A Jeep is a very capable off-road vehicle – and is also very customisable.
There is no doubt that you’ve seen a Jeep on public roads fitted with a lifted suspension, or aftermarket grille, or big rims, or winch – or a mixture of all these accessories.
And you might have wondered, how much does all that cost – considering a Jeep vehicle starts at over R500,000?
This is what we are going to find out today.
The vehicle
Using the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) report for highest-selling passenger vehicles of 2020, we discovered that the Wrangler 3.6 V6 Sahara 2-door was the best-selling Jeep model for the year – at 95 units sold.
Consequently, it will be our base vehicle which we’re going to build upon.
The Jeep Wrangler Sahara 2-door has a starting price of R849,900.
This buys you a 4×4 vehicle that is fitted with a 3.6-litre V6 engine – producing 209kW and 347Nm of torque – a washable interior, and a 5-year/100,000km warranty plan along with a 3-year/100,000km service plan.
The accessories
This is where the fun happens.
Starting up front with the grille, a Fab Fours Front Full Width Grumper is added with a price of R14,500.
This completely changes the front look of the Wrangler to make it look and be more robust, and adds a winch for those tricky rock crawling situations.
To further increase coverage at the head of the vehicle, a Fab Fours ViCowl roof visor and cowl cover is added at a price of R7,990 – which increases front windshield protection and provides extra space for lighting.
As a finishing touch to the front end, a Poison Spyder Hood Louver is also installed to make the Wrangler bonnet look a bit more rugged – this addition has a price of R2,299.
Now that the nose is upgraded, the same process must be followed around the rest of the car.
Rock sliders and fender flares are up next.
A 2-door Side Armor Bars side step is fitted – at a price of R6,500 – along with Steel Crusher fender flares – R8,850 – to protect the vehicle from side and bottom scrapes and impacts.
The stock rear bumper can’t be left alone, and since that of a Jeep is made of plastic – which is a bit less durable than steel – it needs to be replaced.
For this part, the MS Rear Bumper has been chosen at a price of R8,499.
This increases your Jeep’s durability, provides extra spots for towing, and gives space for additional LED spotlights on the bumper at a price of R750 per pair.
Below the new rear bumper, a new exhaust is also fitted to make the V6 engine sound like one and to add a little extra performance when you need it.
The chosen exhaust system is the MagnaFlow Black Ceramic Coated Dual Exhaust at a price of R6,999.
It delivers dyno-proven power with comfortable interior sounds and performance exterior sounds, according to the company.
Keeping focus on the exterior, we now move to the roof where an Eezi Awn K9 Roof Rack Series (2DR) has been installed at a price of R6,800.
The roof rack increases storage for extra jerry cans and hydraulic jacks for those long awaited 4×4 weekends, or provides extra luggage space over and above the boot for those family holidays away.
Lift kit
No customised Jeep Wrangler would be complete without a lift kit.
This essential accessory comes to us in the form of the Jeep 3.5″ Spring Lift Kit – at a price of R12,499 – which makes the floor of the vehicle stand almost 9cm higher, and creates a smooth ride on the trail, according to the product listing.
Sticking to the wheel well section, the next option is – of course – wheels.
The lift kit only allows for a maximum of 35-inch tyres, but this is more than enough as our chosen option will be a set of BFGoodrich KM3 30X9.50 R15 104Q Mud Terrain at a price of R4,072 per tyre.
With the tough-looking new tyres, we also need tough-looking new rims.
For this we selected the RRC1 matte black off-road series wheels from Road Rage, at a price of R2,563 (ex VAT) per wheel.
The total price
Now that we’ve had our fun kitting out the Jeep Wrangler, it is time to pay the bill.
For that, we summed up the price of all the accessories above – which amounted to a total of just over R103,764.
It is important to note that all these parts will need to be fitted and tested – which is more time and money.
For those who are confident enough to do it themselves, this brings the grand total of a “kitted out” Jeep Wrangler 3.6 V6 Sahara 2-door to just over R953,664.
Keyword: The cost of kitting out a Jeep Wrangler