I enjoy the bone rattling ride of my 2000 Cherokee sport. In fact, I prefer it to the head shaking body slamming ride of an upside down Liberty :-)

Seriosly though....I have posted before on this. I don't find the ride that rough in my Cherokee. Much is written about the improved ride in the Liberty....but I have nothing to complain about as far as the ride of my Cherokee is concerned. I don't find that it wanders...in fact it handles great!

Curiously...many test reports on the Liberty mention that it rides rough in comparison to other cute utes.....so I guess it's just a matter of opinion. If you prefer a Liberty....that's great.

For me I wanted a proven engine, solid axels and a classic look...so I got what I wanted in a 2000 Cherokee sport and I have no complaints at all.

mrjeep, As a matter of fact I drove a 2001 Cherokee for 2 weeks while I was waiting for my Liberty to arrive. Maybe you can tell, but I sure couldn't tell that there was a lot of difference between the two... I was sooooo glad to give the dealership their '01 Cherokee back and pick up my Liberty. Maybe you should try driving a Liberty for a couple of weeks then go back to your Cherokee? You just might notice a difference. The Liberty is that much better. But then if you like the stiff, bone jarring and wandering, ride of the Cherokee... hey, to each their own I always say.

Xterra: Yes a ten rated trail it is called the Rubicon, I went on a jeep jaboree there in 1997 & yes there were people driving stock cherokees in my group & I have the pics to prove it.

But hay do'nt take my word for it be a real man & call jeep jamboree U.S.A & ask them.

And my name is Joe,using ethnic slurs just shows people how small minded You realy are.

If any one should go any were it should be you,come on ther has to be a Nissan site some were out there?

Jeep4Life,

You bring up some good points.

I have one thing to say though, I have a 2000 Cherokee Sport, that I purchased new, just over a year ago that now has over 25,000 miles on it. It feels solid, only a few rattles or squeeks. It's smooth on the highway, and there is not much road noise.

Anyone who goes from any 12 year old vehicle to a new purchase is going to be in heaven. Of course there will be no rattles or squeaks. But nobody who is driving a Liberty has even had more than 8 months or so of driving on it....there is lots of time for it to develop some rattles or squeaks down the road.

Jump in any 3 or 4 year old Chrysler....are you saying that you are not going to find squeeks and rattles?

Also, if you go to any of the websites such as www.epinions.com you are going to find people who have purchased new Libertys that are pissed off. Some who feel they have lemons....or are frustrated that the dealers can't fix problems. Of course, not all of the people who post there say that....most don't and post good reviews....but the proportion of people complaining about the Liberty or praising it, is not much different than for people posting for 2000 or 2001 Cherokees.

The average rating btw, for people posting on 2000/2001 Cherokee's is quite high...something like an average rating 5 out of 5 stars for the 2001 Cherokee on epinions.com. 4.5 stars out of 5 for people rating it on EBAY and. The Liberty is given an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 on epinions.com...so both rate high....in fact the 2001 Cherokee rates slightly better.

Is the Liberty built that much better? Time will be the judge...and anything less than a year is not enough time in my opinion to flat out say...it's built better.

here is my comment

Obviously 'Florida Liberty' isn't an advic Jeep person. Ok, fact, the Liberty is not 'better' than the cherokee, as proven on the rubicon test. The liberty did not pass all the tests on the rubicon, one magazine said that they tore a transfer case up as well as a trans on the rocks-it's a fact whether you like it or not.

The biggest, biggest, reason the cherokee was replaced was not the fact that it was aging but because it was being built in a factory that use to build covered wagons. That's the truth, I been there, their paint system had to be updated due to emmissions etc. In fact the Jeep plant is the oldest automobile plant in the world. Some of the floors are wood in the plant. So, why would you spend all the cash and move all the tooling, line over to a brand new building without changing the current Jeep?

So, to say 'Liberty Florida' that we are all bitching because we don't like the Liberty is false. It just that we all want a new Jeep to be the best, and toughest against such articles as the rubicon. I like many, say ok build the Liberty, but also build the cherokee for the hard core 4 x 4 people. I know the Liberty's are alot better against competitiors such as Suzuki's etc off-road, but then they are 'out-roomed' by the next class such as Explorer's and TrailBlazers, but they are not better off road than the cherokee.

