Good-Bye Jeep Liberty! WELCOME BACK JEEP CHEROKEE!

Red__Zed

For pretty much anything that resembles a budget build, the XJ tends to be a better route....a lot of that has to do with cost of entry. Unibody is kind of misleading, since the body welded rather than bolted on. it's much more beefy than most people realize. A couple of stiffeners usually get the chassis where it needs to be for more serious off-roading.

I've never seen the unibody become a limitation, even in extreme trails. There's a lot of guys that do things in XJs when the TJs and YJs turn around. You'll see a lot on forums about fatiguing the unibody and not being able to replace it, but by the point that occurs, you've generally destroyed something else on the car, not to mention I would just as quickly shift base cars as I'd shift frames.

What reliability issues did you have? I think I owned three that all went well beyond 250k and were sold running.

Fringe capability is arguably better (ie, wrangler has more favorable approach angles, but double whammy at Moab is far easier to manage in a cherokee), but for most first-time off-roaders, the lower cost of entry in the XJ means enough left over for the parts you need. YMMV.

I've owned 3 XJs and a tj. Loved all of them, but the xj is far cheaper, and when there are major wheelin' expenses coming--not to mention a sharp learning curve--cheaper is better.