54
torque comes right away. No need to rev
1:57
the engine. You've got your 620 lb feet
1:59
of torque from the start. As for battery
2:01
life, you have a range of 250 mi, which
2:05
can be enough to go off-roading all day
2:07
because then you're going slowly and not
2:08
using a huge amount of battery. And in
2:11
fact, Jeep took the concept out to the
2:12
Rubicon Trail. And the trip from the
2:14
town to the Rubicon Trail, through the
2:17
trail and back again was one charge.
2:21
That's handy because there aren't a
2:22
whole lot of charging stations on the
2:24
Rubicon Trail or on most trails. But
2:27
again, the uh power will last longer if
2:31
you're going more slowly. Now, unique
2:33
among batterypowered vehicles, the uh
2:36
Jeep Recon has removable doors,
2:39
removable rear glass, and removable rear
2:44
quarter glass. It has a fixed roof
2:46
because uh that really really does help
2:49
to reduce the weight and it helps with
2:51
the safety. And it's got a terrain
2:54
management system with four modes or if
2:56
you get the Moab edition, five modes.
2:59
Now, of course, there's a couple of
3:01
elephants in the room, and one of them
3:02
is the independent suspension.
3:05
And a few years ago, it would have been
3:07
sacrileged to think of a, you know, an
3:10
off-road vehicle with an independent
3:11
suspension, despite the success of the
3:13
Humvey. Keeping in mind that according
3:15
to Bob Shaves, one of Jeep's advanced
3:18
engineers back in the day, the original
3:20
Wrangler was tested with an independent
3:23
suspension and it ridiculously
3:25
outperformed the solid axles that they
3:28
eventually went with partly because they
3:30
thought customers would not tolerate the
3:32
cost of an independent suspension, which
3:35
turned out to be untrue because Ford
3:38
sells Broncos and Volkswagen will
3:40
presumably sell Scouts. The Recon uh was
3:43
designed with off-roading in mind,
3:45
although it is probably not the best
3:47
off-roader you can buy. Uh the
3:49
independent suspension is a short long
3:51
arm up front with large diameter half
3:54
shafts and special CV joints all around.
3:57
The battery pack, which is 100 kilowatt
3:59
hours and 400 volts, is protected by
4:02
high strength steel. Uh, every Recon has
4:06
an electronic locking differential to
4:09
distribute the uh, power evenly to both
4:12
wheels. And a low-speed cruise control
4:16
is helpful for going up or down steep
4:19
inclines so that all that you have to do
4:20
is steer and you can lock in a speed
4:23
that you're comfortable with. The
4:25
traction systems are automatic, sport,
4:27
snow, and sand. And the Moab edition has
4:30
a rock setting as well, which modifies
4:33
pedal response to help with uneven
4:35
terrain and enable
4:37
two pedal driving. There is also a hill
4:40
holder, just like with a manual
4:41
transmission, where if you let off the
4:43
brake and you go to the throttle, you
4:46
don't have to do it like instantly or
4:49
else the vehicle will move, the brake
4:51
will hold the vehicle in place for a
4:52
moment. The Recon Moab, which is similar
4:56
in uh spirit to the Wrangler Rubicon and
4:59
now the Wrangler Rubicon Moab, uh comes
5:01
with a 15 to1 final gear ratio and 33in
5:05
tires uh to make a 9.1 in ground
5:09
clearance, which is good in general, but
5:11
not great for off-road vehicles. Uh, if
5:13
you compare to the Wrangler Sport
5:15
four-door, and I might add, the Wrangler
5:18
twodoor is a lot more off-road capable
5:20
than the Wrangler four-door by the
5:21
dimensions, but I'm using four-door
5:24
dimensions because the Recon is a
5:26
four-door, and the four-door Wrangler is
5:28
actually more popular than the twodoor.
5:30
Grand clearance for the Wrangler Sport
5:32
is 9.7 in, and for the Rubicon, it's
5:35
10.8 in. The Recon Moab, again, 9.1 in.
5:40
And here's one thing to be aware of.
5:43
When you hear the weight of the Recon,
5:45
which I haven't yet, you might think
5:47
it's a lot, but keep in mind that the
5:48
compact Jeep Wrangler weighs in at 4280
5:52
lb for the sport model. And the Rubicon,
5:55
which is better protected, comes in at
5:56
4623 lb. 4,623
6:00
lb for what is technically a compact
6:03
SUV. But generally speaking, because
6:06
it's so big compared to the Wrangler, it
6:08
is hard to compare the Rubicon, the
6:11
Recon to the Wrangler, the Recon will
6:14
not do as well without a lot of effort.
