As I stepped out of my vehicle and onto the Rubicon Trail, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The sound of pro race teams testing their vehicles in the background only added to the energy of the day. A truck with a helicopter following it caught my attention, as did the crew that had arrived in a diesel Jeep Gladiator. They were there to put our vehicle through its paces on some of the toughest trails in Rubicon, and I was eager to see how it would perform.

The Gladiator, specifically the diesel model, is an intriguing option for those looking to tackle challenging terrain off-road. With its three-liter turbocharged V6 engine, it's clear that this vehicle is designed to handle even the most demanding conditions. As I began to drive up a hill, I was struck by the ease with which the Gladiator accelerated. We were only running at 2,000 RPMs, and yet the torque of the diesel engine felt effortless. It's no wonder why pro racers and off-road enthusiasts swear by this vehicle - it's got the range and capability to tackle anything that comes its way.

I had opted for "Off-Road Plus" mode on my Gladiator, but as I began to climb higher, I realized that 4H would have been sufficient. The soft top was a bit noisy, but it was easily fixable if desired. Speaking of noise, the freeway drive from Orange County, California, showcased the Gladiator's comfort and quietness on the highway. Cruising at speeds above 70mph felt no problem, with the only slight annoyance being the sound of the wind rushing past the soft top. However, that minor issue was easily overlooked in favor of the vehicle's impressive performance.

As we continued along the trail, I couldn't help but think about the price tag on this beast of a vehicle. The Rubicon Diesel model starts at $65,000, which is a significant premium over the base 3.6L V6 engine. While it may seem steep, I firmly believe that the diesel engine makes it worth every penny. Compared to the standard 3.6, the diesel offers significantly more range and capability, making it ideal for those who plan on putting their vehicle through its paces off-road.

In comparison to other engines available in the Wrangler lineup, I would rank the diesel as second and the 3.6L V6 as third. However, there is one engine that holds a special place in my heart - the turbocharged 4-cylinder found in some Wranglers. Its ability to punch off the line with surprising force makes it an attractive option for those who want raw power and agility.

As we continued on our journey, I took the opportunity to explore some of the wider open spaces surrounding the trail. The Gladiator performed admirably, its diesel engine providing plenty of torque and range. With a full tank barely used up during our trip from Orange County, it's clear that this vehicle has some serious staying power.

In conclusion, the Jeep Gladiator with a 3.6-liter turbocharged V6 engine is an excellent option for those looking to tackle challenging terrain off-road. However, if I'm being completely honest, I think the diesel engine makes it the better choice. With its impressive range and capability, it's clear that this engine is designed to handle even the most demanding conditions.