So, I don't know about you 'Florida L' but I have owned many cherokees, cj's, mb, gpw, etc etc and still own most. And yes I have tried the Liberty, so don't ever say the Liberty is better than the cherokee unless you can personally back your claims up. We'll also see the longevity of the Liberty and if it is still here 17 years from now-I kinda doubt it...

here is my comment

Yeah Utah;

They just beat the crap out of the cherokee and it kept on ticking. One of their bigest downfall in that competition was that all out race in the beginning, when Jeep first put the V-6's in the cherokee, they only maxed out to about 70-75 mph, and that is what killed them other than the end of the show water deal. I know if they had the 4.0 they would have kicked butt in all the competition as is was slow close.

If anyone wants to see what a cherokee can do just watch that episode of junkyard wars-excellent!

here is my comment

I'd also have to agree with XJKen and Utah about the cherokee.

Even though the liberty is turning out to be a fairly tough vehicle-it is no cherokee. Did any of you watch that junkyard wars a few weeks back when they had that British crew competing against the americans and russians. Well, if you saw it the Brit's took a cherokee over a junked land rover, and they chopped the top off as well as the doors and put big tires on it. It was even an old crappy v-6 model. And boy did they beat the piss out of it and it almost won. Shows what an old cherokee will do even with that crappy GM V-6.

FYI I have a friend that bought a Liberty and he must have 20,000 miles on it now, anyway all that he has done with it -is beat the living piss out of it on back trails. And it keeps on ticking-even though i am not a liberty lover. I guess if you think of it a liberty is nothing but an AMC EAGLE with a V-6 and a goofy body-ha ha.

The Liberty is a fine Jeep vehicle, it just should not have replaced the Cherokee.

negative press didn't hurt Explorer sales...on the other hand, it pretty much killed Firestone...

Well it just go's to show You that Popular Mechanics are fourwheel drive experts & thay know a good one when thay see one,Ha!! Right!! give Me a brake.I wonder If DC. is going to get an award for best SUV. for rollovers, or how about most expensive SUV. to repair in a five mile an hour crash. But hay what do I know thay are selling like hot cakes, how cares about these littel things any way?

here is my comment

Well, Jeep for life I can tell you this much a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Ltd is way more refined than your 89 Ltd. Granted the 89 Limited were and still are good Jeeps-but my 2001 Jeep Limited is very well built-i even had a former Jeep guy tell me that-and not an ordinary floor worker. Looking at the body and how the doors close and the fit-it's finally perfect. If you haven't driven in a 2001 Cherokee Ltd-please don't comment-and yes I have ridden in a Liberty. It would be like myself comparing my 1989 commanche with my 2001 Jeep..

I went on the 1998 Ribicon jeep jamboree with my 98 tj I was running 30x9.50 on a bone stock Tj & I made it. So before you open your big mouth!!!!!! maybe You should do a lettel home work first,Rock on Joe that owns a jeep maybe I will see you on a trail some day.

BULL$HIT....... I don't know what your
smoking, but there is no way in hell any stock
vehicle coule handle a severe offroad trail.
With REAL boulders and everything else.
STOCK TIRES ALONE CANNOT handle that.
They are flat withn the first 10 minutes of any
difficult terrain. To handle a 10+ trail you would
have to lift a vehicle just to put on tires large
enough & rugged enough to handle it. If you
think those cake boys at DC use a 10+ trail to
test their vehicles, you are on crack, I don't
care if they "CLAIM" it's the Rubicon, maybe
the kiddie section of it.... but go to any real
offroad trail with stock tires and lets see you
handle it..... chump!!!

OMFG You just showed what a total jackwipe
you really are, A stock cherokee on a 10 rated
trail??? Ok Rico, you can go back to Mazda
where you belong. You think they test on 10
rated sections of trails!!! HAHAHAHHAHA What
a F-IN joke you are!!!

It's funny that Xterra who claims He is the king of offroading but do'nt even know the capabilities of his own Jeep Cherokee,that is if He even owns one? I have seen stock Cherokees on the rubicon trail with is rated 10 & thay made it thew,yes ther was some tweaked bumpers & some dented gas tanks but thay all made it threw under ther own power.I have also seen stock Cherokees go on 5+ trails all day long with no damage done to ther trucks & let's not even talk about Wranglers witch are hands down the best 4x4 for the money witch also in stock form can handle 5+ trails ,Xterra if your telling us thay can't then you do'nt know jack! about offroading. And in your second point You said that if people do'nt like I.F.S that Thay should swap in a solid axle.That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard,Do You mean to tell Me that after some one spends $25,000.00 + on a new SUV that thay should spend another $5,000.00 on an axle swap? get real! And if You do'nt like hearing people wine about how all vehicles are inferior to Jeeps then do'nt post on a Jeep site Jack hole!!!!

