Let's start with off-road capability: I drove a Liberty V6 automatic down an off-road trail used at the annual Camp Jeep event near Lovingston, Virginia. A Jeep engineer and I followed a modified Wrangler driven by an off-road club member. A Ford Escape or a Toyota RAV4 would not have made it, but the Liberty crossed steep ditches and gullies, where its short front and rear overhangs paid off. It wove through stands of tightly spaced trees, where its tight turning radius was a benefit. With eight inches of suspension travel, it clambered over big rocks and fallen trees. It slowly forded boulder-strewn creeks with 18 inches of rushing water. (Jeep says it can handle 20 inches at 10 mph, good for flooded underpasses.) Its traction up steep, muddy banks was truly impressive, with no wheelspin.

Most people will order the Liberty with the 3.7-liter V6 and automatic. The V6 is also available with a heavy-duty five-speed manual. (The Liberty's V6 is essentially the Grand Cherokee's 4.7-liter overhead-cam V8 with two cylinders lopped off. A counter-rotating balance shaft was added to reduce vibration.) It's smooth and powerful, rated at 210 horsepower and 235 pound-feet of torque. And it works well with the automatic. Liberty's V6 is standard on the Limited Edition, optional on Sport models. Jeep's V6 tops the small sport-ute class and allows an impressive 5000-pound towing capacity. Jeep engineers say they worked hard on gaskets and other sealing measures to ensure the Liberty would be free of leaks through the life of the engine.

A 2.4-liter twin-cam four-cylinder engine comes standard on the Sport model and is only available with a five-speed manual gearbox. I found the four-cylinder with manual transmission to be a smooth combination, though I suspect it may struggle when moving 3,826 pounds of Jeep at higher elevations. Besides the lower initial cost, the 150-horsepower four-cylinder rates an EPA-estimated 19/23 mpg city/highway versus 16/21 for the V6. (The four-cylinder engine was not available during initial Liberty production.)

In addition to rear-wheel drive (2WD) models, two versions of four-wheel drive are available: Four-wheel-drive models come standard with Jeep's tried-and-true Command Trac part-time system. I love it. Shift from 2WD to 4WD on the fly with a slight pull on the hand lever. When the trail is looking really ugly, slow to 2-3 mpg and while still coasting, shift into neutral, and pull the lever up higher for low range. It works great.

Optional is Jeep's Selec Trac, which offers the modes above but also lets the driver shift into full-time 4WD for year-round conditions. The full-time mode is ideally suited to inconsistent conditions: patches of ice, gravel roads, wet, slippery roads? It also works well on dry pavement.

Either way, you can order the optional limited-slip rear differential, called Trac-Lok, for improved traction off road.

Like most small SUVs, Liberty follows the trend away from body-on-frame to unibody construction. Jeep calls it "uni-frame" because it's a beefed up unibody with frame-like reinforcement rails. This gives it increased strength and rigidity. That rigidity allowed the chassis engineers to finely tune the suspension without having to compensate for a Flexible Flyer-type chassis. The Liberty suspension uses coil springs at all four wheels, with independent forged steel control arms in front.

There's a full 8 inches of suspension travel. Short front and rear overhangs (the distance from the tire to the bumper) allow steep angles of approach (38 degrees) and departure (32 degrees) in the rough stuff, so you won't be dragging the front bumper in gullies or even in garages in New York City. The Liberty will go wherever a Cherokee or Grand Cherokee will go and most of the places that a Wrangler can go. You can't say that about the Escape, RAV4, or most of the bigger SUVs such as the Ford Explorer.

Progressive-rate springs deliver a nice balance of off-road grip and on-road ride comfort. It's tight, quick and refined on the highway, filtering out road vibration and smoothing jolts from potholes. It rides smoothly on pavement and on gravel roads, though not quite as smoothly as a Ford Escape. Liberty feels a bit jouncier on rough pavement, taller, squishier, more off-road oriented than the Escape. However, as the going gets rougher, the Jeep offers a much more comfortable ride than the Escape where the Ford's limited suspension travel and lightweight components are tested. The Liberty feels more substantial than the car-based SUVs and it is. The suspension is far beefier, and the interior controls don't look like they came out of a sedan or a minivan.

The brakes work well and are the same in all models with discs in front, drums in the rear. ABS ($600) is optional, and they work well: In low range, the anti-lock brake system allows some wheel lock for off-road situations -- such as descending steep gravel hills -- where skidding is a good thing. On the road, the ABS allows less skidding for improved control steering control, but there is some lockup for shorter stopping distances.