How common were they? I'd love to own a standard, can't stand auto. I seem to only find auto for sale unless it's a police/govt model.

 

I gottabe honast, I havent headr or seen too many 01 XJ's with the manual tranny. Sorry Brother!!

 

yeah later in the xj's to get a manual you needed a base model with the base motor

 

in the eraly 2000 late 90's jeep had a surpus of autos so they where a few upgrade installed

 

I have seen quite a few 99's with 5spd's but and even a few 2000's with 5spds BUT I dont think I have ever seen an 01 5spd.
all 01's were basically just left over 2000's anyway. the XJ line was scheduled to end after 2k but they had a bunch of parts already supplied to them. enough to make 1/2 year worth of vehicles so they continued the production run into 01.

 

When i bought my current XJ i had been hunting for a manual. I found several 99's but none later. It seems they were few and far between after 99.