I have a 2017 JKU. It is a beast off road. The short answer to the OP痴 question is yes the Rubicon is better off road.

That being said, I知 shopping for a 4Runner because despite how much I like my Wrangler, I知 tired of all the repairs.

Some people swear that the wranglers are reliable. A lot of people have no issues. Man, I知 not one of them.

I知 willing to give up some of the things I love about the Wrangler for the reliability of the 4Runner.

I don稚 want to wait around for the Bronco and I知 not interested in it痴 4cylinder turbo. Nor was I impressed with videos of the Bronco doing the Rubicon Trail. It looked like it was struggling too much for me.

As for the eco diesel option on the Wrangler, check the Jeep forums for discussions related to that. A couple of people ran the numbers and found that it takes something like 40,000 miles before you start reaping savings from the increase in MPG. The eco diesel option costs $4,500 more. Diesel is more expensive than gas. Oil changes are very expensive and so on.

The 4xe is intriguing. You can do a lot of short trips on electric alone and people are reporting that they get 600 to 800 miles to a tank of gas. I think it costs around $65,000 though.

I give props to FCA for giving customers so many options in powertrains. An all electric wrangler is said to be in the works as well.

In the meantime, I知 shopping 4Runner.