I've got one this week as a rental. I agree about the interior quality and ride handling. It's superb, but not perfect.
It has tons of headroom for tall drivers, but the steeply raked windshield is very uncomfortable to look through for a tall driver (say, for any one over 6'4"). I'm 6'7" and have to hunch forward over the wheel to look at building addresses, signage, road signs, stop lights, etc... Very uncomfortable.
The seats are very firm and comfortable, a HUGE change for JEEP particulalry, and American car mfr's in general, and a quite welcome one. However, the seating position is an ackward hybrid of sedan (legs horizontally in front of you), and captain chair (legs bent down 90 degrees at knee like a full size truck). This hybrid is one I could get used to, but is not natural or immediately comfortable.
The a-pillars are fairly thick and large (airbags and grab handles), and because of the steep rake and short height of the windshield. End up quite close to you head and obstruct quite a lot of your view when cornering.
Though the cockpit is generous in size ( at 6'7", 300 Lbs I fit quite well), it's small everywhere else. Very little rear seat let room, and none at all behind me as the driver.
There is very little cargo space for knickknacks. Not many map pockets, slots, trays, glove boxes, etc... Granted, I am comparing to an LR3 which holds tons of stuff all through out the cabin. Still, for a thoroughly contemporary and good looking interior, it's short on functional space for a typical off road enthusiasts needs.
I was most disappointed in the rear cargo area. No drop down lift gate, and I found where all the typical cheap JEEP plastic was used. The PLASTIC tiedowns are completely, and embarrassingly useless, and the subfloor feels very thin. An enthusiast would need to build a proper plywood subfloor with steel tiedowns.... Like the LR3 has.
The engine I had is the base 6 cylinder. It's fine, but nit as powerful as the LR3 4.0 6 cyclinder, nor my friends Toyota 4runner 6 cylinder. More concerning was the way the throttle is tuned. You will not have any worries about "unintended acceleration" in this rig. It is dead flat on take off. It feels like the engine is willing, but the throttle body has been tuned for VERY gradual acceleration.
The ride though, is excellent. One of the best driving SUV's I've ever experienced. Tight, smooth, controlled, crisp, without any bounce. It soaks up freeway ripples perfectly, and is a blast to roar through drainage Swales. It just soaked it all up.
After 4 days, I like it, but it's more comparable to a 4Runner ( but smaller!), than an LR3 that it's trying to compete with. The LR3 ( or LR4 as it's now called) walks all over this thing. $45k is way to much for this one. $30k is about right, fully loaded.
