Cruising Around Volcanoes In A Jeep Wrangler

I recently took two weeks holiday on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura and, since there's only so long you can sit in the sun drinking beer for, we decided to hire a car and go exploring. Given that there were five of us, I opted against hiring the recommended VW Polo. I used to have a Golf and I certainly wasn't going to try and cram three adults and two kids into its smaller sibling.

There were larger vehicles on offer (but I certainly didn't need a VW Transporter) and what caught my eye was the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Given that the Canary Islands are effectively a large group of volcanoes and that Fuerteventura only receives approx. 20 days of rain a year, it's pretty barren, rocky and quite mountainous. What better environment for a rugged 4x4?

Anyway, we grabbed a well-used (132,000kms on the clock) Wranger and, with me driving, set about covering 410 miles around the island. For reference, the island is only a maximum of 60 miles long and 18 miles wide. Initially, I had hoped for one of the V8 engined models (however unlikely that would be for a hire car), but one tank of fuel (65 Euros worth), isn't bad for the distance covered, considering load and time spent on dirt tracks and steep gradients.

What did I learn about the Jeep? Having never driven one before, here are my findings:

• Power: No, not really.
• Steering: Lacking in anything which could reliably be described as feedback.
• Suspension: Bouncy on smooth tarmac but not good enough to absorb the punishment dished out by the rutted dirt tracks in the south. Rattled out most of my fillings and made my two-year old boy very grumpy (although it stopped my daughter talking incessantly, so you should take positives where you can find them).
• Brakes: Well, it does have some brakes. I tested them once when I inadvertently reverted to UK driving and checked for traffic in the wrong direction at a roundabout. They stopped the car, so they have that in their favour at least.
• Equipment: Our, I suspect, slightly older model had no SatNav and radio reception was very poor, but I don't suspect that there's much that Jeep could do about being surrounded by dozens of mountains. Having the roof down was lovely though and the interior was less plasticity than I expected.
• Overall: Despite it being not very good in many areas, it was actually a fun car to drive in the environment. I wouldn't want one in the UK but, then again, I wouldn't have wanted to drive a VW Polo loaded down with five people up a volcano either.

The view north along the west coat, towards Cofete.

A road you don't want to meet oncoming traffic on. Believe me.

Lots of roads like this, up and down mountains, the main variety offered by the level of bumpiness.

Looking pretty good in its intended environment.