If you are looking for a luxurious life, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jeep is not the car for you. If, on the other hand, you like the idea of opening your own windows and shifting your own gears, we’ve got a lot to discuss. That includes the price of this simplistic Cherokee.
Yesterday’s comments about the 1990 Chevy Corvette ZR-1 followed two primary thoughts. The first was something along the lines of “meh, it’s a C4”, while the other was much more lust-driven and involved a noticeable amount of implied drool. An asking price of $17,900 sealed the deal for the lusty drools, giving the ZR-1 a solid 75 percent sweet price.
A fairly common meme is the photo of the man tapping his finger against his temple with the quote “you can’t ____ if you don’t ____” implying that the lack of certain niceties relieves you of the problems that those niceties sometimes cause. bring along.
All this brings us to the 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4X4 as it is about as basic a car as you can imagine meaning it shouldn’t cause too much trouble as there isn’t much wrong with it can go.
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This Jeep has a modest 94,000 miles on it and comes with a clean title, both attributes supporting that we’re off to a good start. It also has a new paint job, what the seller says is a “rust treatment”, and… well, that’s about it.
Everything else is as basic as can be. This is a two-door XJ that is a bit rare, meaning fewer door seals to break and less chance of water and rust trapping. That body rolls on black painted steel wheels that have a timeless design and should last for years without any problems. Inside, it’s all fabric upholstery and manually operated windows that will get the job done with little fuss and fuss.
Even the mechanics are pretty basic, which is where the thrift can get in the way. At issue is the 2.5 liter OHV four under the hood. That’s a derivative of the larger in-line six-cylinder, but with only 120 horsepower and 139 lb-ft of torque, it lacks power. Thankfully, it’s mated to a five-speed manual transmission rather than a party poo slush box. A Selec-Trac four-wheel drive completes the simple mechanics
According to the ad it “runs great” and the seller claims the jeep is ready to drive and enjoy. The ad also says it has new leaf springs at the rear and has had a recent “electrical overhaul”, although no details are given on how extensive that was.
The interior shows some signs of use, especially in a small tear on the side of the driver’s seat, but is in no way unlivable. Continuing with the bare minimum theme, the instrument cluster consists of a speedometer and a fuel gauge, through which all other information is communicated through warning lights and possibly extraneous noises. Since it is a model built in this century, it has at least a few airbags in the dashboard. Not sure if it also offers air conditioning.
As noted, that’s not a lot of things, and that means not much can go wrong either. Other than the four under the hood, everything here seems to be a perfectly satisfying ride for someone who just wants to get by and isn’t into flashy baubles or the latest fad. How much should such a frugal shopper expect to spend to find out if less is really more?
The seller is asking $7,499 for the Jeep and I’d like you to think about the truck and that price now. What do you say? Is this very basic Cherokee worth that $7,499 price as presented in the ad? Or does the Jeep just not have enough gear to drive that much caboodle?
You decide!
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Craigslist, or go here when the ad disappears.
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