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I WANTED to cry. The weatherman announced the possibility of snow on the very day I had to return the 1987 Jeep Wagoneer.

This four-wheel-drive, multi-purpose vehicle from American Motors Corp. is the thing to have in the snow, mush and mud. It loves the stuff. Which is why I can’t figure out why AMC plushed it up with leather seats, velour door panels and all of that soilable nonsense.

I suppose it’s just another case of an auto company going after the rugged gentry — you know, weekend mudders who like the idea of four-wheel-drive, but who’ll seldom use it. What a waste.

The “Limited” version of the Wagoneer, the test model, is ridiculously fancy with its power seats and windows, but this four-wheeler is tough. It swallows bumps, almost encourages you to go out of your way to find them. And it pulls lots of stuff — up to 5,000 pounds in trailer/load weight.

All I got was rain with this one. I put it in four-wheel-drive and drove it through some deep, muddy puddles at a few construction sites. The Wagoneer seemed to yawn in boredom. But that was the best I could do in the endlessly developing suburbs.

What I really wanted was snow — deep, mushy, slippery snow, the kind that drives Washington crazy.

With my luck, it’ll come when I get the Ferrari.

Complaints: Relatively minor. On dry roads and in the two-wheel-drive setting, the automatic transmission occasionally ka-chunks and knocks a bit when it moves into lower gears. The noise and the driver irritation it produces are fleeting.

Also, AMC could do a better job of smoothing out the four-wheel-drive transfer gear in this one. You have to tug at the transfer-gear lever to get it into four-wheel-drive. If AMC is going to be plush with the Wagoneer, it ought to go all the way.

Praise: Overall excellent craftsmanship. This machine is put together well. It can take a beating. But the highest praise goes to the optional 4-liter, fuel-injected, straight-6 engine in this one.

This new AMC-made engine replaces the sometimes grumblesome, 2.8-liter V-6 that AMC used to buy from General Motors Corp. I always felt that the GM V-6 was not up to the task of moving the 3,000-pound-plus Wagoneer and its trailer loads. The new engine’s numbers support that suspicion.

The straight-6 delivers 173 horsepower at 4,500 rpm, 50 percent more boost than the old V-6.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Excellent in all three categories, on- and off-road. The rough-and-tumble ride inherent in most sports utility vehicles has been civilized here. This is four-wheel-drive with manners. The Wagoneer, in two-wheel-drive, moves like a big, powerful sedan on dry, paved straightaways.

But some common sense is needed. This is a utility vehicle with a higher center of gravity than that found in cars. Don’t try to spin it around curves.

Head-turning-quotient: High conservative appeal.

Sound system: AM/FM s tereo radio and cassette with four super speakers, by Jensen. Aw, well, maybe a little plush ain’t so bad. Superb.

Mileage: About 20 to the gallon (20.2-gallon tank), combined city-highway-off road, running with mixed loads (one to five occupants) and with climate control system operating most of the time.

Price as tested: $22,386, including $2,391 worth of options.