Dogmobiles: Road-testing the Range-Rover and the Jeep Liberty
By Gina Spadafori
February 2, 2007
Lately, I’ve been driving some wonderful dogmobiles, something for everyone, but just haven’t had time to write about them. Over the next few days, I’m going to catch up. Today: Range Rover Sport and Jeep Liberty. Coming up: Ford Edge and Subaru B9 Tribeca.
Range Rover first. What a hard vehicle to review, since I’m aware that relatively few people are going to fork out more than $70K for a dogmobile (models start at $58K, but the one I drove was $72K), even one as sublimely dog-errific at this one. To put it mildly: The Range Rover was so nice I wanted to move into it with the dogs because it’s nicer than my house.
One potential problem that isn’t: Althought the dreaded yellow button from the Land Rover is in the Range Rover, too, also sitting in the middle of the center console, it was positioned immediately in front of the arm rest, which meant little risk of a dog stepping on it and causing an accident. Yay!
That re-positioning sort of set the tone for everything. The Range Rover is a lot like the Land Rover L3, just … more of it. Bigger, more powerful, more luxurious. The week I had it my father had a health crisis, and I spend the better part of two days taking him to doctors’ offices and out for tests. My dad can be grumpy, but he gushed over the Range Rover. Most comfortable car he’d ever been in, he said, and suggested that when I get on the New York Times best-seller list again, I buy him one.
Gee, dad, I’d love to, but … well, we’ll see. (Ha!)
So how was it as a dogmobile? Top rate. Room for crates and more inside, roof rack for gear outside. Supremely comfortable on the highway and no doubt more than capable in the fields. Although honestly, how rich would you have to be to willing to sacrifice such a gorgeous vehicle to the off-road driving? Monday, in my own car, I was creeping along a gravel road on our field-training grounds, listening to blackberry vines gouging stripes in the sides of my aging Plymouth Voyager. Would I ever put a true luxury car in such a position? Unlikely, but then, maybe someone else would. (And if you do, I envy you the lush leather seats and warmers within as you bounce across the outback.)
Bottom line: Want to move yourself and your dogs (and maybe your sick father) in the most gorgeous of off-road capable vehicles and money/fuel economy is no issue, here you go: Get a Range Rover. For the rest of us, we can only dream.
In comparison with the Range Rover, the Jeep Liberty is a value. Except, well, in comparison with the Jeep Compass, it’s really not. The Compass is one of the best dogmobiles I’ve driven, an admirable mix of room, versatility and value. The Jeep Liberty wasn’t any of these. It feels small, cheap and overpriced. As a dogmobile, it’s not even a contender. I couldn’t even imagine why they hadn’t dropped the model when the far superior Compass came out.
And then I figured it out. The Liberty is getting a very promising make-over for 2008, as these spy photos show. It’s going to stretch out like the Dodge Nitro, and get a design change to evoke the Jeep Commander. That’s very promising in terms of Dogmobile potential, so my advice is to wait and see on the Liberty. Next year should be much, much better.
I have to admit I’ve got Land Rover envy. There’s an off road driving course near Birmingham. Maybe I should go work it all off there.
Comment by KathyF — February 2, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
[…] Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know a pretty nice dogmobile was delivered this week: The Dodge Nitro. So far, the only DaimlerChrysler vehicle that hasn’t made a great impression was the Jeep Liberty, and since it’s an old model that’s supposed to be redesigned next year to be more like the Nitro, it’ll soon be difficult to get a Dodge or Chrysler minivan, SUV or crossover that won’t make a great dogmobile. […]
Pingback by Pet Connection Blog » Dogmobiles: Road-testing the Dodge Nitro — February 11, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
I have to disagree with your take on the Jeep Liberty. I’ve had a Jeep Liberty 4 x 2 LTD edition since 2002 and it has been an awesome dogmobile. From what I can tell on your reviews, you own large breed dogs and, while it wouldn’t be a good choice of verhicle to travel in with them, if you have smaller breed dogs as I do, it is an ideal trialing SUV.
I own Jack Russell Terriers and travel well over 20K a year with them. The Liberty has been reliable, gets excellent gas mileage and fits a surprisingly large amount of people, dogs, and gear. I’ve only needed the most routine maintenance on it over the 134K it has been driven.
We can fit driver and passenger, four crated terriers, four 48” ex-pens, two ez-ups, large cooler, suitcases, trial bag, 40 qt dunk bucket, two 6-gal water carriers to fill the bucket, chairs, grooming table, and a bunch of misc. stuff and still see out the back window. If we put a hitch haul on the back for some of the gear (ez ups, chairs, etc. fit in it nicely) we have room for up to 6 terriers w/out stacking them two-high.
Mine had the seats that folded flat-ish (slight incline) which appears to have been addressed in newer models (they now fold much flatter). The only real drawback I’ve found is that there are only a few ways I like packing it up, so when we’re ready to come home, I need to remove all the loose odds and ends to repack it in its original configuration.
I’m in the market for a new dogmobile at the moment. The only reason I can’t consider another Liberty is that I haven’t found one on the lot with all the features my current one had (leather heated seats, moonroof, etc.) and to order it will take 3-4 months, which I don’t have. I tested the Nitro and Commander this weekend and am probably leaning toward the Nitro by default. I really liked the Nitro on the inside, especially the load and go, where I can strap down a crate and pull it out for better air circulation. The outside I was unimpressed by, but at least I don’t have to look at it while I’m driving.
IMO the Commander was VERY dissappointing as a dogmobile. The seats sloped quite a bit, and the second and third row slope were at different heights, making it difficult to put gear in such as ez-ups and ex-pens. Then there was a huge gap between them the two folded rows where small things like grooming tools and racing muzzles will inevitably fall and get lost.
I LOVE Jeeps and really had high hopes for the Commander, but was sorely disappointed by it.
Comment by Lizabeth — February 18, 2007 @ 9:12 am
I have a Range Rover Sport and we specifically bought for our large dogs - while I am happy to see the positive dog review for it, I think some key attributes were not noted. We searched long and hard for an SUV that worked for our dogs, lifestyle and yet not overly gas guzzling. What earned the RRS our vote was the layout and cargo space. So many SUVs have holes and hooks on the cargo floor - all dog hazards and several don’t even lie flat - also dog unfriendly. The RRS is truly dog safe without hooks, holes, and needless crevices to get paws into. It also puts its space in width, rather than height as many others do, which is always more meaningful to dogs in my view. And for my Golden with poor joints, she appreciates the smooth ride!
Comment by Rachel — March 22, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
I am really shocked by your positive review of the compass. It looks nice and isn’t high off the ground, which is a mixed blessing, easy to jump into, but the blind spots are magnified by the low profile and made so huge that I would never willingly drive one with any passengers, especially dogs or children. I rented one when my employer (Daimler-Chrysler) sent me on a trip last month, despite repeatedly carefully adjusting my mirrors I nearly ran over another vehicle every time I changed lanes. In my opinion the Compass is not one of our best offerings, but there is admittedly more crate room in it than the liberty, which I feel is safer to drive, but it’s definitely a single large dog or little poochmobile.
Comment by h. — March 23, 2007 @ 7:16 pm