'92 Mark VII vs '00 Cherokee

I've been looking at the same '00 Cherokee for a while now. I assume it hasn't sold since it's 2wd. It's in good shape with 120k on the clock and a very fetching blue hue.

I've talked them down to $4,000 (back when it was listed at $5k) out the door, that's with my Lincoln as trade. The Lincoln, as most of you may know, has a burned up overdrive so that hurts the value a lot. Also the windshield has been fogging while being parked, after being at full temp, so I assume it will soon need a heater core. Then there's the 22 year old air $uspension and teve$ braking system... big money not far down the road.

I love the car but I think, long term, the XJ is the more logical choice. I've driven it and it drives nice and has lots of torque.

What would you do?

$4k for a 2wd Cherokee sounds awful. Even worse when you have a trade, any trade.

XJs are logical, but not that particular one.

Gotcha. I always check edmunds, kbb, etc but they usually give wildly different values so I'm never sure. And I usually disagree with those berkeleyers anyway.

I agree with swank, that's too much for a 2WD Cherokee.

$3k with a little shopping should get you a pretty nice 4wd XJ.

We have two. A blue 00 4x4 4dr auto that we bought 4 years ago for $3k, really nice.

And a red 98 that was the result of "The Great Suv Thread of 2014." 4x4 2dr 5spd, $2500, entirely decent shape.

$4k should get you a beautiful 4x4 with no rust and a fresh suspension and tires. In other words... turn-key in every sense of the word.

That would have to be one very minty 2wd Cherokee. even in snow country you can buy a nice 4x4 for that kind of money!

They're kind of pricey around here.

Take a hop skip over to Indy. I'd be more than happy to put eyes on some for you.

In reply to Swank Force One:

Checking...

Also, the 2wd/4wd thing isn't really that big of a deal to me. I know it wouldn't be a "true" Jeep, but I'm just looking for an American 4 door work vehicle that can carry the whole family and has anvil like reliability with some hauling/towing capacity. The farthest offroad I go is to take the kids fishing. Sad but true.

Also I dig the simplicity and utilitarian nature of an XJ.

Right after I typed the above post I found this:

Former mail Jeep?

And I appreciate the offer, Swank.

The thing with 2wd XJs is that they aren't super common in the midwest, and when you find them, they aren't cheaper, offer no advantage over 4wd, and offer some disadvantages. (These things are pretty terrible in snow in 2wd.)

Gotcha.

Looks like the above XJ either had a heater core explosion or somebody just liked leaving the windows down, rain be damned!

In reply to The_Jed:

Looking at the first picture you posted, I see mud terrain tires on it. Definitely someone's off road work truck. Probably came from a company that owned it, so I'm going to say the interior of that has probably been put through the wringer.

Yeah, looks pretty haggard. I'll keep looking.

That 2wd will still be there, tempting me...

Maybe I'll go back and see if I can talk them down on the price. They've been sitting on it for quite a while.

My two coppers: keep looking. The 4wd option will be much better when the weather gets nasty. Expand your search area southward and see what a 4 hour drive will find you on CL.

For some reason Nashville often has the lowest prices I find.

I'll give that a shot.

I think if you shopped craigslist with a $4000 budget for MY 2000 vehicles, you'd find some pretty nice rides.

Way better than that XJ. To think what they were designed to be and forgetting that "they don't make 'em like they used to", that's far too much to pay.

Having said that, up in New England, solid XJ's and Troopers are fetching bigger money than they're worth.

I've owned three XJ's. $2,300 was the most expensive and the other two cost $900 and $500. The latter of which was just about mint aside from a broken windshield.

Please shop around or talk them down to $2,000 tops.

http://chambana.craigslist.org/cto/4794797992.html

Just come down to Texas and get this thing:

http://austin.craigslist.org/cto/4835671601.html

It seems that XJ's have gotten pretty high priced lately for what they are. There are a lot of good values elsewhere. Shoot, I can get a suburban or a nice pathfinder for what you are looking at for that XJ.

In reply to petegossett:

I have a very close friend in Maroa. That might be worth investigating. It would be a good excuse for a get-together.

bmw88rider wrote: Shoot, I can get a suburban or a nice pathfinder for what you are looking at for that XJ.

Me too. Probably a few 1/2 ton suburbans, but that's not what I'm after. I'm wanting to stay under 2 tons of curb weight.

In reply to bmw88rider:

That is one perverted Jeep!