Rented a 2020 Jeep Gladiator pickup 900 miles

Warbirds

I flew into Dallas (DFW) on Monday night around 9:00pm. I had a long week coming up, I had an 8:00AM meeting in Camden Arkansas Tuesday morning- its a 5 hour drive Ive made many times.
When headed to the Avis my name wasnt on the preferred board so I had to take a little detour to get my car.

Imagine my surprise when I saw 4 Jeep Gladiator?s on the lot!

When I approached the counter I learned I had a Toyota Corolla waiting on me- I asked for a Gladiator and the lady was excited to let me swap for one.
I was pretty happy knowing how much driving I would be doing in the next week. My Gladiator was Silver with a soft top and a full 7 miles on the clock.



I left the airport and decided to drop the top, it was a clear night with a big moon and the temp was around 78-80 degrees outside.
I cruised up the interstate to Hope, AR and put the top on- which was fortunate. Arkansas was getting the rain from hurricane Barry and it was raining hard with lots of flooding. The road between Hope and Camden is a twisty 2 lane highway that is worn down by logging trucks and the rain doesn?t make it any more pleasant to use. The Gladiator took it in stride- I was really impressed with how good the soft top is.

The next afternoon before leaving Camden to head back down to TX I stopped and took a photo with the swollen Quitchita river.



Shortly after passing back into TX the rain quit but I was tired from a long few days so I chose to spend the night in Texarkana instead of heading all the way back to Dallas. I took a power nap then did a little exploring and found the Atlanta Stare park- which made for a nice sunset with the Gladiator next to a nice lake.



Wednesday evening I shot a USPSA match and it was a bit of dirt road with s little mud to get to the range- I did my best to capitalize on that and got the jeep a little dirty because it seemed like the right thing to do.
It was fun to shoot with my old group of friends unfortunately disaster struck on stage 5 in the form of a Texas star. The next day I zero?d the gun and learned it was shooting about 3-4? left @20yards. Not sure if that was due to transport or the new SRO optic. I have a USPSA level 1 match this Saturday & Im a bit unsettled.
These 2 were always the 2 I was trying to beat when I lived here and you can see we were all right together until the TX star on stage 5. We named it the Texas Star Massacre . Still great night of shooting with friends & familiar faces.
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Speaking of shooting I needed to know about the rear storage- an AR definitely fits under the back seat. i found the back seat pretty clever actually.

Taking the Gladiator to a shooting range -it drew lots of attention.
Everyone wanted to crawl through it and take pictures.
The indicator had it at 17.1 MPG when I turned in the keys & read 906 miles.
Not a single hickup or issue- I had the soft top on and off 3 or 4 times and everything was really tight and the Gladiator ran great.

For me after 900 miles I would say its a pickup that was fun to drive and definitely something I will strongly consider purchasing- it was just fun!

Good times so I thought I would share.

Sam06

I have seen one or two driving around here. They look nice but my problem is its a Jeep. They have a lot of problems down the road and are kind of hit and miss on quality control.

Also that isn't very good gas mileage with a V6. My V8 full sized 4x4 2006 truck gets that around town and better on the highway.

35 Whelen

Good-looking little rig. Had my fingers crossed that it was going to be styled after the old Gladiator, though.

buschmaster

35 Whelen wrote:

Good-looking little rig. Had my fingers crossed that it was going to be styled after the old Gladiator, though.

I like that!

shilowar

It surprises me that they have rental soft tops. Did you feel like that pentastar V6 had enough power and torque? It doesn't look like much leg room in the back seat area.

drobs

I think the soft top version looks hideous.

The hardtops with campers look ok:



This looks good:

fatcat458

Nice Gladiator there WB... Looks a bit bigger than the lnside of my FJ Cruiser.. PLUS a bed AND soft top.

l don't worry too much about the back seat. l ride in the FRONT

Mobuck

Kind of an ugly POS w/o much REAL purpose.

Warbirds

I hear you- but this thing just had a super ?fun factor? about it.

The Dodge Challenger RT and this are far and away the best rental cars I?ve had and I would buy either one. This pickup is a pretty decent Jack of All Trades.

3 weeks ago I had a Toyota Tacoma TDP Pro as a rental car and I had it for a week and put a bunch of miles on it as well- for me, the Gladiator was more my speed than the Tacoma, but the Tacoma was really polished and did everything well- to the point it sort of didn?t have a personality.

At the end of the day- my 3 boys would sure think its cool when the top was down. Its at the top of my list next time I buy a car (now to 9 months from now.)

Mobuck wrote:

Kind of an ugly POS w/o much REAL purpose.

spasmcreek

is the under seat container anyway lockable ?????

Warbirds

Yes- it locks.

spasmcreek wrote:

is the under seat container anyway lockable ?????

Brookwood

Although I really like the looks of this Jeep truck, probably costs more than a few houses I have owned in the past.

Same with most new pickups these days. I can wait a few years and happily buy used! 8-)

select-fire

Just not stout enough to tow for me.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2019/03/2020-jeep-gladiator-towing-specs/

bearman49709

Mobuck wrote:

Kind of an ugly POS w/o much REAL purpose.

I've never meet you but I'm sure your not that ugly, and you must have some REAL purpose.