The SE comes with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine rated at 120 horsepower that works best with the standard five-speed gearbox, though a three-speed automatic is available ($625). At first glance, the base SE looks attractive, but its low price quickly rises when upgraded upholstery, a rear seat, rear-seat-area carpeting, a stereo and other options are added. If you don't want a rear seat and don't mind the easy-to-clean vinyl upholstery, it's a good vehicle for fishing, hunting, and exploring. Having one attached to the back of your motor home comes in real handy. A variety of options are available, including the hard top ($920), which I prefer for security and convenience.

The new Wrangler X and the Sport and Sahara models come with a much more powerful 4.0-liter six-cylinder engine rated at 190 horsepower and 235 pounds-feet of torque. A heavy-duty five-speed manual transmission is standard; three-speed automatics are optional. The inline-6 gives up some fuel economy to the inline-4 around town, but the six-cylinder gets 19 mpg on the highway compared with 20 mpg with the four-cylinder.

Wrangler X comes with cloth upholstery, upgraded front seats, a fold-down rear seat. full carpeting (covering the rear seat area, cargo area and wheel housings), AM/FM/cassette, digital clock, padded roll bar, and P215/75R15 Goodyear Wrangler tires.

Sport adds full metal doors, wind-up windows, fog lights, tilt steering column with leather-wrapped wheel, courtesy and underhood lights, and other features.

Sahara comes loaded with a high-zoot stereo, premium cloth, air conditioning, cruise control, gas shocks, monster tires (30x9.5xR15), premium fender flares, and other features.