Howdy and good evening.

This site has seriously saved my skin a thousand times when troubleshooting...but time to ask a question myself that I don't have the answer for!

I've been looking for an XJ to buy for some time now as a weekend warrior/DD type rig. I'd like a 97-99 if possible with around or less than 100K on it. I don't mind traveling to get it. My price range is about 7k or so. I found this rig in Lisbon Ohio. I like it quite a bit, but it seems a little overpriced.

What do you all think? Does anyone know what I can get for that kind of money? I'm leaning a little more towards the DD type rig-I had a 99 for a long time and loved it. Just not interested in wrenching on it all the time- (Yes, I know about Jeeps...) hence looking for a slightly lower mileage rig. I'm out of ND/MT area and I can't seem to find much that isn't a total rebuild essentially.

Here's the one I was looking at. I was recently in Ohio and it seemed to check out mostly. I'm a pretty good mechanic and couldn't find much wrong with it.

http://www.elktonauto.com/detail.asp...PrefID=0&.aspx

Anyhow, thanks for any opinions or tips in other directions... Also, first post so if I'm in the wrong forum I apologize in advance.

Cheers always,

Pete

 

7 GRAND?! Sounds like the Elkton Auto Corral is trying to rustle you into a ambush.

Low miles though, I'd give at least 5k for it.

 

Yeah, I think it's a little high. Don't think I could likely talk them into anything lower... Maybe 6 if I was awful lucky and pointed out all the little things I saw. Not to sure about how the rust is either. Hard to tell with these things. (-:

 

Take it from someone who knows, in fact, most of us on here know, it's much cheaper to buy a nice clean XJ for a premium price than to get one for 2-3k and have to fix it up.

 

Haha, hence the idea of getting a cleaner lower mile one and spending a little extra (or a lot of extra) $. I've had 4 XJ's, and loved them all, but I'm ready for one just to drive around and not mess with too much, haha! (I say that now, but there's always something to work on with Jeeps, I suppose. (-:

 

Got mine in 07 for $2200, fairly low mileage and ran great, needed a "little" cleaning up though, I thought "no problem", 6 years later I'm still working on her, if I had to do it over again, I'd over pay for one in excellent condition.

It takes money, time, and a lot of beer, busted knuckles and expletives to get a ragged out XJ up to snuff, get a good one if you can.

 

For sure. Well, if you know of one I'm open to ideas. Heck, I'm looking at one in Ohio and I live in ND, so there isn't much that's out of range... (-:

 

Well, it does have the perfect lift in it. If you have 10 grand kicking around, I could sell you a XJ with the perfect, perfect lift in it.

 

(-:

Yeah, didn't care much for the lift. It's nothing special. Just more interested in the mileage and how clean it was. Ten Grand? Maybe if you throw in your firstborn too.

 

Walk in there with 6k cash and they'll take it.

Tip: Don't walk in there like you're Johnny Hotshot runnin the show, tell them "6k is all I've got and I'd really like this Jeep", on the outside chance that the salesman has a shred of human decency, he'll let you have it.

 

If you're willing to drive, start looking for a southern Jeep maybe. Perhaps some members on here would be willing to check them out in person and let you know. My coworker's folks live in Florida and he bought an 04 Jetta TDI from down there for a song after he had his dad go look at it. Flew down with his daughter and they made a road trip of it on the way back. Now he has probably one of the cleanest decade-old VWs in Wisconsin.

*Edit to add a link*

Not sure how long this link will work, but here's one and if it's actually got the tow package, it should even have a trans-cooler

http://daytona.craigslist.org/cto/4219592222.html

 

this is an oxymoron...LOL

 

I'm looking at it and I see low miles and that it's clean, which is great.

But, it's only a Sport. That means it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a Limited.

Additionally, being used, it probably has a few issues that may need to be looked into.

I would pay about $4500 for that Jeep. $5000 MAYBE.

 

I've never heard of that lift company before, it must be an amazing outfit for 7k....

if you have cash to work with you seriously need to stay away from dealerships, look on craigslist and even the local newpaper for the ultimate grandma find !!!

and to answer directly, seller doesn't have a clue about the components on that rig and a real world price would be around 4k+, and some feel a lift lowers the value YMMV

 

This is the truth. XJ's are pulling a premium now with winter here. Not to mention, car lots are getting these prices for low mile vehicles. I spent two weeks looking for something to drive over the winter and everything in the $2k price range was junk. I picked up my '00 for $1100 at a car lot and it needed work, but it had floors and rockers. I can deal with mechanical stuff all day long. What I don't want to do is weld in patch panels. OP, if you want a better deal, you can try CL. However, it's hard to find a good deal on a clean, low mile XJ up here, especially when the snow starts falling.