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[Markie]

Been looking at a Jeep Grand Cherokee for the wife today - gotta say we love it press accelerator and it actualy rocks. Its got an unbelievable sound system full leather, hot air con, electric everything and a towbar  

1998 Model 4.0 petrol just out of MOT but Full Jeep History. It also had £1300 speend at last service 2 months ago!! Apparently the 70000miles service is a biggie.

Its a trade in to clear at under 2 grand and they will MOT it as part of that price!!!!!!!! Its got 70k on an R plate. And immaculate outside no dents or rust,

Its with a good dealer not a dodgy back street place. I am very clued up with buying and selling cars

Just waiting to see the history and reciepts for recent work - as we are not sure what it was for...

At this stage were more than 50% sure but not committed yet.Not had a test drive for one and wil see the history and reciepts tomorrow.

Just wondered if anyone here has owned one, driven one, has a neighbour or work colleage with one?

Any feedback would be welcomed and yes we do know its mpg - wifes safrane is not much better so no issue there.

[Jay w]

friend of mine works for a Jeep dealer, he doesn't speak highly of them.

Terrible build quality, engine is thisty and not particularly reliably, especally high milers, service cost are phenominal and the parts are dear as well if you want to do it yourself.

have a GOOD look over the chassis, he was telling me they were replacing chassis on Cherokees that were only a year old!!! and new ones were coming in with a lot of rust on them, they dont have a lot of rust protection on the chassis by all accounts

THe goodies you get are there, but that was to make up for the depreciation, a car of that age will have lost most of its money by now.

[Markie]

friend of mine works for a Jeep dealer, he doesn't speak highly of them.

Terrible build quality, engine is thisty and not particularly reliably, especally high milers, service cost are phenominal and the parts are dear as well if you want to do it yourself.

have a GOOD look over the chassis, he was telling me they were replacing chassis on Cherokees that were only a year old!!! and new ones were coming in with a lot of rust on them, they dont have a lot of rust protection on the chassis by all accounts

THe goodies you get are there, but that was to make up for the depreciation, a car of that age will have lost most of its money by now.

Ooooh that doesnt sound promising lol

I will be going back for a detailed second look before a test drive.....and i will spend some time underneath it as well....

Also depends on what it had done for that £1300  

[Gwilym]

I had a 4.0 Cherokee 1997 for about a year. Cost a bomb in service and maintainence.

However!!

When you floored it in 4 wheel drive I got all four wheels spinning and it started going sideways. I thought that was very impressive

Regularly took it off road and it pissed all over a couple of discoverys.

Did I like it? Yes, I loved it

Would I buy another one? No, If I go back to 4 wheel drives it will be a Toyota Landcruiser or a H2 or H3 (bit expensive though)

[tunnie]

A freinds dad has one, its well spec'ed but have to agree with build quality.

American cars are cheap for a reason, the rear leg room in them is absolutely awfu, it really is dreadful. I had to sit in the back, and I was aching and in pain after just 10 mins.

Off road i hear they are very good. And straight line speed is good, although they are very thirsty and not very good on road.  

[royston1945]

My brother ran one from new in 1997.A proper American driving experience,but very expensive to run.Servicing was dear and a brake overhaul was £1300  at only 40k miles.Tyres wear quickly and fuel costs were horrendous.He sold it at 4 years old and lost 22k in the process!
Thats why they're very cheap nowadays.Cheap is not always a bargain.

[Admin]

Agreed with all the above. I have driven one quite a lot as a work friend has one (4.0 petrol).

Terrifyingly expensive on parts (I do his general servicing for him) and I am really not convinced with the build quality!

Suspension is well... basic by todays standards!

Nice interior though

Personally I would buy either a Landcruiser or a Shogun.

[Markie]

yep theres some coments here i have thought about - read about one on ebay recently that had a £3000 overhaul.

Not over concerned about the mpg - she will do probably less than 4000miles a year, so if i find a good one, thats had the expensive work done.....

Problem is i have been lucky when i have gambled in the past.... Her Safrane cost £700 as a 5 year old car and came with the dear to fix tag and the £1000 gearbox reboilt tag. Problem with that is its never put a foot wrong. So the " dear to fix " had been irrelevent!

Question is - do i feel lucky?

