grahamfitter
Expedition Leader
I've been driving a rented 2008 Jeep Liberty Sport around Southern California for the last month or so and I've been pleasantly surprised with it, both on road and off. Most folks seem to dismiss the Liberty when it comes to choosing a 4x4 so I figured I'd wave the flag here.
As a point of reference, at home I have a stock '97 Jeep Wrangler TJ and while I spend a fair amount of time on dirt roads in various states of repair, my rock crawling experience is very limited. I don't usually need 4-low where I go!
On tarmac and dirt washboard roads its comfy, quiet and stable. (A big improvement over my TJ!) I'm not a fan of automatic gearboxes but this one works OK and after a month I actually like it. The vehicle isn't as ugly as it was the first day, either. That came as a bit of a surprise; the Chrysler Town & Country minivan and Sebring convertible rentals I had before the Liberty were both horrible to drive and a big part of that was the gearbox.
Off road the low-hanging steering, IFS drivetrain and transfer case are all protected by metal plates and they do their job well. (Paraphrased: I found quite a few rocks on the recent Inyos trip.) The rear axle is solid and I never hit anything back there. While there isn't unlimited ground clearance or articulation, the traction control system does a fine job of stopping wheels from spinning when they lose traction.
The front and rear bumpers are flexible plastic. I hit the bottom of the front one behind a bump because I totally misread the size and landed a bit hard. The bumper just bounced back into shape. I'm more worried about the plastic trim underneath the doors which probably wouldn't take a direct hit so kindly.
Inside the controls are straight Chrysler. The dashboard, quirky central locking, satellite radio, cruise control, etc. are the same as the minivan and Sebring. Nothing special but completely functional. The seats are certainly more supportive and comfortable than the Sebring. There's plenty of cubby holes to put things and everything seems solid enough. Jeep does like to put tie-downs in inaccessible places and the Liberty is no exception.
Most importantly, I can sleep in the back! The rear seats fold down flat and with a bag to fill the rear passenger footwell there's more than enough space behind the front seats for a Thermarest. The fold-flat passenger seat is several inches higher than the folded rear seats but with a bit of imagination the tallest person could sleep back there. I'd never considered a fold-flat seat to be of use before but its definitely handy for extra storage when camped and especially for making tea in the morning from the comfort of a sleeping bag.
So there you have it: I like it. Feel free to add to the discussion!
Cheers,
Graham
As a point of reference, at home I have a stock '97 Jeep Wrangler TJ and while I spend a fair amount of time on dirt roads in various states of repair, my rock crawling experience is very limited. I don't usually need 4-low where I go!
On tarmac and dirt washboard roads its comfy, quiet and stable. (A big improvement over my TJ!) I'm not a fan of automatic gearboxes but this one works OK and after a month I actually like it. The vehicle isn't as ugly as it was the first day, either. That came as a bit of a surprise; the Chrysler Town & Country minivan and Sebring convertible rentals I had before the Liberty were both horrible to drive and a big part of that was the gearbox.
Off road the low-hanging steering, IFS drivetrain and transfer case are all protected by metal plates and they do their job well. (Paraphrased: I found quite a few rocks on the recent Inyos trip.) The rear axle is solid and I never hit anything back there. While there isn't unlimited ground clearance or articulation, the traction control system does a fine job of stopping wheels from spinning when they lose traction.
The front and rear bumpers are flexible plastic. I hit the bottom of the front one behind a bump because I totally misread the size and landed a bit hard. The bumper just bounced back into shape. I'm more worried about the plastic trim underneath the doors which probably wouldn't take a direct hit so kindly.
Inside the controls are straight Chrysler. The dashboard, quirky central locking, satellite radio, cruise control, etc. are the same as the minivan and Sebring. Nothing special but completely functional. The seats are certainly more supportive and comfortable than the Sebring. There's plenty of cubby holes to put things and everything seems solid enough. Jeep does like to put tie-downs in inaccessible places and the Liberty is no exception.
Most importantly, I can sleep in the back! The rear seats fold down flat and with a bag to fill the rear passenger footwell there's more than enough space behind the front seats for a Thermarest. The fold-flat passenger seat is several inches higher than the folded rear seats but with a bit of imagination the tallest person could sleep back there. I'd never considered a fold-flat seat to be of use before but its definitely handy for extra storage when camped and especially for making tea in the morning from the comfort of a sleeping bag.
So there you have it: I like it. Feel free to add to the discussion!
Cheers,
Graham
