man let me tell you my opinion.. me and my wife bought our 1998 xlt in 01 and the fun hasn't stopped yet.I am telling you we have friends that have both newer (07) and older (94) but they just don't seem to have the off road cap. as our 98. This thing goes everywhere mud snow it does not care and the ride on and off the road is great. We got it first for a family ride. Then the family out grew it but we loved it so much we just kept it and glad we did. wish i had a way to upload some pics of this thing. Yesterday no bs i have a 1979 f-250 4x4 (stock) had it hooked to a 18ft trailer stuck in our pasture in a creek bottom and it couldn't get enough traction to pull the trailer up and out of the bottom after about a 30 min battle with it and a slight cat. failure we unhooked the truck pulled it out of the way then in the same ruts backed in and hooked the trailer to the old 98 and came on out and up the hill.also forgot to tell you that it had and has been raining here now for the past four days and the ground is soaked and sloppy. My wife started picking on me because she knows that my old 79 is my baby. The 98 we have is an xlt that has the 4.0 vin code E motor auto. tranny has the borg warner trac on demand as well as the torg on demand transfer case. It is still stock all the way down to the bald tires on it. This thing just goes and goes it currently has around 215,xxx miles on it and it still looks and runs great and as far as fuel mileage around town it gets 17mpg and out on the hwy it gets 20-21mpg and don't tell my wife but i would have to say it is about the best all around 4x4 i have ever had the prev. to set in ford made a winner with this thing