When you’re in the market for a Jeep, you want a sportier feel and a bit of off-roading styling. You may also want a strong engine and a good price. The 2004 Jeep Liberty Sport may be on your mind. Is it the right car for you?
What does the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport offer?
As the base model, the Sport features both a 4×2 and 4×4 option with a 2.4L I-4 engine that produces 150 horsepower. It features a 5-speed manual transmission with overdrive. This vehicle has a starting price of $17,910 when new.
That’s a good start on the info you need to make a buying decision, but it’s not enough. To give you some help, we’re dropping in a video from New Star Auto Sales Group that showcases one of the vehicles they had available.
We’ll go through the features and specs on the Sport trim next. You can get a full breakdown of the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport’s features at Vehicle History.
What’s the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport Offering You?
The Sport is the base trim for the 2003 lineup from Jeep Liberty. It’s followed by the Limited Edition and the Renegade. Those vehicles offer a significantly better engine and ample interior upgrades that the Sport doesn’t. However, the Sport has much to offer today’s buyer looking for reliability.
Here’s a quick video to help you check out the interior and exterior. It’s a solid Jeep overall.
As you can see, the Jeep Liberty Sport is built to meet the needs of Jeep lovers who also want a bit more of an everyday vehicle and smaller SUV combined. It has ample room for five people, too. Let’s take a closer look at some of the key specs in this Jeep.
The engine may disappoint some, but it is strong enough for most everyday driving you’ll do. It features a 2.4L I-4 engine that gets 150 horsepower and 165 lb-ft.
While you think that’s small, it is still able to provide a sizable towing capacity of up to 5000 pounds and give you 1150 pounds of payload capacity. It comes with a 5-speed manual transmission. It’s available as both a 4×2 and a 4×4.
The fuel economy isn’t great on this Jeep, but most Jeeps are not meant to be eco-friendly — at least in 2003, they were not! This vehicle offers 15 city and 20 highway for a combined 17 miles per gallon in fuel efficiency by EPA estimates.
The biggest difference between the Sport and upper trims is the engine options. The Sport does offer an optional engine (the standard on the upper trims). That is a 3.7L V6 engine getting 210 horsepower. There’s also an optional 4-speed automatic transmission with overdrive.
There are a few optional features, including a black header, transmission lock-up torque converter, and a transmission oil cooler. These may improve performance overall. It also offers an optional Selec-Trac part and full-time four-wheel-drive setup but comes with a Command-Trac part-time four-wheel-drive setup.
What about the Inside and Tech?
It’s a 2003 model, so you will not find the most modern tech on the Jeep Liberty Sport. However, it does have a very roomy interior with ample head room and enough space to stretch out your legs, at least in the front.
The interior offers basic cloth upholstery, which doesn’t wear all that well, but you can choose the optional premium cloth upholstery.
There’s a lot of back cargo space here, with ample room for your gear if you’re heading out on a trip.
You’ll also find some nice optional upgrades such as a roll-up cargo cover, 6-way power driver seat, and driver cushion tilt.
This vehicle also features the standard 6-speaker entertainment with a cassette (yes, it did not offer the CD just yet – that was optional). Additional options included steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, a graphic equalizer, and a 6-disc in-dash CD player if you wanted to really pack in the tunes for your long ride.
As for safety, the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport has the basics with optional front reading lights, front fog lights, and deep tinted windows. There’s nothing too special about these features, but again, this is a 2003 model.
As for safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t provide an overall safety rating, but this vehicle does well in individual tests with slight markdowns on passenger side safety upfront.
The 2003 Jeep Liberty has 13 recalls as of October of 2020. This includes the fuel system, exterior lighting, airbags, and suspension. Overall, it’s a well-built vehicle for what it offers.
Is this Your Next Vehicle?
If you are a Jeep lover but also need the features of a mid-sized SUV, the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport has plenty to offer. The upper trim vehicles may be a better option if you want more features and the bigger engine.
This isn’t the vehicle to necessarily spend time on the open trails, but it can get you to and from work with ease.
Before you make your decision, you have to hear with other owners of this Jeep have to say. To do that, check out the 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport’s Vehicle History.
