Buying a new(er) car..

[txkprotege]

This summer the protege will have a lot of downtime during my work on it, and since it's the only car for the family now I'm about to make a down payment on another vehicle to be the family beater..

My teacher has a 94 Jeep Cherokee Sport 6 Cylinder 4.0l, blue book on it is around 2300, she's going to sell it to me for 1800, then 150 a month until it's paid off... It's a 2-door w/ 5 speed tranny.. Not sure if it's 2wd or 4wd yet, I'll find out tomorrow.

Everything works, interior is spotless, exterior is spotless except for one scratch.. It's got a new radiator, distributor, alternator, sensors, and a few other things on it.. The engine has 120,000 miles on it, but there isn't one spec of oil on the engine, looks about as clean as it probably did at the dealer

Anyways, seems reliable, and since it's a 5speed it should get pretty good gas mileage (for a v6..)..

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with the older jeeps, such as how expensive parts are, how hard to find, etc. Or any other advice for me before I give her a down payment.

[Kevin]

you could grenade these trucks and they'd still have a fighting chance.. thats the best i can say from the few friends i've had that drive/drove cherokees. for a beater, it's definately a good investment given the upkeep on the vehicle. as far as gas mileage, it's probably about as good as you're gonna get for any SUV. from driving one first hand, they're definately more nimble than most people would think. i say go for it.
kevin

[funkdaddysmack]

If it's the 4.0l v6 it's a gas hog. My sister has a smaller/lighter wrangler and it gets around 13mpg... Also they aren't real reliable, they had to do a complete engine rebuild at 80k, and I know another girl that's on her 3rd engine in 100k miles. I'd stay away, but that's just me.

[TheLastMarauder]

We had an old CJ7 once..... besides large amounts of bondo, it happened to have a CJ6 transmission.

Also, the radio wasn't hooked up right and lost power whenever you turned off the engine. Don't blame me... I didn't hook it up.

[tviera]

4.0L = staight six cyl. What you have there is a torque monster.

[Melissa]

I have an 89 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L...it's well..hrm. I like driving my protege better. The only time I used the jeep, was when I towed the boat or went off road..even though the protege is great off rode haha. My jeep has had everything under the hood replaced it seems...I was always able to find parts at like auto zone or places like that. It's a piece..that's for sure..Not the first car I would recommend.
And as for mine, not sure about yours..you could put it in 4wd..but it seemed to slip out a lot..and would just spin all sorts of tires. It's ok, but yeah I'd stay away from that too...IMO

[txkprotege]

Poo. I'm going to test drive it tomorrow and see about making a deal with her. If I can get it cheap enough I'm not going to turn it down, after all I don't know anyone else that would finance a car to me, and I could always resell it and have the cash for another pro

[lscrx]

4.0 Jeep has an INLINE 6, not a V6... get it straight... if you say 4.0 V6 around a hardcore Jeep fanatic they will disembowel you.

[txkprotege]

So kill me :p: Still a 6 banger to me

I'll take some pictures tomorrow. From the few rides I've had in it it's slow, but that's probably due to my teachers slow driving

[redfox]

i hope you dont mind paying out a TON of money for gas in that ****er....buddy down the road had 1 and he sold it due to the ****ty gas milage....welcome to the under 15mpg club

[txkprotege]

Can anyone find some specs on the gas mileage for this? The protege is killing me for gas already at a whopping 22mpg

[Nobody]

i hope you dont mind paying out a TON of money for gas in that ****er....buddy down the road had 1 and he sold it due to the ****ty gas milage....welcome to the under 15mpg club

LOL that's exactly why I bought my pro, my camaro gets the worst gas mileage. At best, I can get 12 mpg out of that beast.

[redfox]

Can anyone find some specs on the gas mileage for this? The protege is killing me for gas already at a whopping 22mpg

the jeep/mazda dealer here has the new jeeps listed at 13mpg

[95ProLeila]

4.0 Jeep has an INLINE 6, not a V6... get it straight... if you say 4.0 V6 around a hardcore Jeep fanatic they will disembowel you.

at least V6's exist, i've had people talk to me about my "V4" motor.

[funkdaddysmack]

4.0 Jeep has an INLINE 6, not a V6... get it straight... if you say 4.0 V6 around a hardcore Jeep fanatic they will disembowel you.

Forgive me for not knowing it's an 'inline' peice of **** instead of a 'v' peice of ****

Like I said, my sister gets 13mpg in her wrangler and that's 90% highway driving.

A co-worker told me a story about his Cherokee, I believe a '92, that he had right before he started here. Not only did he have to replace just about everything enginewise, it had such hellacious hidden-rust issues that he put his foot through the rear floorboard in the back while loading something.

In any case, good luck with the thing if you decide to get it.