As we came to the end of our drive, I couldn't help but feel a sense of appreciation for this vehicle. The Gladiator has proven itself to be an excellent off-roader, with plenty of torque and range on offer. Whether you're cruising along the highway or tackling some of the toughest trails in Rubicon, this vehicle is sure to deliver. So if you're in the market for a new ride that can keep up with your adventurous spirit, I highly recommend considering the Jeep Gladiator with a diesel engine.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is a 2021 jeep gladiator and no today we are not diving into the specifics of what makes the gladiator awesome because we've done that we've driven these before we've driven wranglers we've driven the truck one you can go check those out here this one does not have the 3.6 liter v6 thank god this one has the three liter turbo diesel v6 that noise you hear in the background is not the turbo diesel v6 we've come out here outside of barstow where lots of off-road teams test their vehicles that's why you're hearing this awesome dune buggy but in a minute you're going to hear this because that's what we came out here to test today so this isn't a full review of the gladiator as a whole we're focusing on the engine today but while it's here let's talk about how it looks the silver paint looks great against the black fender flares and this is a rubicon so it has fox shocks it has falcon wild peak tires it looks the business you can also get the diesel engine on the sport and the overland trims as well no mojave on the inside uconnect works really well i think the screen looks nice you can take the doors off this one has a soft top it does get a bit noisy on the road but there are other tops if you don't want to deal with that noise it's comfortable it is a nice place to sit jeep really did a good job on the jl wrangler and gladiators but we're not here to talk about that let's dive straight into the engine so here's what we came to see this is jeep's three liter turbo diesel v6 the eco diesel engine and here it's making 260 horsepower which is you know all right more importantly though it's making 442 glorious foot pounds of torque and it is backed up by an eight-speed torque flight automatic transmission i actually prefer the eight speed on these modern jeeps i think the clutches on the manual gearbox wranglers and gladiators is the weak spot the gearbox itself is okay but the clutch kind of stings so if i was buying one i'd go with the eight speed and on the diesel you have to go with the eight speed so under the hood is that three liter and i really think it's a great option for a vehicle like this having horsepower is nice but a lot of times in a jeep you're doing slower speed stuff and torque is much more effective and more helpful in those cases we are out here at an off-road section in southern california out near barstow if any of you know it you could hear some noise in the background during the intro there's a lot of pro race teams that come and test their vehicles out here there's a truck with a helicopter following it today and then there's there's us just testing um diesel jeep gladiator on trails that are frankly in a rubicon pretty easy and then you add the torque of that three liter turbo diesel v6 and i mean it's more of the same it's it's the engine is working even easier than it would be i'm not even at 2000 rpms we're just slowly ambling up this hill but it's it's effortless and that's kind of a nice thing to have in a vehicle like this so i have it in off-road plus mode but you could just put it in four high and this would be fine um we tried climbing up it in just two but there's a couple sections where it's a little soft a little bit loose today so it's just easier to put it into four high set it and forget it you do not need four low for this but four low with that the torque of that diesel engine and the transfer case on this thing it's i mean you can go over anything that's the beauty of a gladiator yeah some of you might prefer the break over of the wrangler and you're not wrong you're definitely not wrong but just for everyday general use the gladiator is pretty awesome it pairs perfectly with this eight-speed gearbox this is a different eight-speed gearbox than in the non-diesel it's a bit beefier than the standard eight-speed gearbox this also has cameras so you can see where you're going which is very helpful because we don't want to fall off the side of a mountain right now now on the drive here we drove on the freeway about a hundred and fourteen hundred fifteen miles from orange county california and this thing was excellent on the highway it is no problem cruising at or maybe even a little bit above the speed limit um no issues at all there it was comfortable it's a little bit noisy with the soft top but that is easily fixable if you just opt for a different top or if you like the noise and you want to put the top down you go nuts too off-roading in a jeep is just easy and comfortable while still being fun and that is a great thing that's why you spend all the dough on something like the rubicon now speaking of price there is obviously a price premium for getting the diesel this vehicle as tested is a very eye-watering 65 000 this is a 65 000 truck that you're going to take and get dirty and do insane things with it and have a lot of fun and i recommend you do go do those things in that truck but good good lord that is a lot of money to spend on a vehicle now you can get the sport which is you know basically the entry-level gladiator and i i think the premium to get the diesel engine is between four and six thousand dollars so it is a big jump over just the base 3.6 but i do think it's better than the 3.6 i kind of wish they would offer it in the mojave one even though i know that's more of a desert runner high speed truck but it's not like this diesel is like an old mercedes diesel where it's taking 10 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour you would be plenty fast enough in the desert in the dunes in this thing so they should offer that engine in the mojave what they really need to offer is the turbo four i think that's the best engine on the wrangler side of the family right now i'd rank the diesel as second and i drank the 3.6 liter v6 as third so if you're looking to get a gladiator i think it's it's worth it to spend more and get the diesel it's just a really good engine with lots of range we barely used a quarter of a tank to get out here which is nice but still i would really like to see that turbo 4 because that thing just punches off the line in a surprising manner but for now as it sits i'm very impressed with this engine in this truck having a lot of fun just crawling around back here and we're gonna find some more wide open space and uh and give it some more gas and just kind of see what happens the diesel