Joe that owns a jeep said "I wonder If DC. is going to get an award for best SUV. for rollovers, or how about most expensive SUV. to repair in a five mile an hour crash."

Actually Joe, If you stopped to check the facts before jumping on the Liberty Bashing Bandwagon, you would have realized that you couldn't be any farther from the truth.

The test you are referring to, conducted by the IIHS which measured damages suffered from a rear collision into a flat barrier (at 5mph) showed this:

Kia Sportage: $2,744
Rav4: $2,713
Mistubishi Montero: $2,559
Jeep LIberty: $1,719
Land Rover Discovery: $1,293
Nissan Xterra: $951
Acura MDX, BMW X5, Mercedes M: less than $300

Just to name a few. How come the Liberty is making news for sustaining rear end damage? I'd be much more concerned if I was driving a Kia or one of those other Asian-produced SUVs. I mean $1000 MORE damage suffered by a KIA as compared to a Liberty? WOW! So the Award would go to the Kia. The Liberty isn't even in the top 3.

As far as build quality goes... The new Liberty plant in Toledo has some of the strictest quality contol measures of any plant today. As a previous cherokee owner (89 ltd) I can tell anyone that the quality of the new Liberty is far and away superior to the old Cherokee. My 12 year old cherokee had more rattles and squeeks and little things that constantly needed fixing or replacement that it was a full time job just keeping up with it. Don't get me wrong, I love the old Cherokee, but the new Liberty has the potential to be everything the Cherokee was in it's day. The new Liberty is solid. It's got some bugs that need ironing out... most new models do. But to condemn it at this point would be ludicrus.

Will the Liberty be here 17 years from now? In it's current form, doubtful... but not because of it's capabilities or design, but because today's consumer market and technology demands that vehicles are constantly updated. How many of ANY vehicle introduced in 2002 will remain essentially unchanged until 2019? Could you imagine? It would be considered a technological dinosaur! Which is essentially what the Cherokee was. Perhaps this is why it's so hard to let it go... you can make a lot of friends in 17 years.

Florida Liberty,

that's great that you like your Liberty.

As for some of your other comments. D/C are not doing anything heroic in recalling the Liberty because of air-bag problems. It's a problem that is very serious and it showed up in the recent crash tests done by the Feds....so they had to fix it, or likely get thier assess sued off if someone dies in a crash because of it.(as the airbag problem was now in the public domain)

As for the Liberty being new....the Cherokee being old....blah blah blah. I've read that a million times on these forums and in the press.

The Liberty is new....but that does not make it better. It has been out less than a year....the Cherokee since the early 80's.....so let's talk about how good the Liberty is once it builds some kind of track record. We have already found out that it seems to be prone to rollover. Something Autoweek discovered in it's testing. We now know that it is one of the most expensive SUV's to fix in a 5 mph bumber crash. Now the airbags don't work properly. What other skeletons are in the Liberty's closet. Hype can only sustain a vehicle for so long....eventually some truth begins to appear.

I have a 2000 Cherokee sport that I bought new a year ago. I don't need to get-over anything in regards to the Liberty. I don't need one....I don't want one....I will never buy one...I think they are ugly! Nobody will ever convince me that it is a superiour vehicle to what I have now.

What does piss me off is that Jeep cancelled production of the Cherokee so they could try and ram the Liberty down peoples throats with all the hype they spew. Had they stayed with their original plan to keep making Cherokees while there was demand for it....they would still be making them. Look at the sales figures in the last year....people gobbled up Cherokees while they still could get them. Both could have sold side by side very nicely, as they are really for completely different buyers. I could have even looked forward to buying my next Jeep!

Liberty is bringing in a new type of buyer....according to D/C. What they never talk about is ..... where are most of their previous Cherokee buyers going now to purchase vehicles? Even Xterra who claims to be the king of off-roading and a Jeep guru reminds us constantly that he is going to purchase an Xterra next time.

