Next Level 6x6 review: ginormous six-wheeled Jeep Gladiator driven Reviews 2024 | Top Gear (2024)

Holy moly, what is this?

It’s the Next Level Jeep Gladiator 6x6, and it’s a big boy. While you can buy it through a select bunch of authorised dealers in the US, it’s not an official Jeep product. Rather it’s the work of a company operating out of the same office as Rezvani, giving it some immediate ‘grown-up Tonka toy’ nous from the offset.

So what goes into it?

In truth it’s not significantly more complex than simply taking one Jeep Gladiator pick-up, stretching it out and plonking an additional axle in the middle. But you’ll be delighted to learn the additional axle is fully operational; in regular, everyday use, this is a four-wheel-drive vehicle, with power split 50:50 between the rearmost axles. The front wheels are only called upon when you notch your Next Level into its gnarlier off-road modes. At which point 47 per cent of power goes up front, with the remaining 53 split evenly between the back four wheels.

Needless to say it's vast. At 6,223mm it’s not only significantly longer than a base Gladiator (5,537mm) but the Mercedes G63 AMG 6x6 (5,875mm) too. Its wheelbase is a stocky 4.5 metres while weight is up too, from the stock Gladiator’s 2.1 tonnes to 2.5. Happily, more practicality comes with its growth – the load bed is nearly half a metre longer, at 2,134mm, with an accompanying hike in volume (1,005 to 1,396 litres). You can fit a double mattress in there easily, apparently.

How much power are we talking?

It depends how extravagant you’re feeling when it comes to sitting down with a delicious coffee in Next Level’s office and prodding through the configurator on its ginormous telly. At base level – as we have right here – is a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine with 285bhp and 260lb ft of torque. That starts at $142,000, which equates to around £110,000, and more than three times the cost of a regular Gladiator four-wheeler, albeit one in its thriftiest spec.

Another $5,000 will get you a 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel with 375bhp and 470lb ft, which ought to be the one if you actually intend on using your 6x6 for utilitarian endeavours such as towing. But if you’re really buying into the OTT, in-yer-face nature of this thing, you’ll want one of the other petrol options – all of them V8s.

For $45,000 you can have a 500bhp 6.4-litre SRT engine, while $70,000 gets you the iconic Hellcat crate engine, bringing a 707bhp supercharged 6.2-litre V8. Still not had your really quite needy tastes sated? Then you’ll need to almost double your car’s price before clicking the $95,000 options box perched tantalisingly beside the 1,000bhp Dodge Demon V8.

But you’re in the slow one…

Well, ‘slow’ is a relative term. Those are 285 hardworking horsepowers, sure – this ain’t a small or lightweight vehicle, but it’s also not an especially dynamically incisive one, as its shape and size should surely have indicated. So while forward acceleration isn’t outrageous, you wouldn’t want it to be, as it’ll only give you significantly more speed to scrub off when corners arrive.

Don’t assume its extra length is a total pain in the bum in everyday life. In its normal drive mode – with power purely at the rear axles and thus the front wheels simply dealing with direction changes – the steering is reasonably quick and easy and low-speed manoeuvres make a mockery of its XXXL size. Though it’s worth keeping a keen eye on the mirrors as you slither through traffic, just to be sure. A Wrangler or Gladiator are hardly supercars to drive in the first place, so the Next Level’s driving experience isn’t a dramatic step on in either direction. Until the camera phones come out and you slow your progress to appease them – or quicken your pace to evade them.

How does it ride?

As standard, you get Fox shocks with a 4in lift kit, on which it feels as taut as its base car, really. These can be upgraded through two levels of remote reservoir dampers for proper off roading adventures. Programme manager Michael Porter acknowledges this is a car more likely to cruise around the shopping streets of Beverly Hills than clamber up the mountainous terrain of Moab, though, and most customers will keep their options spend for aesthetic accessories or sampled paint.

“Nobody is really taking these off road,” he says. “It’s seeing maybe a gravel path once in a while.” And the same thinking goes for its newly voluminous load bay in the back. “It’s mostly about show,” says Michael, “I’ve not seen a picture of the bed being used yet.”

So what other options can I have?

Oh, oodles of things. This can become a $300k car with frightening ease if your eyes are popping at the sight of its light bar, snorkel and automatically extending side steps, or you want some fancy leather or a boisterous stereo inside. The idea – as it is so often in this part of the market – is that no two are ever the same, so on the off chance you pull alongside another Next Level at the lights, you won’t be feeling inadequate. Suddenly that Demon engine is looking appealing again, huh?

Michael promises more is to come, too. “We think this is a great platform to keep working on; we don’t want to switch to a Silverado or anything. Jeep buyers love Jeeps, and we really just want to give Jeep buyers a better option if they don’t want a Hennessey Goliath or suchlike.” Indeed, pop over to the other side of the showroom and Rezvani offers its own Jeep-based 6x6, the Hercules. Fuel prices may be soaring, but just try telling buyers in this corner of the market…

Photography: Jonny Fleetwood