November FOUR WHEELER "Xterra vs. Liberty"

[Mike H]

For anyone interested, its a side by side comparision of the two vehicles. The issue also has its first offroad review of the H2.

[warmonger]

I found it rather interesting that they are just now discovering the wheel hop problem encountered on Xterras. I also found it rather interesting that they appeared to like the utilitarianism of the Xterra over the luxury of the Liberty. I felt like the review was pretty fair, unlike their usual Jeep bias. They discovered in this test many of the problems that we have been working to resolve for 2 years or more. A little late to the party, but it is great to see the X recognized for what it is.

[Schludwiller]

Took a brief look in the magazine rack at Safeway tonight. Here's a few things I picked out.
[list=1][*]Xterra's Round gauge covers and dark backpanels make the gauges hard to read[*]Rear leafs make the Xterra less comfortable on the highway[*]Xterra had a tendancy to rear-axle hop on sand[*]Liberty got caught on lots of off-road obstacles even though clearance was only different by .5"[*]Xterra handled offroad terrain better than Liberty. (leafs helped in this area)[*]The Supercharged Xterra averaged 13.5 mpg WITH Premium Gas vs 16.9 mpg with standard Xterras. Yikes!![*]They liked that Jeep gave the Liberty more power the "old fashioned way" by more cubic inches. Said Xterra needs a new engine.[*]The Liberty had better articulation, but it didn't seem to help it's offroad performance.[*]Liberty had less headroom, but was easier to see over the front hood[/list=1]

All in all there wasn't a lot of meat to this article. If I could sum up the article in 1 sentence I would say: The Xterra sacrifices on road comfort for offroad ability, while the Liberty provides a more comfortable ride and more options for more money and less offroad drivability.