Hello all, I am brand new to the forum. I have wanted a Jeep Cherokee for a very long time. I am finally ready to buy one but I am fairly inexperienced at buying used cars. I know many of the standard things I should look for but was hoping you guys could lend your advice as to what to look for on a used Jeep Cherokee. right now I am looking at a 87' Cherokee with 4L 6 cylinder 5 speed manual with 284k miles for $950 which seems reasonable to me if it is in decent shape. I have not seen it or know anything else about it. any advice or questions suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

can you handle a motor swap?

 

your gonna be putting alot of money into it with it being that old and that many miles on the engine. if you cant do the work yourself then the amount of money will prolly double. keep that in mind.

 

I am a chemistry graduate student so i don't have much money or time to spend on working on it. The jeep would most likely be a grocery mobile with soome trips to the mountins for snowboarding. The owner claims it runs fine. I was looking more along the lines of what questions to ask like which specific parts should I ask about. But if you guys think that its too old and too many miles to run without major upkeep cost I will just keep looking.

 

Keep looking! 950 for an 87 with almost 300k is too much. Look for 91 and newer, and spending a little more money for a clean unmolested Cherokee is cheaper than buying a pile that needs work for less money. You should be able to find clean XJs and ZJs for two grand all day long. Look for something with less than 150k on the odometer if you can. Beware of Craigslist scams too, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

 

questions to ask would be which axles does it come with, over heating problems, leaks, stuff like that.

 

to be honest, if you buy any 15-20 year old vehicle, you should be ready for some repairs. cherokees are great vehicles and we all love ours. but if you're looking to get one for not much more than a 1000 bucks, get the manual and be ready to get your hands dirty regularly.
lemme ask you this, are you gonna lift it and wheel it? or are you just looking to keep it stock and use the 4wd every now and then?
the reason i'm asking is that, certain ones are better than the others durability-wise for offroading.
example, chrysler 8.25 differential is better than dana 35 for bigger tires. 97+ C8.25 is better than older C8.25. Dana 44 is one of the best ones for this purpose, but they are very rare.
in 91 (i think) they started making high output motors that have a few more ponies.
now, if you're planning on keeping it stock and running stock tires, then any one of them will serve your purpose.
it's quite common to find a 91+ with about 160-170k miles on it for not much more than a 1000 bucks.

 

if it runs great when you test it, and test it hard, then it will be fine. i have an 87 also, though with less miles. i just bought it a few months ago and its been great. alot of times you are going to get don't buy these years and more hten this many miles because the people have never had those years and only had newer cars so they have no experience other then what they hear. i only buy older cars with higher miles because they are so cheap. the only vehicle i had to swap a motor into was a 2002 jeep liberty and it barely had 100k miles. never again will i buy a new vehicle. cost to much and nothing is made as sturdy as it was back in teh day.

 

My only advice is to take your time and do not jump on the first one you look at. Inspect each potential purchase carefully and in the long run the patience will pay off with a better quality vehicle.

 

Good advise, it took me four months to finally buy my ZJ. If you feel any concern or doutb during a test drive, walk away. Follow your gut feeling.

 

craigslist is full of them in my area so id go on there and keep an eye out. my dad picked up his 88 xj with 102k miles with a 4.0 and an auto trans for $1100

 

thanks for the advice everyone I'm gonna hold on for a better one.

 

Keep looking. I bought my 94 from a guy I know for 750. Even though I didnt have any super serious issues right after I bought it be prepared for whatever happens. I would try to plan to have several hundred in the bank even after you buy one just in case.

 

yah it seems kinda steep. there are much better deals to be had out there.

 

What would be an acceptable price for a 1995 Cherokee Country with 160,000 miles with no serious problems. 2000? 1500?. Sticker price is 3000. Blue book says 2500 and Edmunds says 1700-2300 depending on condition. Mostly just for knowledge so when I do start negotiating I have a better Idea of where to start.