Jeep Cherokee Pricing and Specs

You’re right that most mid-sized vehicles are SUVs which means they won’t go properly off-road. Your requirement for wading abilities and a sunroof are a little mutually exclusive, while your size restriction rules out pretty much any dual-cab ute with four-wheel-drive.

About the smallest proper off-road four-wheel-drive would be the Suzuki Jimny, but whether it can be specified up to your luxury standards is another matter altogether. The driving experience may not match your refinement requirements, either.

The problem is that the market for true off-road vehicles has switched to either full-sized wagons, dual-cabs, or SUVs with the looks, but not the drivelines, suspension or gearing to be proper off-roaders. Models that were formerly great off-roaders like the original Nissan Pathfinder and Suzuki Vitara now exist only as watered-down SUVs with no off-road capacity whatsoever.

That said, two vehicles to look at would be the Land Rover Defender 90 which amounts to the short-wheelbase version of the Defender. Although it’s now a luxurious SUV, it still has the off-road smarts to be a weekend warrior. The other prospect would be the GWM Tank 300. Available in hybrid and non-hybrid forms, the Tank 300 is relatively compact and is extremely good off-road. It’s also pretty good value.

That’s quite a broad range of abilities you’ve listed there. Both the Jeep and the Land Rover are pretty serious off-roaders while, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio is an SUV that really has no pretenses to working on a bush track.

None of this trio would be cheap to service, and modern turbo-diesel engines really do need their maintenance to remain reliable. In terms of industry reputation, the Jeep has a background of electrical and build-quality problems, while the Land Rover and Alfa Romeo also have their share of quality glitches. Many owners put up with this stuff, but if you’re going to head seriously outback, there are probably better choices.

The other part of the equation is what happens when you wish to sell the vehicle in a few years. Frankly, all three of these cars will be a reasonable bet to suffer plenty of depreciation although, to be fair, a 2021 version of each will already have done some of that.

It’s not worth much at all, less than $1000.