The Jeep Wave is Dead

Out on the road, there are certain groups of road users who typically wave to one another as they pass by in traffic. In my experience it’s usually motorcycle riders, Corvette drivers, and formerly, Jeep drivers. I’m not talking about Cherokees, Grand Cherokees, or whatever the Compass is. I’m talking real Jeeps. Ones with removable doors and tops. Ones that require a sense of adventure to own and drive daily. For the last 22 or so years, I’ve been driving my ’89 Jeep Wrangler around Cape Cod, a Jeep hot spot. As the years went by and miles have racked up, the once common wave from fellow Jeep drivers has disappeared. Vanished without a trace! I held out hope for the last few years, thinking the Jeep wave was simply an endangered species. It’s existence being pushed to the outskirts of Jeep owner-dom by owners who want to be Jeep drivers, but aren’t true Jeep drivers.

I must admit that I am astonished by what Jeep has been able to do with the Wrangler over the years. Tube axles have become virtually obsolete, even in many large pickup trucks. Once common, the body on frame construction of a Wrangler, is also rarely seen. Yet the Wrangler trudges on proudly sporting both. It’s dated, functionally obsolete technology that is a literal dead end. The reason the Wrangler hangs onto this functional obsolescence is because this design is the best damn thing engineers have been able to dream up for rock crawling. The only real change to the Jeep ingredient list over the years has been coil spring suspension, which allows for a more compliant ride and better flex on the trails. A real win for everyone!

Like most older Jeeps, mine doesn’t have air conditioning. It was an option, but I haven’t seen a Wrangler of my vintage with it in the flesh. Jeep’s option list for square headlight Wranglers, known as “YJ’s”, wasn’t terribly long either. 4 cylinders or 6 cylinders. Automatic transmission or manual transmission. Soft top or hard top. Half steel doors or full steel doors. Pick a meaningless trim level. If there was money left over in your budget, then you checked the box for A/C. Today, the option and package list on Wrangler takes up a hilarious amount of room on the internet. Power windows, power sliding canvas roofs, even navigation! Today, air conditioning is pretty much standard equipment in Wranglers. What a time to be alive!

As the option list increased and the Wrangler’s road going manners improved, their appeal became more wide spread. So much so, that in 2018 The Jeep Wrangler nearly outsold the Toyota Camry! The Wrangler became less of an expression of the type of person you are and more of an expression of the type of person you want to be. Who doesn’t want to be a carefree, outdoorsy person with the wind in their hair on a bright summer day? Especially when most of the amenities in a “regular” car are now at your finger tips. Wranger and CJ drivers of yore will tell you about soft tops that occasionally leaked and often took close to a half hour to remove. All things a new Wrangler owner will never has experience, and would likely not tolerate. Crank windows are still a thing with Wranglers, but they're almost as rare as Air Conditioning in a YJ. Cue up Bob Dylan, because the times are a changing.

I used to think of the Jeep wave as a friendly “hello” between strangers. If you thumb your way through Jeep’s marketing materials, they’d have you thinking the same. But I have come to realize that it was really a salute. A signal amongst brethren, acknowledging that your choice of vehicle made sense to someone else, despite the world moving on to new technological frontiers and more creature comforts. As the Wrangler strayed away from the car you drove to "rough it" in to one you could drive daily with ease, the Jeep Wave went extinct. Drivers of older Wranglers and CJ's, the demographic I was holding out hope for, eventually stopped waving. They're too depressed from years of unreciprocated waves and perhaps a bit scared of the angry Jeep grilles you see everywhere now.

While I am very much for technological advancement and inclusion into the “Jeep Lifestyle”, I cannot deny that I miss the wave. It confused passengers and always made me smile. Now that Wranglers have basically become the new Bro-Dozer pick up, I don’t think it will ever come back.