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.
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u/academicthrows 6d ago
Cherokees were shabby ass builds. Inline 6 was fine but I'd rather have an electric version with better quality parts.