I too had a cherokee previous to the X. Mine was a 94 with 197k on it. I loved it like no other car. It could go anywhere, it fit me nicely (I am 6'6") and it had little to no mainenance problems. When it was inspected, the mechanic said that he could see the carpet from under the car, so i decided it would need to be replaced. I was seriously looking at the tacoma quad cab, but couldn't swallow the near 30K price. I then looked at the entry level suv offerings from honda, ford, and nissan. After coming from the jeep, I knew I wanted a truck based SUV for the ability to do the things that only trucks could do (go out on the beach, hit the trails, tow, etc...) so that combined with the price and nissan reliability steered me to the xterra. I have not looked back!
Mike