Whatever makes you happy. I DD'd all my Jeeps, up untill last year when I hit hard times and had to part ways with my best XJ. I used it as a down payment on my Dodge Neon (yeah, I know)

Do what you gotta do and whats practical, then save up and buy an XJ as a toy, that's what I've done.

 

ford ranger or mazda b2300 are great trucks. we used them for company trucks and put about 100k a year on them. i know when i got hired where i work now, they offered my 99 mazda b2300 to me for a trade for my 85 bmw 325e. i had 5 bmws so i said sure. the mazda got 25mpg everywhere and had over 300k miles on it. i sold it for 2500 a year later and it ran great. if i could find a ranger extended cab for a good enough price, i would buy it for a daily and use my cherokee only for playing. the 2.3l 4 cylinder in the ranger and b2300 mazda is the same engine that came in the fox body style mustangs so parts are plentiful. they are good damn trucks.

i like my cherokee but to find a decent one cost way more then finding a decent ranger here. its your call but if i was only concentrating on school, i would go with a ranger with ac and 5 speed. since i am not, i took the cherokee. its does exactly what i wanted it for. it looks great and stays running

 

in your sig it says u got a liberty! i got a 05

 

Well, I think I made up my mind. Based on everything you all have told me, what I'm going to do is fix all the base problems like I would if I wanted to sell. Then, going from there, Im going to compare the costs of repair to the cost of a new vehicle. Even then, I will probably keep my XJ. I love the damn thing. This is the only ONLY vehicle I have owned or family owned that would still run with so many issues. It still runs, STRONG, the tranny jerks a tad every now and then, but I think a flush will fix that. Like I said, I think my previous owner beat the hell out of this thing. I guess I just have to nurse it back to health. Besides, all the repairs I have made are lifetime warranty parts, good stuff from NAPA. So, whatever I fix should last. All in all, I think I'm keeping it.

 

 

My friend has an '01 Ford Ranger, and its a nice truck. His has the Edge package which is basically the offroad version. With that said he is looking at Cherokees.

I've driven his truck a few times and it rides nice, but theres three things I don't really like about it. First off they cost way too much for what they are. Around here, a 2001 Ford Ranger 4x4 V6 with 100K miles is between $9k-10K. A 2001 XJ with lower miles will go for about 6K off a dealer lot. Parts for the Ford are also outrageous compared to the jeep, and the ford isn't very easy to work on. Just replacing headlight bulbs took over an hour. The drivetrain in my buddy's truck seems okay, but they have been known to have tranny issues. The Ford seems to have lots of little things that break (even coming from a jeep owner) like plastic door handles that snap and dumb electrical issues.

My advice would be to either keep the jeep you have, or buy one thats a little newer. Stuff will break no matter what vehicle you buy, so it might be best to get one where parts are cheap and repair is relatively easy. My friend sold his ZJ because it was getting to be pretty old and high mileage, and bought a WJ that ended up having more issues than his old ZJ did.

 

I had a Ranger and and loved it.....ran it up to over 570,000kms before I gave it to a buddy and picked up my XJ. Great truck, but I couldn't go back after having this XJ. Yotas will probably kill you on parts...my 2 cents.....

 

You cant beat the price of XJ's and thank to C4C there are plently of them in the junkyards to steal parts from, its sad but true. Depending on where you live you can get a good xj for under a 1500. Mine was 500 because the PO didnt want to pay a chop to do his clutch, a weekend of beer drinking, wrenching and about $120 i had a great heap for 700(includes beer lol)

 

cash for clunkers? No parts left from that program. That program was an absolute joke.

EVERY JEEP THAT WENT TO CASH FOR CLUNKERS HAS BEEN CRUSHED AND/OR SHREDDED.

Once a JY received the vehicle they had less then 6 months to part it... after the 180 days the JY was required to destroy any pulled parts as well as the vehicle itself. Since most parts people want are from the motor it was difficult to make money.

Basically that stupid government's citizen hand holding program successfully took thousands of Jeeps off the road for good, and potentially left hundreds of thousands of Jeep owners searching for JY parts. It also lead to a rise in salvage part price for large vehicles, trucks, vans and SUVs. I remember I got a seat for $20, dash pad for $10, door for $50.... the prices have doubled or more depending on what kind it is. I just got an ebrake assembly it cost me $35!!!! That was the lowest price locally too! The same thing would have cost me $15 before

http://www.cars.gov/
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...914367,00.html

I have confirmed this with 2 local auto salvage places when the program was going on... combined they got in over 200 Jeeps (yes Jeeps) to try to part before the time limit expired.... yeah the 180 days parts where plentiful but just like a stimulus the market went to **** after they started to crush them.

The worst part is before the engines where destroyed most of the Jeeps where perfectly fine, drivable, and dependable. From lifted YJs and XJs to really nice GC..... It makes me sick!