Massive power boost for 2012 Wrangler

With 2011 Wranglers just getting into their sales stride locally, this item's a bit premature, but anyway … as widely reported, the 2012 Wrangler gets the new Pentastar V6 (right), first seen locally in the Grand Cherokee, where it's been about as popular as a dose of herpes. That's probably not a reflection of the engine as much as Grand Cherokee owners who want V8 power or, at a pinch, diesel. In the Grand, Pentastar produces 213kW and 347Nm of torque at 4300rpm. I figured it would be detuned in the Wrangler, but no. I've just seen the American 2012 sales kit and all that power and torque will be available in the Wrangler, whose outgoing engine produces 146kW and 315Nm of torque. Sixty-six more kilowatts, yee-ha!; 32 more Newtons, not so yee-ha!, but any increase is good. In the US, Jeep's talking a 13 per cent fuel consumption improvement.