Jeep Liberty

My mom traded the Highlander in because they want something small enough to tow behind their stupid RV & say the Prius doesn't allow it -- so they bought a 2007 Jeep Liberty.... Just wondering about other's personal oppinions of the vehicle?

there are plenty of small vehicles to tow behind an RV... why choose a liberty? seems like a very out-of-characeter vehicle for people who are used to a prius. do they need an AWD?

My sister in law has a Liberty and absolutely loves it. She just had her first child in January and has had no complaints about the vehicle. If her Liberty is anything like my TJ in regards to reliability, she'll have it for several hundred thousand miles.

My sister in law had a Liberty and didn't like it. They just traded it in on a Honda minivan.

southpawboston said:

there are plenty of small vehicles to tow behind an RV... why choose a liberty? seems like a very out-of-characeter vehicle for people who are used to a prius. do they need an AWD?

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They do & they don't -- they're spoiled, so they believe they need 3 vehicles. For just the 2 of them. Because, well, they work a whopping 1/2 mile away from home on their own property in their own warehouse. Seriously, though, their driveway is 1/2 mile of dirt -- terrible in the winter (on the highest hill with crazy drifts from the flat farmland around).... The Prius is their "nice day" vehicle & they have a tow truck but since my dad is disabled & cannot drive (nerve damage + narcolepsy) my mom just refuses to drive that beastly truck unless absolutely necessary: hence the Highlander, which was used for normal winter driving, but couldn't tow behind trailer so they've traded it for the Liberty because it's small enough to tow but apparently has the AWD they do need for this area (nicknamed "the SanFran of the east" where we were only about 1 hour away from the 12 feet snowfall + closer lake effect ice & wind)

I'm lazy about looking up the CRS info -- I think I heard a tech once say it's difficult to install seats in the Liberty Jeep has lightweight locking latchplates rather than ALR, right? If it doesn't have ALR, then I just don't feel comfortable with Leila riding with them alone. She's great about engaging the ALR in the Toyotas & Fords, but I notice often that she forgets about it during a ride & tries to move only to find herself locked in. I don't trust my parents to keep a good enough eye on her *SIGH* Maybe the Apex will fet with just enough harness room for now???

I don't know about the newest models, but yes, Jeep has LL.

I just picked up Consumer Reports Best and Worst 2007 Cars today. For the Liberty, they labeled it "recommended". Also says it has a jittery ride and road noise. "Cabin rather narrow, and access awkward".

I'm personally not a big Jeep fan, but I have a lot of friends who are. Also, I know only certain vehicles can be used as tow dinghies. The other option is to use a tow dolly, which is not as easy.

TheRealMacGyver said:

Also, I know only certain vehicles can be used as tow dinghies. The other option is to use a tow dolly, which is not as easy.

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it might be worth mentioning here that NO 4WD or AWD VEHICLES can be used on a tow dolly... all four wheels must be allowed to rotate in unison!! or else the transfer case (the device that splits the power between the front and rear axles) gets destroyed.

Amen to the towing advice for AWD/4WD models. I had a huge argument over the phone with an insurance rep. when my wrecked Vue needed to be towed. The claims rep wanted to dispatch a standard tow truck. Um, no, it was an AWD Vue and it specifically required a flat-bed for towing according to the manual. Not to mention the Vue's front end was so crumpled it probably would have been difficult to tow it conventionally had it been a FWD model.

My MIL drives an '06 Liberty but we haven't installed our seats in it yet so I'm not much help with the original question, sorry. I remember other posters here or on other boards have complained about some installs in it but don't remember specifics other than difficulty fitting the Radian RF.

Seatbelts on the Liberty - I don't know what they are right now, but I can tell you what they were on my '02. I'm pretty sure the outer seats had the type of belt where if you pull it all the way out and let it back in, it stays locked (that's ALR right?). The middle seat was the lightweight latching lockplate.

It wasn't too bad to install a car seat, IMO but I got rid of it because I couldn't install two RF seats and I wanted something safer. One FF seat wouldn't be a bad install at all.