2016 Jeep Brute Double Cab Sport review

The Jeep brute is big, brash and expensive. Yep, it’s all American but is it all too much?

Kids ask the darndest things. Our four-year-old wondered why the Jeep Brute was so big; ‘But why Daddy, why is it so huge?” Jeez, why didn’t he ask something easy, like explaining nuclear fusion. God knows why it’s so big, it just is, and that’s how people like ’em.

The Brute Double Cab is a product of a firm called American Expeditionary Vehicles. It’s said to inspired by the Land Rover Defender 130 (RIP) and is designed for ‘Overland’ use. Huh? Think Bear Grylls types crossing vast tracts of rugged wastelands, trusting all in their Brute, and probably a spear, for survival.

The Brute starts life as a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited before being shipped to AEV for extensive modifications. It’s a helluva lot longer when it emerges as a Brute, with 590mm added to its wheelbase and a further 410mm tacked on the rear overhang to accommodate the tray. AEV further reinforces the chassis to prevent ‘beaming’, 4×4 industry speak for flex and twist. They box in the rear of the passenger cabin with steel, and while you can see where the joins are, the original Wrangler’s build quality is rather rugged anyhow, so it’s not out of place. The tray is a little over 1.5m wide and long, made from a toughened plastic resin which is said to make it stronger yet lighter than steel. It’s about the same size as, say, a Ranger’s but not as deep, and the load height is even loftier.

On the rear there’s a unique bumper with some serious steel tubing and an inbuilt 26L water tank, should you get thirsty when stranded in the wilds. The quoted 32 degree departure angle is compromised here by the low hanging tow bar. We wouldn’t bother as the Brute is rated to ‘haul’ just 1590kg. Up front the stamped steel bumper contributes to an approach angle of 57 degrees and comes complete with a Warn winch and blindingly bright spot lights.

AEV mess with the underpinnings too, fitting what it calls ‘DualSport’ suspension systems to work better off-road while retaining some semblance of on-road refinement. It’s raised up 63mm to see ground clearance of 271mm measured to the bottom of the front axle. The 17-inch alloys allow for low pressure operation without the tyre coming off the rim, and come fitted with 35-inch (that’s how tall the tyre is) mud pluggers which measure more than a foot across. Optional for US buyers is a 115mm lift and 37-inch tyres, though you’d probably need a step ladder to help you climb aboard.

Standard motivation is the 209kW/347Nm 3.6 petrol V6 with a five-speed auto. That’s hardly a brutish output for such a beast, and probably why it can be had with an optional V8 in the US with 5.7-litre or 6.4 Hemi power on offer, or you can supercharge the six. Not here though.

The Brute weighs 2400kg, and managed to get to 100 in just over 10sec, but the six works pretty hard to keep it trucking, and the gearbox is often changing to help keep up with demands. The V6 will get through about 16L/100km on average with a mix of city and highway driving, as the Yanks say.

To go with its gargantuan size is a mammoth price tag. The Sport as tested here is $114,990 and is the one for townies with the switchable ‘Command Trac’ 4×4 system and a lo-range setting too. The $124,990 Rubicon gets an even lower geared lo-range, uprated front axles, proper locking front and rear diffs and a decoupling front sway bar for extra axle articulation.

At the price, it’s not something you’ll likely buy with your head; you’ll own it just ‘because’ and raise the middle finger to anyone who says you’re mad. The Brute gets varying reactions from onlookers ranging from OMG that’s awesome to OMG that’s truly offensive; such is the nature of the beast. It’s a true high rider so needs a leap up and in to clamber on board where you find a regular Wrangler interior with few thrills for the ask. And like an Unlimited, you can remove the front roof panels, adding another quirk to the Brute.

The ride on the mudpluggers is noisy and it can feel like you’re driving on cobblestones at low speeds but you can also thunder over most things in your path. The ride is never really settled, but then neither does it slop around all over the place given the live axles and big tread blocks of the tyres. With the amount of air between you and the road, it’s difficult to get a grasp on anything that’s happening but the Brute never feels like it’s about to snap into wild roll oversteer either. You can keep it relatively smooth at the speed limit, but anything more is asking for trouble.

We bombed down a forestry road littered with gnarly pot holes and the Brute simply rolled on. Our off roading was fairly limited, some larking about for the camera, but we feel it will go wherever it’s size will let it, and that if you intend to go venturing, best buy the Rubicon with its locking diffs.

The Brute gathers an audience at the best of times, and always when you’re trying to park. At just under 5.5m long and with the turning circle of a bus it’s usually a case of making it fit as best you can. If you’re that type of SUV driver that parks wherever you want, then you’ll be sweet. The Wrangler has great forward vision but with the huge tray, and no reversing camera, there’s little to none directly behind.

The Brute’s not something we could imagine many Kiwi buyers actually needing, but rather buying simply because they want something outrageous, which the Brute certainly is.