LimitlessXJ

Well I was going to start posting here once I got an XJ but that seems to be the problem. Let me tell you my story. So, i'm 16 and like what all teens do i'm looking to buy a car. I was interested in a few models but as the months passed I lost interest. I finally stumbled upon the marvelous xj and i'm in love. Funny thing is, both my parents drive eco efficient small cars (prius, Subaru) so they are totally unfamiliar with the idea of a lifted jeep with huge tires on it. Craigslist was the place I've been looking and I found a few jeeps that I really likes. Of course two of them wanted me to pay through "amazon pay" so automatically I knew those were scams. Later I ran into a jeep that was "chili pepper" red and I was hooked on it. The deal never went through with the seller and they sold it before we could take a look. Now to the present, about a week ago I found an amazing XJ with that same shade of red, it was super close so my dad and I drove over to take a look. My dad had no clue what he was looking at but I was able to check everything because of all the research I did. It was perfect, 3in lift, winch, roof rack, tons of new parts. After a flawless test drive I Offered the most I could but the seller had another person coming over after us who offered more. I was so bummed and went home. The next morning I get a text saying the jeep is still available and for the priced I had offered, I contacted my dad and I was scheduled to pay and pick It up on Tuesday. Tuesday morning came by and about 6 hours before we were going to make the drive I get sent a text from my dad that the seller bailed on us because he didn't think the car was worth selling for such a low price. I offered $500 more but no answer. Since then the posting on CL was deleted and my parents don't want me getting a jeep because the guy texted my dad "keep in mind these old jeeps can be a lot of work to keep on the road." So now i'm back at square one, I totally understand the whole maintenance aspect of these jeeps (I sort of need a new hobby too). I told my parents I have no problem having to buy tons of gas and parts to keep the Jeep going. Basically i'm at a loss, I would love to find another one of those red jeeps but there so rare (I also like black but I hate the green color and my friend owns a blue one so it would be amazing to get a red XJ). Should I wait and save up more money until another "perfect" jeep is posted of stop being a little brat and buy one that I would have to do a lot of work on. Sorry for the long post, I needed to express my tragic Jeep story lol. Thanks

LACK

Keep looking, there are tons of XJ's out there. Wait for the right one to come along and don't rush the purchase. The 4.0 is a very solid engine and will run for a long time, plus wear and tear parts are cheap for these jeeps.

andrewmp6

Save your money and buy the most clean virgin 91-99 xj that you can find and afford.You don't want one that has a lift or off road parts its probably been driven hard which will cause you problems later down the road.Look for the jeep the normal person owned and took care of.As if they have maintenance records if they do that alone will make me buy a car over the rest.Also look at the zj and wj grands,They are a little bigger ride a lot better on the road and have almost the same aftermarket as the xj but things cost a little more.

studmuffin

That's not necessarily true. Truth is a lot of people build these jeeps and never use them for anything other than daily driving. You can tell if a built jeep has been abused. First sign is the body. If the body is straight it hasn't been beat on. A true trail rig has battle scars and alot of them. I recommend building instead of buying but if you can score a long armed jeep with armor at a good price why not? All that stuff is very expensive as we all already know as jeep enthusiasts.

Martlor13

Unless you REALLY look it over good, I would prefer to stay away from built jeeps as well. If they never used it offroad, that tells me they probably took alot of shortcuts just to make it look cool. I just have trust issues, especially with what you see people doing on face book and other sites. They hack the jeep to hell just to make things easier.

studmuffin

My advice though buddy is not to get too anxious. Do wait for the good opportunity but keep in mind there will always be a better opportunity even if you score a nice jeep at a good price you may find a better one at a better price after you've already bought one. What I'm saying is if a good deal comes up and you love it jump on it. The seller is right on the maintanance part. Xj's require tlc however and first thing I would buy is a mechanics tool set if you don't already have one. Good luck and post pictures when you get your new jeep.

extrashaky

The problem is not that Jeeps require work. The problem is that all XJs are now teenagers or older, and practically any vehicle that old is going to require work to keep it on the road. This is just a reality of buying an older car. You're not going to do any better with an economy car of the same vintage, even a Honda or Toyota.

