LordBeckbury

Let me introduce you to my MJ, a 1992 Carabobo, Venezuela built Jeep, XJ owner for many years always had a desire to add an MJ to the fleet. Saw an ad on the website Autoscout24. Mainly European vehicles. I spied an MJ in the Canary Island of Tenerife. After swapping a few Emails with the vendor I hopped on a flight to Tenerife South, which for you who are not too familiar with the terrain the Canaries are a small volcanic Islands off the coast of West Africa.

After a protracted bus journey to the north of the Island i met the vendor, we did the deal and spent the next day effecting the usual export crap, filling in useless forms that no one will ever want to see. Parted with the Euros required and set sail from Santiago de la Cruz on the ferry. Some 60 hours later arrived in Cadiz, southern Spain.

The Comanche Laredo, 4 litre 4x4 5 speed manual never missed a beat up the motorways through Spain and France and two days later and some 2500kms from Cadiz was back in the UK. Incidentally total mileage is about 80K kms, about 60, thousand miles, not much in 22 years. It has not had a hard life and is pretty well unmarked, good paint, no dings, no rust, just like new in fact. amazing.

There are some odd details which differ from the US and UK spec, little things which were soon done. Side indicator markers, yellow front and rear indicators, rear fog light and rear seat seat belts.

The reason for the rear seat belts is because this rare beast was fashioned by the design team at Jeep's Carabobo plant to combat the introduction by Datsun (Nissan) and Toyota's pickup range with crew cab and king cab pickups, which as we all know have swept the World. Jeep's design team had a few attempts to come up with a four seater and the model that I have was built some time in 1992 and just as they had it signed off as being acceptable. Chrysler pulled the MJ line to concentrate on the Dodge Laredo instead.

This vehicle hung around at Chrysler's main dealer in Caracas Messrs Rustiaco, who still sell Jeeps and Mercs and was eventually sold to a Spanish guy who was working in Bolivia and Venezuela. When his work contract came to and end in 1997 he sput the MJ and his furniture and personal effect in a container to be sent to Tenerife. This container disappeared for over a year, but eventually turned up and they were re-united, Jeep none for wear.

Jeep used as his fun ride until personal, domestic and work reasons lead to the advert in Autoscout 24 and the rest is detailed above.

Does anyone know of any more 4 seater MJ's in the World.
Been having some trouble registering the MJ with the UK DVLA, they won't recognise the documentation and build details because it's written in Spanish, well it would be having been built in Jeep's Carabobo Assembly plant in Venezuela wouldn't it!!! Dumb bureaucrats, Insular Bastards, the DVLA is in Swansea which is in Wales, which speaks a "foreign" language, you would have thought they would be more sympathetic, but no. I have had to solicit a Spanish National to obtain the correct info from Chrysler de Ven. bearing mind the passage of time and the plant is now owned by Fiat who don't care to much about Jeep's archive, you can imagine the aggravation i've had.



There had to be a few mods. like yellow indicators, rear fog lamp, side indicator markers and rear safety belts.



Poor old MJ hasn't turned a wheel in two months due to this registration hickup, but rest assured I will get her registered by hook or by crook.


Check out the pics http://imgur.com/a/IL9Qc

http://imgur.com/a/3JL4h#iOVNGN2
ttp://i.imgur.com/5aDQo1N.png
https://i.imgur.com/IRNaboT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wZTB4Ks.png

caged

wow. i ain't never seen one of those before. very interesting to say the least.

congrats on finding one! i didn't even know they existed...

LordBeckbury

I know that there are some really smart guys out there. I have been under the hood and taken pictures of anything that looks like an info tag, perhaps you could take a look and help decipher . I am trying to get a build date and maybe these tags could help.

SatiricalHen

If you email Chrysler with your vin number and request a build sheet it will tell you the build date and the items installed from the factory, at least that's how it works for a normal jeep it may or may not work since that seems to be a one off jeep... You can always try though

LordBeckbury

Sad to say I been down that route and not much has come back to me, that's why I appeal to the Forum Members to throw some light on this.

SatiricalHen

Okay well I thought I would suggest it, worked for me and Did you check the door my door has a tag that has the date

LordBeckbury

Let me just get you up to speed. What I know is this Jeep tumbled off Jeep's assembly line in Carabobo Venezuela sometime in 1992. and went to Caracas. Rustiaco Jeeps Main Dealer, where on the 24th May 1993 the 4 seat conversion was done. It is doubtfull whether at this stage a VIN would be issue, more likely when it was initially made in 1992, although the VIN tag below the windscreen in the usual place has the letter P as the 10th letter in the VIN which indicates a 1993 build. According to Chrysler the vehicle was sold as "new stock" invoice date 29th September 1993. So it's a moot point as to whether this MJ is a 1992 or 1993. Plenty of vehicles are made and hang around for a long time before being sold.

No MJ's were made in 1993, because the MJ model was pulled by Jeep in favour of the Dodge Laredo, but it is fair to imagine there were a few around in 1993 to be sold, but if you look at the VIN plate lt should have been stamped an N instead of a P which shows as the 10th letter on the fitted VIN, I doubt whether the scuttle would have been fitted or messed with because all the conversion was behind the seat, I may well be wrong and the lengthy dialogue with Chrysler de Ven. has not thrown much light on this.

Also when you run the VIN through most online VIN checkers it is thrown out, this is because the X ( 9th letter) which = 7 should be another number (choice of 3) which should = 5, This is called the check digit which corrects the algorithmic total.

The VIN is 8FFJ26VXPV077298 the last 6 digits are numbers not letters (there are no O's or I's in VIN plates to avoid confusion).

Chrysler have given me all they are going to and the letter (see pic) is on it's way in the Mail, and hopefully will satisfy our Hero's in DVLA Swansea who want a certificate of build in English and on their headed business paper. So let's keep our finger's crosses that it will do the trick, poor old MJ hasn't turned a wheel for 2 months all for the lack of this document.

So if any of you can glean any info regarding the deciphering of these tags or VIN then I should be happy to hear from you.

Outlaw Star

The thing about vin checking conversions is, that the vin is whatever the vehicle left the factory before being shipped to a conversion place. IE: The majority of 4x4 Big diesel trucks like my International 4300 did not cone from the factory as 4x4. They were bought, then shipped to companies like Merritor or Marmon-Harrington to have a 4x4 system installed.

Mountaindog

Cool find man, never seen or heard of one before.

caged

find another parts mj, pull vin tag... then when no ones looking...

Ianf406

That is definitely cool and unique. I hope you are able to sort of all out.

LordBeckbury

Well Guys, good news, Just received my registration documentation back from the DVLA. Eventually received from Chrysler/Jeep de Venezuela the build certification written in English, on their headed notepaper and duly stamped and signed.
Thanks to all you talented enthusiasts who have supported me in this process, now I can do what I wanted to do, drive my Jeep,

Metmknice

Very nice. Glad you finally able to get it squared away.
Any interior pics, by chance? From the first pic looks like there is a good amount of room in the rear.

esteem

Awesome find. Would love to see it with a mild lift and tires.

GreenXJ98

X2^