When Jeep first debuted the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler last November, the brand showed off a sexy red two-door Rubicon with strange half-doors that had holes in them. If you actually liked those, I have some bad news: those doors aren’t happening.
The good news for diehard off-road enthusiasts, though, is that half-doors themselves, which aren’t currently on Jeep’s JL configurator, are indeed on their way, with a company representative telling me:
Half-doors will be available starting in 2019 but will not be the “donut door” style shown in LA. It’ll be the half-door design similar to previous versions.
When I asked why the “donut doors” weren’t going to be offered, the rep said the doors were “always a prototype,” and that the “classic” flat-panel style half-doors ended up winning out in the end.
To be honest, I’m totally cool with that. I don’t really get the point of that hole in the middle of the door, I don’t think it looks particularly great, and if I wanted a lighter half-door, I’d snag a tubular one. Though, maybe if I got some wheel time in a Jeep with the “donut doors” I’d think differently.
In any case, regular half-doors, like the ones on the JK shown below, look lovely, and are almost certainly cheaper and easier to manufacturer:
I’m looking forward to seeing how those look on the new JL, and learning whether they’ll use a zipper like on the JK, or some sort of “tongue and groove” design like what’s on the new JL’s soft-top (though I’m not sure how they’d set that up).