Q: Was there a 1996 model year Wrangler?

A: No. Wrangler skipped the 1996 model year.

Jeep concluded YJ production with Model Year 1995. This is reflected in YJ VIN coding (position 10, value ‘S’.) The follow on model, the TJ Wrangler, started with model year 1997 as confirmed by TJ VIN coding (value ‘Y’ in position 10.)

Jeep introduced the 1997 Wrangler in early 1996 as an “Advance Release” of the newly designed TJ giving the 1997 Model several extra month of market time. Given the strong demand and extra availabilty the 97 model year sold nearly 150K units. The following model years sold closer to 100K.