So unless your parents want to buy you a newer car instead, they're in for a rude awakening if they buy you a '95 Subaru and have to drive you to the parts store every weekend. An XJ with a 4.0L can last 400K miles or more if you take care of it.

It's not a common color, but it's not as rare as you think. If you're willing to go a little further for it, you can search Craigslist in multiple cities within a day trip of you by using searchtempest.com. That gives you a wider market to search. I usually search for "cherokee -grand" to subtract most of the Grand Cherokees out of the results.

If I were a 16 year old buying my first XJ, I would be flexible about the color just to get my butt in the driver's seat. However, if you have your heart set on red, just be patient and wait for it. One will come along eventually.

You have already received some good advice here. I would echo the suggestion to try to find one in stock form and build it to your liking yourself. The problem you have is that you're coming to this without a whole lot of knowledge of typical XJ mods. Right now you have no way of looking at a lifted Jeep and being able to tell if the guy before you did it right or used a bunch of garbage parts and shoddy workmanship.

You get that knowledge not by buying someone else's project, but by researching kits and parts, building it yourself and learning as you go. Buy a stock XJ, drive it, appreciate what it can do in stock form, then start thinking about what you want it to be able to do that it can't handle in stock form. Even if you buy a lifted Jeep that was built right, you still don't know what it's doing under there, so you don't know where to start when things go wrong.

The '97 to '99 are probably the best years, '91 to '95 is next. '96 was an odd transition year to OBDII. Stay away from the '00 and '01, because they have some specific problems that can overwhelm a newbie. If it were me, I would be looking for a '99.

Beyond the regular things you look at when driving a used car, when you go to look at an XJ, wear a shirt you don't mind getting dirty and take along a flashlight and a screwdriver or something to poke with. Slide up under it on your back and look for rust, especially in the floor pans and uniframe rails. Rust is the biggest killer for these things, and you don't really want one that is rotting out from under you. More than once people have bought XJs that look great up top, then find cancer underneath several months later when they get around to crawling underneath it. One teenager here bought one that was rusted so bad that the driver's seat came loose and was breaking through the floor.

If you get an OBDII Jeep ('97 to '99) and have an Android phone, buy a bluetooth OBDII adapter and download Torque. The adapter should run you $10 to $20 on Ebay or Amazon, and Torque Pro is $6. That will allow you to read and clear codes when your check engine light comes on. And it WILL come on. Being able to read the codes puts you a significant step closer to fixing the problem.

The good thing about the XJ is that there is a wealth of knowledge here to help you keep it running. Good luck with your search!

