Everyone knew the all-new 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL would be more expensive than the outgoing, decade-old Wrangler JK. A $1,000 to $2,000 increase in price sounded reasonable for all the improvements made. Well, it seems FCA figures it can charge exorbitantly more for the new Wrangler - $10,000 more on the luxury-minded Sahara trim, to be exact.

The news comes from none other than JLWranglerforums.com, the seemingly official leaker of all things JL over the least two years. A user posted a spied Monroney window sticker showing a base price of $45,000 for an Unlimited Sahara equipped with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 and manual transmission.

Now, there are a few caveats to this information. The pricing might not be completely finalized, so there’s a chance the price is inaccurate. Also, the options list only shows Jeeps RPO codes with no breakdown in pricing for each item. There’s a chance the options’ pricing is somehow including in the “base price” of $45,000. If so, that would make the true, pre-options base price far less. Jeep is apparently keeping its $1,095 destination charge from before.

Of course, the base Sport trim will be significantly less expensive than the leather-lined Sahara, especially in two-door form, so modest Jeepers should still be able to find a good deal. The Rubicon, however, will be more expensive than the Sahara thanks to its extra off-road hardware. This tiered system has been around for a while, so that’s old news. What is news is Jeep’s potential of pricing itself out of the active lifestyle, off-roading, and consumer base that made the Wrangler JK so popular.

References

2018 Jeep Wrangler

Read our full review on the 2018 Jeep Wrangler.

2017 Jeep Wrangler

Read our full review on the JK-gen 2017 Jeep Wrangler

Read more 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show news.