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I test drove one of the jeep liberties and didn't care for it. It was nothing that I could put my finger on just didn't want to buy it. I did, however, end up buying a Ford Escape for the wife. Love that vehicle. It was a reasonable price and had all the whistles and bells that she wanted. It also gets great fuel mileage. We took it out in the snow and it performed GREAT!!!. The tires are not as agressive as they should be for hard playing, but that is not why we bought the SUV. Take a look at it, maybe it will serve you purposes. I looked at the Xtrera and it was a close second choice. It was about $3000.00 more and had less options. It was a good vehicle though.


I have a Mazda Tribute (same as the Escape) that I use as a run-about vehicle on the job site. I have taken the thing off road more times than I can count and I'm amazed how well it does. I wouldn't take it rock crawling, but I've got through quite a few tough spots. If it had a low range gear and another two inches of ground clearance I think it would do extremely well off road. As a bonus, it has a very high rollover rating for an SUV and handles extremely well in the snow.