Off-roading in Manhattan

At the New York Auto Show, Jeep demonstrated its vehicles' off-road credibility with a hazard course. I went on a ride-along in a Jeep Liberty, which isn't Jeep's most serious off-roader, yet it handled the course well. One of the first hazards was a 30-degree sideways slope, which shows how far Jeeps can tip without rolling over. The ground looked very close from the passenger seat. A big hill on the course had a 35-degree ascent and descent, even steeper than the hills I'm used to in San Francisco, yet the Jeep handled it easily. The course even included a 20-inch-deep water hazard, which all the vehicles drive right through. The Jeep driver for my ride-along told me she preferred the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon for the course because it practically drives itself over everything.