The roof basket that comes with renegades is only on the pre-05 models, 05 and 06 just have rails and you can add whatever basket you want.
Differences in appearance between the models (in a nutshell):
Sport: cheapest option, no fog lights (ugly fog-holes), plastic fender flares
Limited: bling bling, fogs in grill, chrome stuff, body-colored fender flares
Renegade: plastic flares with bolts, fogs on bumper, flat hood, thicker roof-rails
Rocky Mountain: flat hood, no fogs (but no fog-holes), body-colored fender flares.
Internal Difference: Not many, mostly depends on option packages:
Renegade comes with a 160Amp alternator (ugh ugh, more power).
Sport + Renegade can come in a 6-speed
Sport + Limited can come in a CRD (auto only)
I believe there's also a special-edition Sport that comes with body-colored flares.
Basically, go for the one that looks the best, the rest is just options that you can swap around. ie, you can get a sport with fog lights, but you can't get a flat hood on a sport (easily). I say go for the renegade or limited, depending on what you like to see (bling or rough). Plastic bumpers + flares is a genius idea. They look good on the renegade, and they handle bumps + scratches really well.
As for the depreciation hit, you may want to consider new or previous-model-year off the lot - they have a $3500 cash back deal going on right now. I got my Renegade about a year ago, and it's still worth more on the blue-book than I paid, thanks to all the discounts I got. Do look to see if a used one matches what you want, but see how much more they cost new, it might not be that much, depending on which options you want.
_________________ Jeff 2005 Jeep Liberty Renegade
4x4, 6spd, Leather, Sunroof, trak-loc, skids/rails, hitch+shackle, hooks, Alpine/iPod, Thule, GPS, CB, Frankenlifted w/ 31" MTRs
Photos Cardomain
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