99 XJ Electrical problem?

Here's the story.
My son hit a deer in my pristene 98 2dr 4x4 4.0 5dp XJ. Totalled.
The insurance company is treating me right at $25 less than what I paid for it one year ago.

So I go looking for a replacement and I find a 99 4dr 4x4 4.0 5sp, almost identical except for two extra door. The seller says in the past there were a few occasions where the instrument panel would not work for like a day. What is this an indication of? I've heard in the past that XJ's have a history of electrical problems. Is this true

The vehicle is not a nice as the 98 but its doable. The only downfall is the 131k miles.
The engine does have a small exhaust leak. The oil pressur range is 20 psi at warm idle and 40+ psi at highway speed. No rust however, there is some clearcoat peeling on drivers door, and may be an indication of a bad repair or just bad clear from the factory, I don't know. The agreed purchase price is $3500, which is a very good deal IMO.

Throw me some advice, Please

On saturday I picked up a 97 country, all options available except for selec-trac and the up country package, 139k, for $2999

It has the same oil pressure, and a few electrical problems, the dash lights don't work and the window lock switch is screwing with the passengers power windows

the gauges on the one your looking at not working is most likely a result of a poor connection in the back of the cluster, common problem from what i've read on here

sounds like a pretty good deal, especially because of the no rust, and that electrical problem seems minor

my .02

Thanks Bob

My 99 does this on occasion. There are 2 connections for the inst. panel. They either become loose or corroded. Most of the time, a tap on the dash is all it takes to get everything back the way it needs to be. I have cleaned the connections to get it to last longer. The fix is a replacement of the wiring harness, but I don't want to go through that. Tap the dash if it acts up.

Thanks Matt