Did you know Mopar sells Gorilla Glass windshields for the Jeep Wrangler?
It's one of the few cars available with a phone-grade windshield.
- North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
If it's good enough for your phone, perhaps it's good enough for you car, too.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Mopar parts group offers a Corning Gorilla Glass replacement windshield for the Jeep Wrangler.
Though best known for its scratch and crack-resistant (and soon bendable) phone glass, manufacturer Corning has been partnering with the automakers to offer its stronger, more premium glass for exotic cars starting with the Ford GT in 2016 and expanding to include the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and McLaren 720S. You can now add the Jeep Wrangler JK (model years 2007 to 2018) to that shortlist.
Mopar quietly announced the Mopar Windshield made with Corning Gorilla Glass earlier this year as an aftermarket part for Wrangler owners looking for a stronger, more resilient replacement for their cracked or chipped panels. The Wrangler's relatively small and flat front glass (and Jeep owners' thirst for modifying their machines) is likely why the JK was chosen for this Mopar and Corning partnership.
The lightweight, hybrid-laminated windshield glass promises to help protect against rock chips, cracks, blunt impact and even strikes from small stones or hail. The Gorilla Glass comes with a two-year limited warranty and a cool little gorilla graphic in the lower left corner. For Jeep owners who often find themselves in demanding environments (or cracking a lot of windshields), the promise of more rugged glass might be tempting.
However, hardened glass comes at a price that may be hard to swallow -- a $550 MSRP before discounts, to be precise. That's double the cost of the $225 Mopar windshield made of regular laminated glass. For that much, Corning's glass will have to be twice as strong and last at least twice as long to make financial sense. While researching this story, I came across many anecdotes from Jeep forum users who are on their Wrangler's third or fourth windshield, so perhaps the Corning offering is worth at least keeping an eye on.
I got a look at how resilient windshield-grade Gorilla Glass could be a few years ago at the Detroit Auto Show. It's pretty tough stuff.