[Del Boy]

High milers are rubbish poor build quality and 4.0 lump isn't reliable

[Chopsdad]

yep theres some coments here i have thought about - read about one on ebay recently that had a £3000 overhaul.

Not over concerned about the mpg - she will do probably less than 4000miles a year, so if i find a good one, thats had the expensive work done.....

Problem is i have been lucky when i have gambled in the past.... Her Safrane cost £700 as a 5 year old car and came with the dear to fix tag and the £1000 gearbox reboilt tag. Problem with that is its never put a foot wrong. So the " dear to fix " had been irrelevent!

Question is - do i feel lucky?

Reading all the posts - none good - I get the impression you are feeling lucky - so have a punt - it's only money.

[familyman]

Had a fair bit of experience with these. About 6 years ago the 4.0 petrol was believe it or not one the fastest accelerating cars from 40 to 60 mph, can't remember exact figures but were talking powerful  exotica here.  Build quality was good by American standards average for European. They ran a couple of different 4wd systems 1 you can run 4wd all the time on the road the other you can't, but great for tail end slides and oversteer, impressive in a big car. I think the permanant 4wd was called selec-trac and is a good system. Well spec'd motors but as mentioned can feel a bit agricultural at times. Best bet if you can afford it would be face lift 2001 on models with 4.7 v8 and very trick 4wd system, wich was one of the reasons Daimler wanted in to JEEP and Landrover tried/took them to court to release patent for the system. It uses oil garrotor pumps in the diffs intstead of lsd clutch packs, and can deliver 80% of engine power to one(even a front one) wheel!!!  hope this helps.
P.S. JEEP  =  Just Enough Essential Parts from WW2 JEEP's

[familyman]

Sorry just remembered the main weak point was the diffs especially the front one. If you get to approx. 45-50mph and once cruising back off ever so lightly and you hear a metalic noise which you can then make come and go throttling on and off gently then chances are diff or diffs worn. they can be rebuilt but use a good established dealer not a new one to the franchise, trouble is your looking at with labour anything up to £900 per diff. but they can go on forever with a little bit of noise without getting any worse?  However i've never heard one as bad an old VX Carlton can get if any of you remember.

[JesterRT]

My mate had one of these tanks, and had a coming together with a Merc - the mercedes didn't stop in time to join the queue at traffic lights and ran into the back of the jeep...  The Jeep came off visibly with a cracked rear tail-light, the merc had it's front wheel pushed back into the passenger compartment.  (Didn't stop the mercedes driver trying to drive off though... )

Further inspection saw that the jeep diff was never right afterwards and a drive shaft was bent.  The jeep was on a P plate a couple of years ago now and the insurance company wrote it off.  My mate bought it thinking it would be straight forward to get second hand parts and repair it, but it took a long time to source the parts.  Eventually it was fixed and he got rid of it - and then bought one of these:

http://www.westsideautosales.net/images/cars/1GCGC34J0JE160880.jpg

6.2 V8 RWD...  if you're going the American Route - do it right  

It's almost impossible to pull away without the thing wheelspinning  

[bob.dent]

We had a couple of these on our company fleet a few years ago which I drove a few times. I've got to say that I really don't like them, but it really depends on what you want from one. I didn't like the wallowy ride - almost made me feel seasick and they are VERY thirsty and expensive to maintain. However, they are immensly powerful and are probably very good off road. Good luck with whatever you decide Mark.  

[theolodian]

We have a 94 Grand Cherokee 5.2L AWD.  175K on it, owned it from 30K in 1996.  Getting to where we are worried about the expense of maintenance, but engine still happy.  Starting to get the famed 'death wobble' where the front end shakes.  Get 20-21mpg on the motorway, 18-20 in town.  Wouldn't want to sit an adult behind a tall adult, but otherwise comfortable on very long trips for 3-4 adults.  I has not had an unusual amount of maintenance, and almost everything works on it.  One of the better sized and better riding 4x4's of the time IMO, sportier than most without riding like a brick.  I think it is better riding and more reliable than a Disco of the same era.  Not as good as the recent crop though.  Not good for towing over a ton.  Some late nineties ones came with a weird AWD system that was crap.  Wouldn't really suggest one in the UK, but considering replacing ours with another.  Only reason for us to get something else is towing capacity.