My first 'ffroader was an Isuzu Rodeo. I had it for about 18 months, when driving from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque I got caught in what was supposed to be a mild snow fall. Turned into "mountain pass in cuba is closed" snow storm, but I didn't find that out until after I ended up rolling the Rodeo somewhere outside Farmington. The Isuzu did its job, and we all walked away with no injuries.

If Isuzu still sold cars in the U.S., I would have walked into a dealer and bought one given how it held up. Since they didn't, we started trying to figure out what we wanted, and the big things were AWD, 4Lo, and curtain airbags. Turns out, this combo is insanely hard to find. Your choices are a 4th gen 4runner, a Limited 5th gen 4runner, or (I believe) a couple years of Kias. We went with the 4th gen because a family member had one with all the options we wanted, and even better it was a v8!

Given that combo of features, there is one recent addition to the list that I'm sure is in my future somewhere: a new Ford Bronco. That said, if I ever end up with one, I will have a hard time leaving Toyota's fantastic reliability, and dat v8.

TL;DR: AWD, 4Lo, Curtain Airbags, v8.