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