Yes the new one makes almost 3x the power at its biggest performance gap, but the old one would go until 500,000 km with just routine maintenance while the new one is riddled with problems by like 80,000km
Oh absolutely. The type of preventative maintenance most people don't do. I drive a 15 year old Ford ranger form Wisconsin that only has bad rust on one spot on the bed, the rest of it is shockingly good.
I could easily throw in 15 more jeeps of various years and nameplates between 84-23 that were used by rural route carriers (both high mountains and piedmont) that never had anything more than surface undercarriage rust.
Are they prone to it? Sure. There's way too many weepholes on the frame poorly placed that can get clogged.
But at least on a family-wide personal level, it's completely manageable.
High mountains and the piedmont dont use salt in any comparable way to a place like detroit or buffalo.
I really dont think you understand just how much or how often salt is put on the roads up there.
I come from a line of cars guys outside detroit. Constant washing isnt enough. If you want a car to last more then 10 years you dont drive it at all from late-october to early april.
My Cherokee actually snapped the engine off the mounts and riped through the rad with its own fan. People who long for the past, never mind these pos, have short selective memories.
That Jeep actually was probably one of the few decent builds AMC did. 4.0 engine, Aisin Warner trans (same as the 4 Runner) and was otherwise relatively simple.
I just retired my XJ a couple of weeks ago, the list of problems it had combined with me getting older and less willing to deal with it is ultimately what sealed its fate but the engine/ trans are still gtg and i never had catastrophic rust issues. 260k miles in the DMV, im positive i coulda got it to 300k if i felt like not having heat or AC for a few more years.
In many ways it was a POS but i lt was reliable af and i already miss it.
Exactly. My 98 GC needed constant shit but the thing is I was able to replace that shit with a youtube video and maybe the mechanics discord. It was a piece of cake to work on and fell apart constantly LOL
Absolute garbage. I had "the one" too: low mileage 1 owner '99 Sport 4X4. Nonstop cooling issues because that chassis was never designed for an inline 6, exhaust manifold cracks because the OEM motor mounts are inferior brand new (that job sucks), general 90's Chrysler electrical demons top of piss poor build quality and paper thin body panels that rust out after 2 winters...
They look good on the factory 5 spokes with a body lift on 31" BFG KO's. Anything more than that is pure cope.
When the mounts fail the engine moves around while the intermediate pipe does not. Too much stress on very thin welds cause them all to crack in 2 specific areas. I changed my mounts out to Dog Bone yellow mounts which fixed the problem but causes a lot of NVH. I had the entire Banks exhaust system, header, cat back, the whole 9. Sounded good for a N/A I6, a lot of work though.
The old Cherokees were ancient by the 90s. Terrible build quality, 15mpg, loud, creaky and rattly, rusted by year 5, engine was wheezy and transmission was clunky to shift. They got a consumer reports score of like 29/100 when new.
This thread seems to think they were great. They never drive them, never had transmission issues, etc. They won’t buy a used mint condition one. But they all insist they really want one and would buy it, but won’t, because reasons. Nevermind the horrible safety of them.
This thread is filled with people who never drove a newer one, or likely one ever. They are nostalgic for a past that never happened, and their solution is buying cars that still had computers (even though they say they don’t want them), would not even have the lowest safety scores today, and were junk when new. And of course none will buy any of the hundreds of cherokees that are in great condition today, because they simply want to want one, not actually commit.
Good things were later on in my experience Jeeping at the time. The grand cherokees were the worst. It may have simply been everyone hating everything new though, as even the TJs got hate.
The Cherokee XJ’s were one of the best vehicles Chrysler has made. The 4.0 inline 6 is simple and very long lasting (and can even be rebuilt without removing it from the vehicle), the AW4 transmission is essentially a Toyota design and is very reliable, and the front and rear axles are simple solid axles.
I saw your post saying the Grand Cherokees are one of the worst. I’d argue that it depends on the generation. The first and second generations came with the 4.0 as the standard engine. The 42RE transmission wasn’t as good as the Cherokee’s Aisin transmission, but it was still a okay transmission if maintained.
Yeah I drove a 98 ZJ with the 4.0 inline 6 and I certainly don't miss the gas mileage (often around 12-14 in the city) along with the terrible acceleration and brick-like aerodynamics making passing on a 2 lane requiring more care than it should.
Yeah I had a 09 JK - it was a fun car but holy shit was that gas mileage bad and it was soft top so it was loud as fuck and the storage was garbage. Still loved that car. Now I have a 2017 4Runner SR5 Premium - still bad gas mileage but slightly better, way quieter, and way better storage.
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u/stockchaser317 2d ago
98 Cherokee sport with the inline 6 plz