Any Liberty owners?

[OverlandZJ]

Looking for a first vehicle for one of my daughters, considering a Liberty among others. Anyone have one or have good input regarding their longevity?

Are there issues with the earlier gen's and the 3.7L? What would be advisable to avoid? A CRD is out of the budget..

Rust an issue on these? What kinda MPG can be expected?

 

[MrSimon]

This is second hand, but its something.

My cousin had a KJ for three or four years. It was pretty small inside, but drove and rode comfortably. I was impressed with its towing capacity ... it towed his 3,500 pound boat on flat ground with no issues. We drove it to Vermont in the snow to go skiing and it was qutie solid. It handled the snow much better than other 4x4s on the road during the trip.

A good buddy of mine has a KJ that he bought new. No rust, minimal issues, and its still running strong. He loves it. But, its a little tight for him, his wife, two kids, and stuff for a trip.

On both of these, I thought the fit and finish was mediocre and the interiors are far from plush .... but they certainly get the job done.

I see a bunch of them out and about and none of them seem to be rotting away.

 

[OverlandZJ]

I'v learned the 02-03's have wiring and engine issues so I'm looking at 04 and up now.. cut's down on the potential purchases for her budget of ~$5500.

TJ is also being considered, but auto's are rare. Although she is open to the idea of a manual trans..

Whatever we buy it'll most likely come from SC.. been watching listings in my parents area.

Thanks for your input

 

[joejeep92]

Yeah stay away from 02-03 as you said. See a lot of them with engines going out before the 150k mark. Could get one with blown engine though and replace for under your stated budget...

 

[Mpeckham22]

ditto on the 02-03, im personally not a fan of them, second hand information but my buddies family had one and in about 3 years they had put double the money into stupid issues that kept coming back. I say avoid them all together. but thats my $0.02.
Goodluck with the search
-Peckham

 

[bigdaddyjlove]

02 and 03 also had a heavier duty transmission. The 45RFE vs the 42RLE.

I bought my daughter a 02 Limited to replace her Wrangler. So far, I am very happy with it

 

[rocknxj]

I bought an 02 Liberty Renegade when they first came out and was impressed with its 5k towing capacity and the low range tc. I wheeled the snot out of it and never had an issue other than the low clearance. I sold it when my kid grew too fast and could not hold a car seat and a teenager comfortably. The XJ is hands down the better deal.

 

[UNCC_99XJ]

We just sold the '03 that my mom bought brand new 10 years ago. One of the easiest Jeeps i've ever had to work on and gave us zero trouble outside of routine maintenance. Had 150K on it when we sold it to a friend to give to his daughter for college. All I had to do to it was brakes, belt, oil changes, one set of valve cover gaskets, and the usual cooling stuff for high mileage (WP, Radiator, tstat). Heck, the original A/C charge lasted all the way up until the end of last summer!

I'd still have my XJ over one any day, but ours made for a very solid DD for my parents that was seeing 80-100 miles a day, every day, for the last 5 years.

02 had a little bit higher suspension (round about 1 inch higher), and had a stronger transmission through early 03. However 02's also had rear drum brakes, where as 03+ got rear disc. Ours was a late 03, so we had the 42RLE and rear disc. It's still an 8.25 rear end, and the same tcase's used in our XJ's (231 & 242).