Ford scrutinized the Jeep Wrangler for pain points to exploit when it designed the new Bronco. One of those pain points was the Wrangler’s side mirrors. When you remove the doors from a Wrangler or a Gladiator, the side mirrors remain attached and are, thus, no longer on the vehicle. It’s annoying. You also need at least one additional mirror on the car for it to be street legal.
The Bronco avoids that issue with mirrors mounted to the vehicle’s front A-pillar. The mirrors stay on the car when you pop off the doors. That also makes them flat and storable in the four-door Bronco’s trunk.
Jeep now has a factory-approved solution for this issue. FCA’s accessories arm Mopar is now offering a doors-off mirror kit for the current-generation Wrangler and Gladiator models. The kit allows you to quickly and easily mount two side mirrors to the Jeep when you remove the doors. The only tool required is a T40 TORX wrench included in the standard tool kit with both the Wrangler and Gladiator.
The Mopar kit’s price, $295, is a bit steep. Aftermarket workarounds for the Wrangler/Gladiator mirror conundrum already exist — you can’t legally take off the doors without adding mirrors — and you can find mirrors that will get you street legal for a lot less than $295.
Jeep’s selling point is that the mirrors in the Mopar kit are OEM quality. Mopar designed them to replicate the factory mirrors’ field of view and experience minimal vibrations, both of which can be liabilities on the cheap ones. It’s not that big of an outlay, especially if you’re blowing past $50,000 with your Wrangler/Gladiator Rubicon or Mojave build. And if the better mirrors help you avoid one fender bender, they will more than pay for themselves.
