The new Cherokee is a wonderful vehicle. It's beautiful inside. Make sure you get the model that can be towed 4-down.
It supposedly took the place of the Jeep Liberty which was discontinued but this is more of a luxury car. If the clearance is anything like the Liberty you'll have no issues doing some of the harder trails. You won't have to stick with the mild ones. We always kept up with the Wranglers on our outings. Lots of fun!!
By the way...Consumer Reports has always given Jeeps poor ratings but it's amazing how many very satisfied Jeep owners are out there. Our '04 Liberty has 180,000 very troublefree miles on it when it was sold a few months ago. We did a lot of 4-wheeling with it including Silverton, CO and Moab.