Johnnybanks

I was in the same situation you were in at one point. So here's old johnny's story.
My first XJ was a Mean green machine lol. It was a 2000 XJ that went up in flames 3 years later. I tell you what though it was the most badazz first car of all time! (Background chuckles) I was hard young and dumb on it all at the same time. It still held up for a few years anyway! One thing I wanted to do was yeah lift it! And yeah build it! But discouragement from parents prevented the jeep from ever leaving stock height. Fast forward to after it blew up, family problems out the azz, which resulted in me being car-less. Man I got so desperate I was looking at everything, from rusty pick up trucks to typing in "gas saver" and "cheap truck" on Craigslist. See I'll be honest with ya I wanted a wrangler real bad, but was just short on cash and was to the point of if I didn't have a vehicle, id be stuck with a pile of cash n nothing else to do with it. Well months went by and nothing. Mowing season was ending from this guy I was working for that I went to high school with, and well life was rough right in the middle of Johnny's senior year of high school. Every XJ I passed by just made me want one more n more, and when I saw a jeep buddy of mine's roll in the school parking lot with a fresh lift on some mud claw 31s, I knew I couldn't have anything else but a jeep! Recognizing I was and still am too poor for a Wrangler, I went to the next best option: "The Cherokee" (XJ!!!!). After looking and looking BAM! Outta nowhere checking ads every day I finally found my Jeep. The posting on Craigslist was 3 hours old and I jumped the gun. Before I knew it there it sat glistening in the November night light in a weigels parking lot. Man this thing looked good! I'll never forget the first night I saw that thing. A lift, some big tires, I had to have that damn thing! Test drove it, headlights weren't working....well of course I said no deal till they got fixed. They got fixed (which later I had to freaking fix, but hey they work and work good and that's all that matters! You live n learn!) The next week ensued and I was in this mans driveway shelling out my hard earned cash. It almost brings tears to my eyes thinking about this. Before I knew it I was in it! It was mine! I couldn't believe it!! I went straight to family members houses and they said they hadn't seen me smile like that in months! (A terrible divorce just started between my parents, thanks dad for cheating on mom!!) P.S. He was the reason I didn't have a car! Almost ran off with his woman and my money! But that's another story....anyhow back to the jeep, I'll never forget, after months of bumming rides from people to school I pull up in the jeep. Senior year of high school everyone's asking about it n complementing it. Man that was the time. After all the bad things that had been happening in my life, this one moment changed everything for just a few seconds, and helped me get through it! Fast forward to today. Here I am 19, trying to figure out my way through life, but still behind the wheel of a no-where near perfect jeep. But hey it's a process! This has been a blessing like no other this jeep, and I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in it going down the road thinking how thankful I am for it! So that's my Lil jeep story...no onto what you've posted lol.


About XJ's being older. Ok yes they are and are more prone to breaking than a new car/suv yes. But guess what? NO CAR PAYMENT
Also ITS A STRAIGHT 6
Also ITS A JEEP
Also ITS A 99 AKA THE GOLDMINE YEAR (right??!!!!!)
Also I've driven my jeep (or heep) to Nashville from Knoxville, which is a good Lil trip where I live and it made it to and from (note I did have to fill it up 2 extra times,but hey jeep life)


Yeah sure they drink the gas, but you get used to it, budget and conquer!


Don't worry man you'll find your jeep glistening in the November light too. Just keep waiting and the right one will come along! You'll get there and all the waiting and frustration will be worth it! And when you get the jeep take care of it and it'll take care of you! Can't wait to see what you get!!

nujeepguy

when i was looking i somehow ran into "car gurus" and speced out what i wanted and price range. every day i got emails from them and still do! i found my deal, close to what i wanted,better in some ways and stuff to fix. but ive been having fun getting back into car fixin!
its been a while. try car gurus along with what ever .

and my experience is as was mentioned, usually a better one comes along...

Rogue4x4

Glad to see you finally posted!

This young man and myself had several conversations via PM.

Now that it's public, I feel free to add to the already good advice given so far...most of which we talked about...

So, here's the deal, the best advice I have is to be patient, and the right one will come along. Might take longer, but that's also more time to save up as well, and get a better rig. Also, don't let color determine anything. You can always change color later.

Modded or not? Use your best judgement. If it looks like a pile, walk. If you're unsure, walk, or take it to someone who knows.

Don't be pressured into something. Also, sometimes walking is a great tactic.

Your folks...we talked about this in our chats. They don't know...and are only looking out for your best interest, but they are uninformed...the XJ is one of the most solid platforms ever made. Durable, reliable, inexpensive to repair for the most part, just an all around great vehicle. Pay for it with your money, and once you do get one, do all the general maintenance you can on it...tune up, fluid changes, etc....buy a basic tool kit, get a factory service manual, ask questions here, learn all you can about it. I can guarantee once they see you take an interest in it, and keep an interest in it, and see results from that, they'll back off, because you'll be showing responsibility.

Just be patient...the right one will come along...

LACK

Great advice here. I looked around for a year before I found the one I bought. The majority were either overpriced, beat to heck, or wasn't what I wanted.

Finally one popped up on craigslist 30 mins after he posted the add, contacted the seller, asked for more info/pics, drove 3 hours to meet up the next day with cash in hand and the transaction couldn't have gone any smoother. Very nice guy with a reasonably priced XJ that was taken care of. The seller was very honest from the beginning and I walked away with my project.