He works on all the diesels for their garage and they have a lot of warranty problems with the one in the JGC and Liberty. When my mother wanted a liberty he talked her out of getting the Diesel.

My jeep was the bologna in an SUV sandwich.

Paul810 is completely right. It's not even a wagon. The Compass (and the Patriot) under the skin and the 4x4 are just Dodge Calibers with bigger interior space. It's no vehicle for rock crawling but for 'drive through the ditch' type off road duties it's served me just fine. And for on road use there isn't a finer SUV IMHO. It gets better fuel mileage than anything I'm aware of, rides great, is super quiet, takes a pothole like a champ, and it uses space very efficiently. I can fit a ton of stuff in (all the seats but the drivers fold flat), and still parallel park it in a smaller space than I could my wifes old Escort ZX2.

I'd say that the only small SUV that rivals it for urban use is a Subaru Forester with a turbo...but the Compass is way cheaper than one of those.

Sure it was with the engine itself and not the transmission? The Libertys had a ton of problems with the transmission and PCM (which caused EGR problems), but I haven't heard or seen really any bad things about the engine itself. Mercedes uses the same engine with a different transmission/PCM in their E-class and SUVs and I've never heard an ill word about it.

I can't understand why anyone would choose anything other than a dual-purpose motorcycle with a large gas tank for a bug-out vehicle, unless there are small children or pets involved, but even so.
Although it is true that my idea of bugging out includes potential TEOTWAWKI stuff like traffic jams and the possible need to travel via forest trails.

I never thought about pets. Another point for the Ural?

I have two kids and three cats so no motocycle for me

Ever get hit with a rock or shot at while on a motorcycle? Or have someone stopped in traffic open their door on you while you're flying along splitting lanes? Or even run over a large pothole? Think about it. A motorcycle offers no protection at all from people (possibly rioters), animals, and from the environment. I would take one with me if I could (say strapped to the back of my truck/suv), but I would want to start out with a more substantial vehicle and see how far it gets me. At least then I'm starting out carrying more gear and I'm much better protected. It's easy to get rid of something you don't need, but not necessarily easy to get something back (or find something) you do need.

The other thing too is, in my SUV/Truck I can travel nearly 1,000 highway miles before I need to put any fuel back in the tank. Most dual-purpose motorcycles only get half that, with little room to carry more fuel. Even the militaries diesel bikes (designed for overall fuel mileage) get 600 miles at the most. I wouldn't want to ride one for 600 miles though, my back and legs would become useless.

I have a 2005 KLR650 that I've put over 11,000 miles on so far. This is the 4th Dual Purpose bike that I've owned. As you can see from the picture(not my bike by the way), you can load a fair amount of gear onto one of these beasts.

Your points about rocks, rioters, etc. are all well taken, but the same hazards hold true for "caged" vehicles as well. If you recall from the most recent South Central L.A. riots, Reginald Denny was pulled from a semi-truck cab and nearly beaten to death. Personally (and when you get right down to it, this is really all about personal preference), I feel the advantages of a bike like this far outweigh the disadvantages. After all, we are talking about a Bug Out Motorcycle which implies a bad enough situation that I have to assume most roads will quickly become parking lots. These bikes can go through/over/around obstacles that would foil any 4 wheeled vehicle.

I get just under 300 miles from a full tank, add a spare tank and 500 miles is easily attained. Don't get me wrong, I miss the heater, air conditioner, radio, trunk, etc., but when TSHTF, I'll be sure to wave at all those fully loaded SUV's sitting parked in traffic as I cruise past.

Ah Ha ha ha ha ha !! ROFL !! Priceless!!

Yeah, but my motorcycle would have dual rocket launchers and mini-machine guns on the hanldebars just like Chuck Norris did in the movie Delta Force.