Last time I checked, the Cherokee was a huge success, and had a run of almost 20 years, and it was unibody... In fact, when it was first made, several manufacturers laughed 'cause it was unibody, until they got hold of their own and started doing testing on it. Found out it was one tough shit.

Jeepers don't like the Liberty, 'cause 1)it replaces the venerable Cherokee, and 2) it's IFS. BUT, there are already bolt-on SAS kits for it, and w/ a SAS, it's more than capable, and a pretty darn good offroader.

Even w/ its IFS, it's comperable to the X for offroad. And, like it or not, there's more aftermarket support for it, so it can be built easier/cheaper than the X. And, starting for 2005, it'll have a diesel engine, that gets 30mpg (est.), with more torque than you would ever need for it.

But not to sound like a Jeep commercial; it's not in the same league as the X. It's a whole lot smaller on the inside, and it's still got the "Me Too" factor going on.

The Cherokee, being solid axle, is one of the most capable SUVs on the market, right up there with the Discovery and Range. It was not a true unibody , but what Jeep calls a uni-frame . It has two full length frame like support beam integrated into the body that runs from front to the back. It serves the same purpose as a frame, just that you can't take the body off or do a body lift. This is also what the new LR3 have.

The Liberty can go all the places an X can go. But my point is simply that it'll scrape a lot more things on the way than the X. The X on the other hand, has inferior front suspension travel and approach / depature angles. A SAS will make both perform like a Rubicon with lockers, so talking about it is pointless.

I'd love to see the Liberty's unibody handle this one without crumpling and ripping apart...

What getting hung up on the spring hanger?

Jeep Cherokees have been running the hardest trails in the nation for years using their inferior uniframe construction. A quick search on http://www.naxja.com, http://www.nagca.com, http://www.pirate4x4.com or any of a dozen other sites will return pages of uniframe Jeeps on the Rubicon, Moab, Fordice, Johnson Valley and pretty much any other trail you can think of. These rigs take punishment for years and I think you would find that actual occurances of uniframe issues are very rare. As others have stated, having a frame is nice, but having a unibody does not doom a truck to an early demise nor does it affect it's ability on the trail.

- Matt

btw. Some of those darn Nissans have unibody's also and do just fine.
unibody tortue

Really? From who? I spoke to a shop the other day that has someone bringing in a Libby for a rather extensive re-build including an SAS and they've not heard of any kit, bolt-on or otherwise. There are only a handful of SAS'd Libbys out there that we know of, all custom jobs.

Brent