2020 Jeep Gladiator Launch Edition pre-orders open on “4×4 Day”
This Thursday is the fourth day of the fourth month, an occasion that Jeep once dubbed “Jeep 4×4” Day. In honor of this most awesome of made-up holidays, Jeep will for one day and one day only accept pre-orders for the Launch Edition Jeep Gladiator.
You know the 2020 Jeep Gladiator, right? The midsize pickup that arrives in showrooms later this spring? Well, Jeep plans to build just 4190 “Launch Editions” in a nod toward the 419 area code of Toledo, Ohio, where the Gladiator will be built alongside its Wrangler cousin.
The Launch Edition is based on a loaded Rubicon and adds 17-inch gloss black aluminum wheels unique to the model, a spray-in bedliner, LED headlights and taillights, keyless entry, front trail camera, blind-spot monitoring, rear park assist, adaptive cruise body-color hardtop, body-color fender flares, and more. Speaking of body color, you can get it in black, Bright White, Billet Silver Metallic, Granite Crystal Metallic and our favorite, Firecracker Red. Inside you’ll find unique Launch Edition dashboard trim and seats wrapped in black leather with red stitching. And of course you also get a forged aluminum tailgate badge identifying your Launch Edition Gladiator as “One of 4190.”
Total cost for the Launch Edition is $62,310, which is well north of the $35,000 starting price.
Because this is 2019, Jeep has created a Jeep Gladiator Concierge app that will take your pre-order and tell you what you might get for your trade-in. Tap your info into the app and a real live Jeep Gladiator Concierge will contact you to hook you up with a dealer of your choice so you can place your deposit and finalize the sale.
Once you’ve done that, you are eligible to enter Jeep’s “Find Your Freedom” contest to win what Jeep calls a “one-year’s salary” of $100,000, presumably so you can spend those 12 months adventuring with your new Jeep. Whether your employer has a job waiting for you upon your return from Moab or points beyond is an open question.
Entering the contest requires more than tapping an app, though. You’ve got to create a video telling your own “Gladiator” story. Entrants will be judged by Jeep representatives and U.S. Army veteran Noah Galloway, who received the Purple Heart after losing an arm and a leg in combat in Iraq. Galloway, an extreme sports enthusiast and motivational speaker, filmed a video promoting the contest at Jeep’s Toledo Assembly Complex.
As long as we’re on the topic of made up holidays, how about an CPA Edition Jeep Gladiator to celebrate April 15?
