For '05, the GC will have IFS, similar to that of the Liberty. I wouldn't touch the older GC's with the 318. The tranny on those are not good. I used to have a 94 Cherokee. It had a class III hitch on it that was obviously overloaded at one point, and the frame was actually "peeling away" with the hitch. Explorers are much stronger. The GC's are quite nice, but I don't know if they have a better frame or not than the Cherokee. The only problem with I have with Explorers is that the older pushrod 4.0 is just barely adequate.