is a great option here on the gladiator i actually prefer it to the 3.6 liter i think that engine is getting a bit stale these days i still wish they would bring the turbo 4 here because that is a fantastic engine choice on the wrangler but as it sits now we have a bit more choice with the gladiator and this here this rubicon diesel is a darn good one so youthis is a 2021 jeep gladiator and no today we are not diving into the specifics of what makes the gladiator awesome because we've done that we've driven these before we've driven wranglers we've driven the truck one you can go check those out here this one does not have the 3.6 liter v6 thank god this one has the three liter turbo diesel v6 that noise you hear in the background is not the turbo diesel v6 we've come out here outside of barstow where lots of off-road teams test their vehicles that's why you're hearing this awesome dune buggy but in a minute you're going to hear this because that's what we came out here to test today so this isn't a full review of the gladiator as a whole we're focusing on the engine today but while it's here let's talk about how it looks the silver paint looks great against the black fender flares and this is a rubicon so it has fox shocks it has falcon wild peak tires it looks the business you can also get the diesel engine on the sport and the overland trims as well no mojave on the inside uconnect works really well i think the screen looks nice you can take the doors off this one has a soft top it does get a bit noisy on the road but there are other tops if you don't want to deal with that noise it's comfortable it is a nice place to sit jeep really did a good job on the jl wrangler and gladiators but we're not here to talk about that let's dive straight into the engine so here's what we came to see this is jeep's three liter turbo diesel v6 the eco diesel engine and here it's making 260 horsepower which is you know all right more importantly though it's making 442 glorious foot pounds of torque and it is backed up by an eight-speed torque flight automatic transmission i actually prefer the eight speed on these modern jeeps i think the clutches on the manual gearbox wranglers and gladiators is the weak spot the gearbox itself is okay but the clutch kind of stings so if i was buying one i'd go with the eight speed and on the diesel you have to go with the eight speed so under the hood is that three liter and i really think it's a great option for a vehicle like this having horsepower is nice but a lot of times in a jeep you're doing slower speed stuff and torque is much more effective and more helpful in those cases we are out here at an off-road section in southern california out near barstow if any of you know it you could hear some noise in the background during the intro there's a lot of pro race teams that come and test their vehicles out here there's a truck with a helicopter following it today and then there's there's us just testing um diesel jeep gladiator on trails that are frankly in a rubicon pretty easy and then you add the torque of that three liter turbo diesel v6 and i mean it's more of the same it's it's the engine is working even easier than it would be i'm not even at 2000 rpms we're just slowly ambling up this hill but it's it's effortless and that's kind of a nice thing to have in a vehicle like this so i have it in off-road plus mode but you could just put it in four high and this would be fine um we tried climbing up it in just two but there's a couple sections where it's a little soft a little bit loose today so it's just easier to put it into four high set it and forget it you do not need four low for this but four low with that the torque of that diesel engine and the transfer case on this thing it's i mean you can go over anything that's the beauty of a gladiator yeah some of you might prefer the break over of the wrangler and you're not wrong you're definitely not wrong but just for everyday general use the gladiator is pretty awesome it pairs perfectly with this eight-speed gearbox this is a different eight-speed gearbox than in the non-diesel it's a bit beefier than the standard eight-speed gearbox this also has cameras so you can see where you're going which is very helpful because we don't want to fall off the side of a mountain right now now on the drive here we drove on the freeway about a hundred and fourteen hundred fifteen miles from orange county california and this thing was excellent on the highway it is no problem cruising at or maybe even a little bit above the speed limit um no issues at all there it was comfortable it's a little bit noisy with the soft top but that is easily fixable if you just opt for a different top or if you like the noise and you want to put the top down you go nuts too off-roading in a jeep is just easy and comfortable while still being fun and that is a great thing that's why you spend all the dough on something like the rubicon now speaking of price there is obviously a price premium for getting the diesel this vehicle as tested is a very eye-watering 65 000 this is a 65 000 truck that you're going to take and get dirty and do insane things with it and have a lot of fun and i recommend you do go do those things in that truck but good good lord that is a lot of money to spend on a vehicle now you can get the sport which is you know basically the entry-level gladiator and i i think the premium to get the diesel engine is between four and six thousand dollars so it is a big jump over just the base 3.6 but i do think it's better than the 3.6 i kind of wish they would offer it in the mojave one even though i know that's more of a desert runner high speed truck but it's not like this diesel is like an old mercedes diesel where it's taking 10 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour you would be plenty fast enough in the desert in the dunes in this thing so they should offer that engine in the mojave what they really need to offer is the turbo four i think that's the best engine on the wrangler side of the family right now i'd rank the diesel as second and i drank the 3.6 liter v6 as third so if you're looking to get a gladiator i think it's it's worth it to spend more and get the diesel it's just a really good engine with lots of range we barely used a quarter of a tank to get out here which is nice but still i would really like to see that turbo 4 because that thing just punches off the line in a surprising manner but for now as it sits i'm very impressed with this engine in this truck having a lot of fun just crawling around back here and we're gonna find some more wide open space and uh and give it some more gas and just kind of see what happens the diesel is a great option here on the gladiator i actually prefer it to the 3.6 liter i think that engine is getting a bit stale these days i still wish they would bring the turbo 4 here