jshultz78

I'm in the market for a cherokee, I read the sticky, I'll probably stay away from the 96's, I'm eyeing a 99, fairly clean, but high mileage, 234k. But the price is right for me, less than 3k. Should I go kick the tires and check it out or run away since it has that many miles? I was looking for the 00-01 with the coil pack engine, but I've been reading about the head issues, so is the few extra hp worth the risk? Not gonna mudbog or cross rivers or anything, the most offroad it would probably see is the superlift offroad park in Hot Springs AR. And nothing too extreme either, I'd have to drive it back home. lol

Rambler65

When well-maintained that's not an outrageous number of miles. You'll find quite a few folks here that run XJs with over 200K miles. (Mine has over 230,000 miles and it runs great. It's currently my daily driver and I'm on the road a lot.) A well cared-for vehicle with high mileage is going to be a better bet than one with lower miles that's been beaten to death and ill-maintained. Just give it a good going-over before taking the plunge. Check especially carefully for rust. Just about anything else can be dealt with.

As far as whether it's a good price, that seems to vary a lot by region. It seems like some places you can still pick up a decent XJ pretty cheap, other places they're like gold.

Just be aware that you're looking at a vehicle that is old enough to vote and even if in good overall condition it's going to need attention along the way.

wizardpc

I'm on my third cherokee. I love them. I know almost everything there is to know about them.

If you don't enjoy working on vehicles, please do yourself a favor and don't get one. My day job is on the 15th floor of a nice new office building, but I love getting covered in ick and grease working on my daily driver on the weekends. Sometimes people buy these things and then get really upset that in the prior 20 years no one had ever changed the ball joints, hubs, u-joints, diff fluid, etc. They will take them to the mechanic and lo and behold they've spent $4,000 maintaining a vehicle they paid $3,000 for. Then they get frustrated never buy another jeep again.

Not saying you are one of those people, just trying to give a heads up to a first timer.

jshultz78

Its gone, sold today. I love working on my cars I have now, 93 s-blazer and 92 sonoma with a 350, Not really much I couldn't handle myself. Just people around here think cherokees are made of gold or something. I found a super clean 99, 120k miles asking price is 8500. There was a 01 with 97k miles it sold for 11900. :/

TwistedWrench

Good god man, jump on a plane and buy one elsewhere. I paid $1,800 for this '99 Sport.




Fresh control arms and a good vacuuming, and she was GTG.

jshultz78

Where? and do they have anymore? lol. My buddy says he's down for a road trip if I find one within about 10 hours driving or so.

TwistedWrench

Lol, south Texas bud. Aside from the dreamers who'll never get what they're asking. $4K-$6K is on the higher end of the realistic scale. On average $3500 will get you a clean 97+, $2500 a clean 91-96.

Running fixer-uppers can be gotten for $800-$1000.

I scored on that red '99 because it had the death-wobble, lol. Control arm bushings we're just dead, easy fix.

jshultz78

Thought I found mine today, 2000 limited, goldish paint, black leather, 140k miles, $3000. But they sent some more pics and the bottom of the doors had so much rust on them. no telling what the underside was like. They said it came from Iowa. PASS.

s346k

texas ought to have all kinds of good deals on cars here shortly.

andrewmp6

The mileage is why they want so much.A avg xj should have 200k to 250k on them.And honestly if the 4.0 has been taking care of they can run 300k.I would look for a 91-99 xj as clean as virgin as i can find and afford.Mileage don't matter if its been taking care.The 00-01 are kinda the red headed step child of the xj,Jeep put the new head on it that will crack in time even had recalls over it.They had a low pinion dana 30 the rest of the xjs are high pinion.Honestly if your not willing to rebuild a engine/replace a head skip the later years.