I know you’ve been feeling the angst, the suffering, the profound absence of Jeep shopping news from me.
Well, except for this bit of collective head-nodding this morning.
...Oh, wait...<checks Kinja profile>...
...it’s only been two days since I provided an update? It feels so much longer. 2020, man.
Well, anyway, yes, I’m still shopping.
I have given up on manual XJs for now, at least until a local one crosses my radar. Trying to grab one a thousand miles away before some local yokel does is too much frustration. Any legit ones sell within four days, at most, and I’m not terribly comfortable throwing $4+k at a random stranger without any independent report on how the Jeep runs, which is effectively what I have to do to make that window work for me.
So instead I’m returning to my second plan, of buying a comfortable Jeep, a first (ZJ) or second (WJ) generation Grand Cherokee. Well, a modified version of my second plan: my original second plan was to buy a Grand Cherokee Overland (WJ), the top-level trim with the most powerful engine and most sophisticated 4WD system.
That happens to be the Jeep that brokenmostweeks is still waffling about whether to sell, and has offered to drive to me if I want to buy it when he decides to sell it.
However, upon further research, I’ve decided to buy the base-level trim. It won’t be much cheaper, but it does have a slower engine and more primitive 4WD system!
...Wait, that didn’t come out right.
It won’t be much cheaper, but it does have the legendary I6 4.0L engine that should be much more robust, albeit almost painfully slow relative to the top-end engine. The 4.7L HO engine that graced the Overland has a bit of a reputation of crapping out around 150k miles, and good luck finding one with fewer miles than that.
It won’t be much cheaper, but it does have a transfer case with much more granular control. The Overland is always in full-time 4WD, which in essence means that the Jeep decides when front wheels are necessary. That’s fine for mixed conditions, like patchy snow, but if/when I’m off-roading I want to decide for myself when to engage my front axle.
Sadly the Laredo, the base trim I’m chasing, doesn’t have the limited slip differentials that the Overland offers, front and back. But I can add lockers later if I’m so inclined. Nor does it have the awesome 10-CD changer in the back, but sacrifices must be made.
There are three local WJs under active consideration. The most likely one (white, blah) is very clean, needs some transfer case work that the car lot is hopefully tackling this week, and needs to drop about $1000.
I’ll be checking out the third tomorrow, and there’s also one in North Vernon, Indiana, which happens to be in a part of the state I like very much, so I may make an excursion Saturday. I’ll be staying at my favorite cabin in southern Indiana again, although if anything it’s even further from North Vernon than I am right now. C’est la vie.
So, as always, let me know if you spot something interesting. boredalways is masterful with his searches, so he’s pretty well got Indiana covered, but frankly there’s never anything truly interesting in Indiana, except that big race each year.