because that is a fantastic engine choice on the wrangler but as it sits now we have a bit more choice with the gladiator and this here this rubicon diesel is a darn good one so youthis is a 2021 jeep gladiator and no today we are not diving into the specifics of what makes the gladiator awesome because we've done that we've driven these before we've driven wranglers we've driven the truck one you can go check those out here this one does not have the 3.6 liter v6 thank god this one has the three liter turbo diesel v6 that noise you hear in the background is not the turbo diesel v6 we've come out here outside of barstow where lots of off-road teams test their vehicles that's why you're hearing this awesome dune buggy but in a minute you're going to hear this because that's what we came out here to test today so this isn't a full review of the gladiator as a whole we're focusing on the engine today but while it's here let's talk about how it looks the silver paint looks great against the black fender flares and this is a rubicon so it has fox shocks it has falcon wild peak tires it looks the business you can also get the diesel engine on the sport and the overland trims as well no mojave on the inside uconnect works really well i think the screen looks nice you can take the doors off this one has a soft top it does get a bit noisy on the road but there are other tops if you don't want to deal with that noise it's comfortable it is a nice place to sit jeep really did a good job on the jl wrangler and gladiators but we're not here to talk about that let's dive straight into the engine so here's what we came to see this is jeep's three liter turbo diesel v6 the eco diesel engine and here it's making 260 horsepower which is you know all right more importantly though it's making 442 glorious foot pounds of torque and it is backed up by an eight-speed torque flight automatic transmission i actually prefer the eight speed on these modern jeeps i think the clutches on the manual gearbox wranglers and gladiators is the weak spot the gearbox itself is okay but the clutch kind of stings so if i was buying one i'd go with the eight speed and on the diesel you have to go with the eight speed so under the hood is that three liter and i really think it's a great option for a vehicle like this having horsepower is nice but a lot of times in a jeep you're doing slower speed stuff and torque is much more effective and more helpful in those cases we are out here at an off-road section in southern california out near barstow if any of you know it you could hear some noise in the background during the intro there's a lot of pro race teams that come and test their vehicles out here there's a truck with a helicopter following it today and then there's there's us just testing um diesel jeep gladiator on trails that are frankly in a rubicon pretty easy and then you add the torque of that three liter turbo diesel v6 and i mean it's more of the same it's it's the engine is working even easier than it would be i'm not even at 2000 rpms we're just slowly ambling up this hill but it's it's effortless and that's kind of a nice thing to have in a vehicle like this so i have it in off-road plus mode but you could just put it in four high and this would be fine um we tried climbing up it in just two but there's a couple sections where it's a little soft a little bit loose today so it's just easier to put it into four high set it and forget it you do not need four low for this but four low with that the torque of that diesel engine and the transfer case on this thing it's i mean you can go over anything that's the beauty of a gladiator yeah some of you might prefer the break over of the wrangler and you're not wrong you're definitely not wrong but just for everyday general use the gladiator is pretty awesome it pairs perfectly with this eight-speed gearbox this is a different eight-speed gearbox than in the non-diesel it's a bit beefier than the standard eight-speed gearbox this also has cameras so you can see where you're going which is very helpful because we don't want to fall off the side of a mountain right now now on the drive here we drove on the freeway about a hundred and fourteen hundred fifteen miles from orange county california and this thing was excellent on the highway it is no problem cruising at or maybe even a little bit above the speed limit um no issues at all there it was comfortable it's a little bit noisy with the soft top but that is easily fixable if you just opt for a different top or if you like the noise and you want to put the top down you go nuts too off-roading in a jeep is just easy and comfortable while still being fun and that is a great thing that's why you spend all the dough on something like the rubicon now speaking of price there is obviously a price premium for getting the diesel this vehicle as tested is a very eye-watering 65 000 this is a 65 000 truck that you're going to take and get dirty and do insane things with it and have a lot of fun and i recommend you do go do those things in that truck but good good lord that is a lot of money to spend on a vehicle now you can get the sport which is you know basically the entry-level gladiator and i i think the premium to get the diesel engine is between four and six thousand dollars so it is a big jump over just the base 3.6 but i do think it's better than the 3.6 i kind of wish they would offer it in the mojave one even though i know that's more of a desert runner high speed truck but it's not like this diesel is like an old mercedes diesel where it's taking 10 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour you would be plenty fast enough in the desert in the dunes in this thing so they should offer that engine in the mojave what they really need to offer is the turbo four i think that's the best engine on the wrangler side of the family right now i'd rank the diesel as second and i drank the 3.6 liter v6 as third so if you're looking to get a gladiator i think it's it's worth it to spend more and get the diesel it's just a really good engine with lots of range we barely used a quarter of a tank to get out here which is nice but still i would really like to see that turbo 4 because that thing just punches off the line in a surprising manner but for now as it sits i'm very impressed with this engine in this truck having a lot of fun just crawling around back here and we're gonna find some more wide open space and uh and give it some more gas and just kind of see what happens the diesel is a great option here on the gladiator i actually prefer it to the 3.6 liter i think that engine is getting a bit stale these days i still wish they would bring the turbo 4 here because that is a fantastic engine choice on the wrangler but as it sits now we have a bit more choice with the gladiator and this here this rubicon diesel is a darn good one so you\n"