How long did it take you to find your XJ? I know I should be patient and I'll find the right deal, but man I'm anxious to find my XJ! I have the money, I just gotta find the right one.


I'm trying to find a nice stock XJ, 4wd, clean, lower mileage, and at a reasonable price (under $5500... Stupid SoCal prices...) Surprisingly difficult to find nowadays. Sheesh!

 

2 months and 1 state away. Honestly, I should have looked longer and found a 96-98 I really wanted & basically have now after axle swaps...

 

It's all about timing. The very one you are looking for may pop up tomorrow or in 6 months. Seriously, one day I decided to get a Cherokee and had it within 2 weeks. But, I really had little idea what to look for, I just kind of fell into a 99 with no rust, few dings, and almost perfect interior. The engine leaked but I knew to expect that. Also 2wd was fine for me.

 

When my last XJ got totaled, I started looking that evening. It took about a month to get the insurance settled and get me a check. It took me a little over 2 more months to find one I was willing to pay for. All the less expensive ones were junk and all the nicer ones were more than what insurance paid. One good thing is the insurance company let me buy my old one back for $150. It had front end/unibody damage but all the mechanical goodies still worked fine. My daughter had to shut off the motor after the accident. I got a WHOLE lot of spare parts cheap.

 

Mine found me. I needed a vehicle to drive and a friend said I have a 98 cherokee you can borrow. I never gave it back. I did work out a sweet deal with him and now she's mine.

 

I dig. If I REALLY had it my way, and could find the EXACT jeep I wanted, it would be a 1999 XJ, Red or Black, 4dr, 4wd, D30/C8.25 axles, NP231 T-case, 4.0 engine, AW4 trans, bone stock, no rust, clean interior, <150k miles, power windows and door locks. I could probably look forever being that picky so I'm trying to figure out what I'm willing to give up on that list lol.

 

Mine is a blue 98, everything else is as you listed.

 

Mine is everything, red, except no 4wd.

 

If I only have to give up on the color and one year, I'll be ecstatic! lol

 

Took me a year and a half to find mine, but I was looking for something very specific, 99 2dr, 5spd, black, 4x4. The configuration you are looking for is fairly common so you will find one soon enough. Just keep up the search, it will be worth the wait. As stated might be worth looking out of state.

 

I just bought a Cherokee with 4wd in my price range. Turns out it had most of what I wanted, including the NP242! Which helps for riding in the mixed surface snow/ice/justwetroad around here in the winter.

 

I've owned 5 XJ's now. the longer I waited to buy, the better I liked the jeep. so now I'll typically just set aside the amount of cash I want to spend and search craigslist for 4-6 months. one's I've bought on impulse after a month of searching I've hated and gotten rid of.. one way or another

but that's with a $2000 budget or so. if you're spending more like $5000 you'll have much better luck finding a quality XJ on short notice

 

Not that long for me. Guess I got lucky. It was in EBay but only about 15 miles away.. 1999 w/20,000 miles 4500.

Now it took me a good 12 months to leave the desert, get leave and start to work on it. My father picked it up and found me a D44. I never drove it stock. Had two weeks and a garage full of parts to get on lol.

Most of my other ones were spur of the moment excluding the one I bought from my Father as my first car.

 

A good 6 months. I was looking for a 5 speed but I was getting short on time of needing a vehicle and settled on an auto.

 

Dang! 6 months for some! I'm gonna have to get used to being patient lol. The good side of it is that I'm putting more money away each month for this project so the longer I wait, the more money I'll have to buy parts.

I've been kinda looking out of state, but I live in CA so whatever I look at has to meet the CA emissions standards. Does anyone know if Jeep made all cherokees to meet CA emissions or did they make any 49 state cherokees?