There’s an interesting statistic on the new Jeep Wrangler.
We’ve covered the new Jeep Wrangler extensively, from its launch to our own purchase of a brand new Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon. In that time, Jeep’s most iconic model stormed the sales charts, setting new sales records. In fact, 2018 was the best-selling year ever for the Wrangler, with over 240,000 finding buyers. If you managed to wait out the original rush, however, you can still get a killer deal on a brand new Jeep Wrangler. There’s just one catch — it’s last year’s model. 2018 was also the last year of the previous JK generation, but the current situation focuses primarily on the brand new Wrangler JL.
Like day-old bread, there are still year-old Wranglers sitting untouched on dealer lots, according to a recent iSeeCars study. You may be thinking, “Wait, there are still new 2018s sitting on dealer lots in September?” It’s not completely unheard of for dealers to carry excess inventory through the following year. That same study mentions that the industry average stands at about 4 percent. Carryover models that haven’t seen updates in awhile tend to sit around, as is the case with the Chevrolet Malibu and the Kia Optima. But the brand new Jeep Wrangler? The same one that’s been flying off the lots since it’s been introduced?
Yes, that same Jeep Wrangler. The iSeeCars study looked at a national inventory comprising 2 million new cars in determining the unsold inventory from 2018. While 4 percent of all cars in the study are from 2018, with the Wrangler it’s more like 16.8 percent for the two-door model, and 19.5 percent for the four-door Unlimited.
Oversupply
“Despite these vehicles hitting record sales numbers, there is a surplus [of Jeep Wranglers] because too many were produced in Fiat Chrysler’s Ohio plant, which had double the capacity of the previous design’s plants”, iSeeCars CEO Phong Ly said. As a result of the 2018 model year’s oversupply, dealers are resorting to massive incentives to turn over their inventories for the upcoming 2020 models.
While we did cover the Wrangler’s incentives back in April, you may be surprised to learn those deals are still out there. With one in every five Wranglers on dealer lots being a 2018 model, it may not be too difficult to find one for thousands off the MSRP.
Here in Colorado, the Jeep Wrangler is a strong seller, so most dealers aren’t kicking around too many 2018s at this point. But take Cowboy Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram just up the road in Cheyenne, Wyoming. At time of writing, the dealer has no fewer than eight brand new 2018 Jeep Wranglers in stock. They are offering $5,000 discounts on some models, but it’s likely you can get even better deals than that with some haggling.
Cars like the Chevrolet Malibu, Dodge Durango and Chrysler Pacifica also have double the average amount of 2018 inventory. Others like the Ford EcoSport and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross are fairly new models, but have received average reviews.
The Jeep Wrangler JL hasn’t undergone any major changes yet, so if you can stand buying a new 2018 model as opposed to a 2019 or 2020, it may be worth doing some digging. Given the amount of unsold inventory there seems to be, you probably won’t have to look far.
