Jeep Grand Cherokee? Good Cheapo SUV? >$5k

[1983 Z28]

Ah yes... I've always sorta found it wierd that Toyota offered to buy back those pickups they made with the rust-prone frames... but they never offered to buy back the SUVs that were based on the pickup trucks, with the same problems!

Although, I won't lie, anyone who owns an old Series Land Rover like mine knows all about frame rot; even mine looks like swiss cheese. The problem with a fully boxed frame from the factory? IT HAS NO DRAINAGE HOLES. Thankfully, you can get heavier-guage, galvanized replacements for dirt cheap. Defenders have similiar problems, although Defenders here are too new and too well looked after to have any serious corrosion problems.

And yes, I know I sound like a salesman and Marco911 with my fanboy-ness... but with the experiences I've had with my own Land Rover and Range Rover, I'm retardedly impressed with them. They're probably some of the most overbuilt trucks on the road, parts are ridiculously cheap, they're super easy to work on, and thanks to the economy and the gas prices we just endured, they are, in my mind, the best deals on the market. I mean, there's 1999 and 2000 Discovery IIs and Range Rovers going for 4-9K on Craigslist all day long. If you're willing to bring one out of California or Washington, you can get one for $3K. These are trucks that started at damn near $50K when they were new!

The thing is that they have this reputation for being unreliable gas pigs, when the truth is that they actually require you to participate in owning them, and if you operate one like it's a Toyota Matrix, it will start to break down on you. Most of the problems they have come from being overbuilt; if you don't engage the diff locks, they can sieze up. If you don't engage 4WD Lo, it can take a lot of effort to do so (that's one of the things guys check when they buy them... if the 4WD Lo lever is tight, you know it wasn't used off road extensively), and if you don't put the suspension through it's full articulation occassionaly, the bushings won't wear properly, and the airbags won't stay supple. But, people just bought them as SUVs, and drove their kids to soccer in them. Then they started to break down. Then they say they were unreliable. Then they sell them and buy the Toyota they should have bought in the first place. But these are trucks that were built to spend half their time on unpaved roads. Imagine if you took that aforementioned Toyota Matrix, which is designed to be used solely on pavement, and made it spend half its natural life on dirt roads. I imagine you'd get a hell of a lot more problems than a Land Rover that's been denied its off-road time. It's not a knock against Toyota, it's just that here, in North America, Land Rover has an undeserved reputation. Thankfully, that's their loss and our gain because it means we get stupidly low prices on them.

Everywhere else in the world, they're considered alongside the Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol as the most rugged vehicles out there, and the ones people rely on when they have to traverse conditions that absolutely nothing else will. The UN uses all three of those vehicles for their missions, but when it comes to the hardest stuff (like the UN mine-clearing missions in Africa), they always use Defenders. When Google wants to map the unmapped regions of Africa's game parks, they bought a boatload of Discovery's. No other brand can even claim anything close to having 70% of their total production on the road. In Madagascar, a 1954 Land Rover Series I is still the main vehicle used to transport fishing boat catches to the village. My truck is 36 years old in two days, spent the first 20 years of its life being abused on a British army base, and is still a more reliable daily driver than some of the 3-month old testers I get from manufacturers. It pulled 12 cars, trucks, and SUVs out of snowbanks and ditches this winter so far, and is running on the same 2.25L engine that it came out of Solihull with. The real kicker? It's logged over a million miles, and none of the drivetrain has ever been taken apart, and the quality of the work that's been done involves using 9mm and .45 calibre shell casings as hose plugs.


And maybe it's just me, but I seem to recall seeing a disproportionate number of Land Rovers out on the road in the middle of that snowstorm we just had...

