BY STEVEN COLE SMITH, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JARED HOLSTEIN

The ‘all-new’ Liberty gets no powertrain improvements and a Dodge Nitro“like makeover. Will a Trail Rated badge and a mondo sunroof be enough to make it sell?

Jeep debuted the Liberty for model-year 2002 as the replacement for the 18-year-old Cherokee. The company was hopeful that it could move maybe 160,000 copies of the Liberty in the U.S. per year, and even now, the little SUV that could still does. Jeep sold 133,557 of them in 2006”that’s down from almost 167,000 in 2005, but it’s still a respectable number.

The company figured a six-year model run is long enough, and so the second-generation Liberty debuts at the New York auto show. To what extent Jeep is changing the looks of what has been, next to the Grand Cherokee, its bestseller”well, that’s a bit of a surprise. As with the larger Commander, Jeep has taken the 2008 Liberty in a moderately retro direction to the point where, as the photos suggest, it looks like a slightly shrunken Commander and uncomfortably close to its mechanical twin, the Dodge Nitro. And since the Commander has not exactly been flying out of dealerships, even with $3000 rebates, we’d suspect there’s a little trepidation at HQ in Auburn Hills, Michigan, not to mention at the assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio. (more…)

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BY MARK GILLIES, PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON KILEY

Hard to believe it’s a Porsche, Hard to believe it’s a sport-ute.

The Cayenne has always seemed an anomaly. On one hand, it has generated the cash that allows Porsche to continue building the sports cars we love, which is a good thing. On the other, a 5625-pound vehicle is antithetical to the creed of light weight and efficiency that Porsche has historically followed. (more…)

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BY JAKE HOLMES

Limited Edition package is for North America only.

In Britain, a new government plan to tackle pollution proposes charging luxo-ute owners $50 per day if they want to drive in London. Not so here, where SUVs are as omnipresent as ever. (more…)

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BY STEVE SILER, PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOLLY REICH AND THE MANUFACTURER

We’re not getting this V-8 diesel here, but we can tell you that the current Q7 flagship lacks soul and that Audi’s B&O doesn’t stink.

At the tail end of our first drive experience of Audi’s mouth-watering A5 and S5 coupes, we were thrust into the driver’s seat of something entirely different in pretty much every conceivable way: the newly minted Q7 4.2 TDI. Some of us rolled our eyes at this, since this particular oil burner, positioned as the current flagship of the Q7 line in Europe (until the V-12 TDI launches), won’t be making it stateside any time soon. (more…)

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BY HOWARD WALKER

Not to be outdone by the Suzuki XL7, the new Equinox Sport gets GM’s 3.6-liter V-6, too.

Chevy’s new amped-up Equinox Sport”we’re not sure why it’s not an SS either”is due in showrooms next fall as a 2008 model. It gets GM’s 263-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 coupled to a six-speed automatic, a stiffer suspension, forged 18-inch wheels, a new look inside and out, and will be offered with either front- or all-wheel drive. (more…)

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BY STEVE SILER, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID DEWHURST AND THE MANUFACTURER

Toyota sharpens its dull knife.

The all-new 2008 Toyota Highlander is boring.

Seriously, we haven’t been this bored driving an all-new car since, well, the original Highlander was introduced for the 2001 model year. Yes, with its new version, Toyota has addressed customer complaints regarding the previous model’s lack of style, space, and horsepower. But somehow, in spite of those improvements, the 08 Highlander exhibits no more charisma than Al Gore hosting a paint-mixing seminar. (more…)

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BY STEVE SILER

Porsche’s upcoming hybrid ute will deliver more than 400 pound-feet of torque.

Two years ago at the Frankfurt auto show, Porsche announced it had begun work on a hybrid Cayenne program, but the company has remained quiet since then, except to tell us it has remained partnered with VW on the SUV’s development. However, Porsche recently broke its silence and gave us a few more details about what we can expect from its new hybrid SUV, which is on track for a 2009 launch. (more…)

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BY STEVE SILER

The Swedes go all American on us and drop a 390-hp small-block LS2 V-8 into this unrefined ute.

As truck-based mid-size SUVs become less and less relevant to consumers”let alone Saab buyers”Saab has resorted to the unthinkable to try to keep sales of its ill-conceived 9-7X alive: sticking a 6.0-liter LS2 V-8 with 390 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque under its long, non-clamshell hood. Yes, you’re looking at none other than the Saab SS. (more…)

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BY JARED GALL, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE VALENTE

Peugeot’s first-ever SUV comes from the unlikely pairing of Peugeot-Citroen and Mitsubishi.

Perhaps inspired by the mountain vistas surrounding the Geneva show, Peugeot is going soft-roading with its first-ever sport-utility vehicle, the 4007. Based on the Mitsubishi Outlander, the 4007 retains most of the look of that trucklet from the A-pillar back, but with a Peugeot face planted between the Outlander’s bulging, flared fenders. (more…)

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BY JOHN PHILLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY G. RUSSELL

A really big bang for the bucks.

Like the Tucson and Santa Fe before it, Hyundai’s third crossover SUV”and easily its largest”is named after a sunny tourist destination. In this case, the Mexican state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, a region renowned for umbrella drinks and for depleting the wallets of bleary-eyed Americans. (more…)

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