Just my opinion as a newb on this forum; been following for the past year though. I wouldn't dismiss the first generation JK's based only on what you read on a forum. I read the same propagation of trash talk on several different posts. "unreliable minivan engine". What does that even mean? How does that make it inferior? I wonder if those on a minivan forum somewhere say hey, we have a wrangler engine in our vans, let's go rock crawling. I've had the opportunity to drive a few of the earlier JK's. The most recent, I had a 2007 JK unlimited for 3 months while I fixed up a few things to give it to a relative. I picked it up from my nephew who had it in college for several years and very much neglected maintenance. It had 115,000 miles on it and he was complaining of it overheating and that a mechanic quoted over $1000 to fix. I fixed the problem with a $75 new fan. It ran very smooth. If I hadn't read the odometer, I would have guessed it was near new. It handled and shifted (auto) great. Suspension was tight. I still like my TJ better, never have liked the look of the JK's. It really grew on me though, handled and rode better than my TJ. The engine revs high and has poor acceleration. However, I had no problem maintaining 75 mph on the highway. This one had 4.10 gears and small stock tires which may have helped. I have driven a couple with higher gearing and had no issues on the highway against a strong wind. Regarding reliability, based on my occasional perusing of JK forums, I seem to see more complaints about reliability issues with the stronger 3.6.
I really do not intend to insult any previous posters, I just wanted to give my opinion based on my experiences. My point is, don't dismiss based on forum posts. I suggest that if you see one you may like, go drive it with an open mind and make your own opinions. It may be fine for your needs. Once I drove that one daily for a little while, it changed my opinion on them. My biggest complaint is that (with all JK's actually) it really feels like I'm driving a car that looks like a jeep. My TJ is more fun.
I happen to agree.
We spend a lot of time offroad with our Jeeps and 1 particular guy in our group is very extreme, very hard on his Jeep and has the 3.8.
Has over 100k and he hasn't experienced an issue which is surprising to me.
I've personally have owned many vehicles " I'm old " and can say with confidence.......nothing impressive about the 4.0 from a performance perspective but it's extremely easy to work on and is very durable.
I see what my very close friends 3.8 JK does offroad and can't dismiss it.