As for Xterra....I thought you were never posting here again?

What the hell is the matter with the people on
this board. The "fact" is when I am offroad, I
see all types of vehicles, and all types of
people, and everyone is friendly, having a
good time, and seeing unbelievable scenery.
Now the people on this board, claim that they
are all Hard Core "Honda converted"
Jeepers.... lol ....but most of them don't know
what the hell they are talking about. Fact: The
Cherokee was great, but for any real offroad
trail, above a 3 on the difficulty rating, you will
need something other then a stock vehicle. 2:
If your so upset about the independent
suspension on the Liberty, then do what I see
people do all the time, be a man a put a Solid
axle on it yourself.... I've seen ass kicking solid
axle offroaders built off of Ford f-150's, VW
Beetles, and everything in between. And to
those of you who whine about how all vehicles
are inferior to Jeep, bla bla bla..... I say, if you
really think you can tackle a real (4+) offroad
trail on any "Stock" vehicle, Jeep, Nissan,
Toyota, Chevy, Ford, or otherwise ....you simply
have never been anywhere other then a
supermarket parking lot and you don't know
what the hell you are talking about... so just
shut the hell up you frigan posers...like Sean
M and Joe that owns a Jeep.

here is my comment
I just want to say that I just bought a Liberty and I think it is the Best. It performs even better than the Cherokee did. Hey you know the ole saying. In with the new and out with the old. And as far as all the talk about the recall, I think it is admirable of Chrysler to be so precise and honest about the integrity of its vehicles. I like all Jeeps including the old Cherokee. However I believe after a decade it is about time for a change for the better. My advise to the people who have negative thoughts about the New Liberty is to give one a test drive. Bet you will fall quick for it. It is an excellent machine just like all Jeep Vehicles. And my advise to the people who just can't stand the New Jeep Liberty, well, don't buy one and get over it. Whats the big deal. I don't fall in love with every design as far as vehicles go but I have better things to do than express my hate for the manufacturer for making them.

It's the Freelander that has no low range or ground clearance. My point is that while people who use this site question the Liberty's capability, the Car & Driver says it's overkill, and goes for the soft riding Freelander. The use of Hill Descent Control on the Freelander instead of low range sounds scary.

mr jeep,

i did see that episode of junkyard wars, and it was great to see that old Cherokee perform so well. Especially when they did not have the ground clearance to get over some of the really big rocks....so they just backed up and hammered the throttle....drove straight at the rocks....hammered into them, and literally flew over some of the boulders!

Pretty cool, considering that it was a junked Cherokee....with all that extra metal they had welded to it so that it could float later. ( you would have had to see the show to understand ).

If you like Jeeps....try and catch that episode...it was fun to watch.

here is my comment

Just a comment to OR Bruce, your not implying that the Liberty has no low range-because it does and it uses the same transfercase as the old cherokee. It also has this computer thing too but it still has low range. Put it in 4low and go.

I don't trust any evaluations of SUVs from automobile or mechanics magazines. For example, Car and Driver just picked the Freelander over the Liberty because it rode better. They drove them over White Rim road at Canyonlands. When you live in Detroit, an easy-looking dirt road is the worst you can imagine. The Freelander didn't get scraped up too badly, so the Liberty's capability is overkill. Give me a break. Hill Descent Control is no substitute for low range. When they touched the brakes on the L-R, it took off down the hill, until the computer could figure out what to do. It also restricts you to 5 mph, or no control.

negative press didn't hurt Explorer sales...on the other hand, it pretty much killed Forestone...

This is another of many articles that I have read lately about the Liberty being selected as design of the year....SUV of the year etc.

That sounds great...but really, what does it mean? Are they saying the Liberty is the best SUV out there in it's class....or is it simply the best of the "new" designs in the last year.

I would like to declare that Utah's award for 2001 goes to the 2001 Jeep Cherokee as " Absolute Best all-time design of a true 4 x 4 SUV Classic..... shit-on by it's own manufacturer ...and the mostly ignorant automotive press ".

As for the Liberty. I must relunctantly admit...I am seeing more and more of them now on the road. I guess the mass advertising and media hype is effective after all. I remain curious to see if it has the legs to stay a contender in the over-saturated cute SUV market segment. Especially as there has been some negative press of late....re: rollovers and recalls.