2023 Jeep Wagoneer Yearlong Verdict: Competent but Not Charming
The biggest Jeep never really felt like one during its yearlong stay with us.
The best Jeeps become part of your family, your stories, and your life. You slap stickers on them. Fill the dash with rubber duckies. Look for excuses to bring them along on your next adventure. They’re usually charmingly flawed—from the underpowered Renegade to the poor-on-pavement Wrangler—but their idiosyncrasies become personality traits you learn to appreciate for what they are. Try as we might to capture that feeling with our yearlong review 2023 Jeep Wagoneer Series II, this, the biggest of Jeeps leaves the MotorTrend Garage after a year and change as a relentlessly competent three-row SUV but not exactly a charming Jeep.
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Thankfully, whatever the Jeep Wagoneer lacked in personality, it made up for in capability. Our midgrade Wagoneer Series II found itself in high demand by our editorial team over the past 13 months purely based on how versatile it was.
Taking the Good With the Bad
Perhaps the thing the Wagoneer was best at was comfortably whooshing up to eight folks and their gear down the interstate in luxurious comfort. Few vehicles on the road can match this road king. Passengers continually raved about the near EV-like level of silence, comfortable seats (even though third-row access was sketchy), generous space, and the ability to bring all the creature comforts of home along for the ride.
The Wagoneer is even nicer from the driver’s seat. There’s a solidity to the way this Jeep goes down the road, the optional air springs and 18-inch wheels (part of the off-road package we opted for; the 18-inch wheels are discontinued for ’25) working wonders to isolate the cabin from where the rubber meets the road. We also adored the silky-smooth power delivery of our Wagoneer’s 420-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo I-6. Simply put, there’s not much that stresses this engine; whether they be short freeway merges, steep grades while towing, or simply slicing and dicing through traffic, the I-6 always has the torque on tap for the job at hand.
Still, there’s some room for improvement. Off-road capability was underwhelming for a Jeep. Although we never expected this Ram 1500–based Jeep to be able to tackle the Rubicon trail, we wanted it to at least keep pace with rivals like the Chevrolet Tahoe Z71 on moderately challenging trails. Instead, the Wagoneer is best suited to stick to crossover-friendly dirt and fire roads, its underbelly too low-slung and flanks too exposed to tackle anything more difficult without body damage, even with the air suspension at its max ride height. Unlike the rest of Jeep’s lineup, the Wagoneer isn’t a vehicle we’d go out of our way to take on the path less traveled.
Even as we hoped for more Jeep-ness, we also wished more of the Wagoneer’s Ram DNA shined through when towing. Little quality-of-life features the Ram 1500 has, such as the ability to automatically adjust its blind-spot monitors to account for a trailer, a trailer hitch checklist, and automatic light check were notably missing. We also found the Wagoneer’s hitch placement to be oddly high for a vehicle in its segment, necessitating a large drop hitch, while the air suspension also continued to automatically adjust the Jeep’s ride height, which wasn’t ideal.
Actual towing performance was solid, but we’d think twice before towing anything beyond 50 percent of the Wagoneer’s 10,000-pound capacity due to its tendency to porpoise between its front and rear axles under load.