6:16
Now, the Recon does have some clever
6:19
ideas for people actually go off-road,
6:22
including a modular accessory rail on
6:25
top of the dashboard, which you can
6:26
mount cameras to or hold gear safely.
6:30
Jeep, of course, recommends keeping
6:31
rubber duckies up there to give out to
6:33
other people.
6:34
Uh there's a center console which has
6:37
two tiers and a pass through feature and
6:40
you can buy a wireless charger option
6:43
for the top half and run a power cable
6:46
down to the bottom half to charge your
6:48
iPad which has all your trail maps if
6:51
you don't want to rely on the built-in
6:52
TomTom off-road navigation. Door panels
6:56
are modular and they have removable
6:57
elastic straps and interchangeable cargo
6:59
solutions. Uh the front trunk can hold 3
7:02
cubic feet of stuff and the rear cargo
7:06
space is relatively small except when
7:08
compared to the Wrangler. It has let's
7:10
see 65.9 cubic feet of space. Uh if we
7:14
want to do other comparisons, we find
7:17
that the Recon Moab has a better
7:20
breakover angle than the uh base Ford
7:24
Bronco. Not as good as the Raptor, which
7:27
is 31° almost 31°.
7:30
One thing to keep in mind here when
7:32
you're comparing it to the Bronco and to
7:34
the Rivian is price and size. But right
7:38
now, we know more about price. So, the
7:41
Recon is $65,000 for the base model.
7:45
That is a good $15,000 less than the
7:49
Bronco Raptor. And the Recon also of
7:52
course will save you a lot of money
7:54
because the Raptor requires premium fuel
7:57
and gets a whole 15 miles per gallon.
8:00
Whoopee.
8:01
So 15 miles per gallon. That adds up
8:03
with premium gas uh pretty quickly. And
8:06
it's already a more expensive vehicle
8:08
than the Recon is. The base Bronco is
8:11
about $40,000
8:13
and it gets, let's see, the mileage is
8:15
not great on any of these because an
8:17
off-road vehicle will have lousy
8:19
mileage. Generally speaking, if it can
8:20
also go on-road because you have to have
8:23
the safety for the on-road drivers and
8:25
you have to have the capability for the
8:27
off-road, it's very easy to do one or
8:29
the other. So, the best gas mileage you
8:32
can get out of a Bronco is 19 city, 21
8:35
highway. That's as good as it gets. And
8:37
is 1516. The Rivian starts at $77,000
8:42
and goes up to 107,000.
8:45
All right, so enough with comparisons.
8:47
The Recon will be made in Tuca, Mexico
8:51
in 2026
8:53
and imported first to the United States
8:56
and Canada and then around the world. Uh
8:58
creature comforts include a standard
9:01
premium Alpine audio system. You
9:04
remember Alpine has worked with Chrysler
9:05
for years and years and decades. Uh with
9:08
speakers under the seats because then
9:10
you can take the doors off. Uh, the
9:13
dashboard has a 12-in diagonal driver
9:16
cluster and a 14.5 in center screen in
9:20
the middle. And that has integrated HVAC
9:23
controls, which a lot of people won't
9:25
like, including me. Uh, it does have
9:27
cameras all around if you order them, I
9:29
suspect. Uh, and it has a trails
9:32
off-road map app. It has a trails
9:35
off-road app for your phone, which
9:37
provides a guide to US and Canada trails
9:40
with pitch and roll mapping. Now,
9:42
dynamic range mapping on the TomTom can
9:44
recommend the best charger for you to go
9:46
to. It can it comes with a dual pane
9:49
sunroof, but a large single pane power
9:52
sunroof is optional. Also comes with LED
9:55
headlights and tail lights. So, that's a
9:57
Jeep Recon. We'll be learning a lot more
9:59
about it, and there's some more details
10:01
on my site, motel.com, and on the new
10:04
site, stellpower.com.
10:06
And I'll also suggest that you take a
10:08
look at the uh Jeep Wagon Ear and other
10:12
great go anywhere vehicles book by me,
10:15
David Zatz. So look for it wherever fine
10:18
books are sold. You might have to order
10:20
it. Take care.
10:22
Happy trails.
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