Rhino liner isn't illegal on the streets, nor does it void the warranty to wash it will be nicer and shinier after all those tree branches than paint will be anyway

 

I would personally go with the 98, however the steering wheel looks ****-eyed in comparison to the position of the front wheels. So it may need an alignment right there. I think the 99 is over priced (then again I only paid $2100 for mine w/ less mileage). You're paying a reasonable price for the 98 @ 15x,xxx miles.

I would get whichever had the least amount of rot. Surface rust is manageable, you can wire-brush it, sand it down. Nothing you can do about rot though. Test drive them, check the engine compartment, the undercarriage (important)... Good luck.

 

Why do you want to go newer? I hate the looks of the newer cherokees body style, its too rounded off on the lights...the center consoles of the newer ones are cool tho

 

The White 99 I was able to talk them down to $3,000 out the door with 30 day tags and on my way home. But I still have to go look at it and test drive it. Right now im on the fence with the 98 and 99 to go look at and test drive first. And then if neither of those pan out then I'll go look at the 2000 if its still for sale. But I do know those silver cherokee's don't stay for sale very long. At least I know around here they sell pretty fast because its a hard color to get them in.

 

Here's some better pictures of the White 99 they sent me. I'm still waiting on some better pictures of the Black 98 i'll post those when they E-mail them to me.

 

I usually don't talk prices until I've seen the entire vehicle. If these are from dealers, most of the time a salesman won't know **** about the car they're trying to sell you. They may know about the make/model (i.e. Jeep), but they don't usually know about the characteristics of that specific vehicle they're trying to sell. Or even auto mechanics in general.

If they were willing to drop the price before even meeting with the customer, there's something wrong with it they don't want to hassle with. At this point, they're really just trying to get rid of it.

When you go look at them, take note of everything wrong and present them with the facts. At this point you can REALLY talk price. I had looked at a red 99 from a dealer listed for $2,998. I drove down and took a look at it. At first glance it looked really clean. Then the salesmen started getting nervous as I took out my flashlight, ignoring all the new detailed work and went under the hood and undercarriage. After a test drive and all was said and done I told the guy "You shouldn't have even let me take this out on the road" it was bad. He made ME and offer ($1000) and I told him I'd think about it. Two days later he called me with another price $500.00. I don't think I would have even paid that. Bought my current XJ that same day for $2,100 from a private owner. Which was actually the better deal by far.

 

Ask them to send you pictures of the undercarriage and engine compartment.

 

Agreed.

I'm curious, what was the problem?

As for the OP, what shape is the leather in? I'm a sucker for leather, but also a sucker for silver or white paint! I would probably lean towards the white or black one just because of the bad a/c compressor on the silver, and you also greater potential for the 0331 head on that one. The mileage difference of the black and white one really wouldn't cause me to jump on the black one, so in your location I would probably just choose the one with the least rust.

 

Hard to tell where to start... The undercarriage was almost completely orange-brown (rot), The fuel line had a pinhole sized puncture in it where it met with the gas tank. It was also creased in this area (assuming the tank had some play and was bouncing around). Suspension was gone. Rear d-side eye bolt was welded in. rear diff seal leak, cat converter/exhaust had brown gaping holes in it, three wheel bearings bad, trans was slipping from 2nd/3rd... There was just a lot of **** I didn't want to deal with. I probably could have parted it out (what was good) and made a profit... To me it wasn't worth the profit. My biggest issue was the rot. I felt like I could poke my finger through the side of the oil pan in some areas, and that's just the oil pan. Got to love the North East.

 

Cripes, makes me ever more thankful for Florida.

 

Yeah it's tough up here. I tried to find the listing for it on their website. Wanted to show how cleaned it looked "on the outside". Looks like it's gone. Either junked or sold to some poor sob.

 

I talked them down from $3,500 to $3,000 for the white 99 because I wasn't going to drive all that way if they weren't willing to sell it for at least $3,000. That's all I have to spend,.. so for them to even get me up there to look at it they had to bring it down to that or else it wasn't worth my time or gas. But once I get up there and drive it and take a good look at it then I will negotiate further, if I feel its not worth the $3,000 and if they don't want to go any lower then I don't have to buy it and I can then go look at the black 98 one. But in order to get me to drive that far they had to atleast drop the price to $3,000. I never wheel and deal until I actually get to get a good look and drive the vehicle first then the negotiations begin.

 

Makes sense.

 

Well here's some better pictures of the Black 98 cherokee they finally sent me.

 

I'm suddenly a little more interested in the white one.