I agree. If you pay attention the vast majority of new Wranglers are driven by girls and young women. They are very driver friendly and ride pretty good (considering it is a Jeep). With the roll bar I think they are just as safe in a rollover as just about any other SUV with a "lid". I had my 2003 Sahara Edition for 2 years and put 36,000 miles on it with out a single problem of any kind. I would defiantly recommend a hard top though...the soft tops are just too damn noisy to tolerate everyday.
The best part about a Jeep Wrangler is the resell value. Ask any car salesman and he will tell you they have some the best (if not THE best) resell value of any demostic car or truck made. I bought mine used early in 2004 with 9,000 miles on it for $23000 and traded it in late last year with 45000 miles in it and got $24,500 for it (granted thats "trade in" money...but still thats damn good!)
One other thing...the new body style comes out this year so you maybe able to find a good deal on a old (current right now) body style one or can buy the new one and have a current body style one for the next 10 years.

 

I have both and I like them both. The 01 Escape 4X4 V6 was my old company car and has 94,000+ miles on it. I bought it from the company 3.5 years ago. It has done an excellent job and has been very dependable. I will probably never get my wife out of "her" Escape because it has lots of power, has a very short turning radius and is very stable (as 4X4 vehicles go). Fuel mileage is around 18 in town, 24 on the highway and 20-21overall.

It has much more power than my 4X4 5.4 F150 and it performs in the snow better than the Subaru Loyale and Dodge D50 4X4s I had.

 

http://www.escape-central.com/

 

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/index.php

http://www.jpmagazine.com/

 

I have an 06 that the better half drives and it has been great. I was a little skeptical about the automatic 4 wheel drive, but it performed as it should this winter. Don't have anything bad to say about it.