[Renthal]

lol the reason i've had five is cause people want them! they are great trucks!
i was finding good deals and selling them for profit.
rarely would i have to do work on them, and if i did, there was support online through a variety of forums and plenty of used parts around

the only drawback is rust and headgaskets.. if theres no rust and the headgaskets been replaced they are a cakewalk to own

[jeffh]

after having serviced a land rover at the shop, i wont ever let a friend have one

land rover freelander from 03, 120 000 kms on it with the 2.5 motor

it has already had the motor replaced at 100 000kms (the whole motor) which is scarily common on the 2.5 motor, then the heater core fell apart, hello $800 core plus labour, and half the heater hoses under the hood were rotten, so we went to replace a few of those. but wait, you have to buy them assembled. $300 later in parts and more labour. then the LR window motor came out of it, so we replaced that for another $360 plus labour

by the time they sold the piece of crap im pretty sure my used car manager broke out a bottle to celebrate.

ps dealing with the parts people in hongcouver was painful.
pps, $44 oil filter...

im a heep guy myself, 92 cherokee, 330 000 kms always off road being ragged on. never misses a beat, but it is a piece of crap and i wouldnt want my mom drving it unless she was out in the bush

grand cherokee seems like a reasonable mix between class comfort and offroadability to me tho

maybe a 98+ cherokee with lower K would be a good fit tho, the auto is tough and the 4.0 six is invincible

[1983 Z28]

Freelander = Ford. It's the black sheep, and is generally completely ignored by the Land Rover community. Hell, I forgot they existed. Yes people, buy a Land Rover, but don't make it a Freelander. Please. For the love of God.

Have you worked on any other Land Rover models? Discovery/Range Rover Classic/P38?

As for parts, I strictly use Pacific or Atlantic British, Rovers North and Wise Owl Innovations out of Alberta.

[jeffh]

a big one that says HSL V8 on it, thats what we get the $44 filters for, but a grandma with huge huge $$ owns it and it never gets driven. like 1 oil change a year kinda deal. we did do tires on it, and 19" truck sized tires are not cheap

[1983 Z28]

Probably a Range Rover, but I think you mean HSE... that's just Land Rover's model designation. Means nothing here, but in the UK it's the upper trim level. Here we get nothing but. With 19" wheels though, I'm going to guess it's a new one. I don't think they put 19" rims on anything else, since they're all but useless off-road. Stupid new Land Rovers.

And yeah, I've seen your Cherokee. Sheesh dude, don't you know that lighting pallets on fire on a trail is like, as bad as killing babies en mass? In either case, I do love Cherokees too... it was a Jeep Wrangler that convinced me to buy a Land Rover, but I couldn't afford a rust-free CJ, so I looked for an FJ40, which was also too expensive... so I arrived at the wonderful world of aluminum Land Rovers. I got the simplicity of the CJ/FJ40, which is what I really wanted, for about half the price! But after owning it, I'm glad I got what I did.

[jeffh]

at the end of the day, im too cheap and too hard on shit for a land rover.
the hs* thing is definatly an 05+ unit hid's and everything pretty ballin

for buddies mom tho, and for 5k or less, im not sure you could beat a clean grand cherokee

and yes, i threw a sack of puppies onto my pile of nail fire, all as part of my satan worship ritual ;D

[marky_21]

bump

[maxx]

resurrecting an old thread.

looking at a few jeep cherokee sports. anyone know a good jeep mechanic that will do a full pre-purchase inspection on one?

[Spoon_AK]

I've owned one. like mentioned above they have trans issues.

Edit. Mine was a v8..Not sure about v6.

[Nightwalker]

I've heard nothing bad about Jeep Cherokees.
I've heard nothing good about Jeep Grand Cherokees (mostly trans problems)

[skylinergtr]

Originally Posted by maxx

resurrecting an old thread.

looking at a few jeep cherokee sports. anyone know a good jeep mechanic that will do a full pre-purchase inspection on one?

I dont know any jeep specialists that would do a ppi, but My mechanic of choice is Gold Wrench Automotives in North Vancouver. He works on all makes.

I hope you mean you're looking at a Cherokee XJ because those are the keepers. Make sure your looking at years only 1991-1999, nothing newer or older.

[maxx]

yea its a 99 in white.
i guess i can take it to a jeep dealer and have the do a PPI?

[GabAlmighty]

A good qualit 3rd gen 4runner > All... In your price range.

[maxx]

not for 1700-2300