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Not all that many out there anymore...

squidd

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Everett, WA
Wife's 85' 2.8 lost a rod bearing the other week and we decided we could budget in a little newer vehicle for her. Since I know cherokees pretty well inside and out it was kind of a no brainer to start looking for another we hoped slightly nicer newer one.
I pulled up craig's list and autotrader with a max price of about $6000 and I couldn't believe how little was out there. I think autotrader pulled 12 in a 100 mile radius of Everett and Craigslist was 90% grand cherokees and almost the rest were all 80's vintage. I haven't really looked in the last 6 months or so but it seemed that they used to be everywhere. Did "Cash for Clunkers" kill that many of the newer ones out there? or Is this just Murphys law. What have you guys been seeing?
 
XJ's are just good vehicles, not a lot of people want to part with them :)

Ran a quick search myself on craigslist, I see what you mean about the majority being Grand's. There are quite a few decent XJ's in there however (excluding the wheelers and such).
 
I had the same problem searching a couple of months ago. There is nowhere near the selection that there was a year ago when we found a '92 for my son. I ended up getting a pretty clean '98 for $3K for myself at a used car lot in Everett about a month ago, a combination of good timing and daily searches. Search a couple of times a day, call on anything that interests you. Good luck, stay after it.
 
Besides the crushed XJ's, some people may be hanging on to their older cars, because they can't afford to upgrade right now.
 
I'll go ahead and job in line on the cash for clunkers, and holding on to old cars theory. I too noticed a huge decrease in the number of Cherokees available in the last several months from when I got the white Jeep in May '08. Good luck on finding a new rig though!

~Scott

P.S. How have you been man? Haven't heard from ya in awhile.
 
You know chereokees have become popular have you looks at all the recent mags.
How to buy a cherokeee, how to mod a cherokee. How to cherokee, cherokee cherokee

I think people are just snatching them up also.
 
It took me three months of searching multiple times daily to find mine three years ago. Granted that was because I wanted a 93-95 w/ a 5-spd and decent miles. Found my '94, 76k on the clock and drove off with it for $4500 (which included TTL). Dealer wanted $7600 for it at first, ended up walking on them several times. Got a call back a few weeks later asking if I still wanted it.

Funny thing is that when I found it it was quite literally during a screen refresh, and there was the ad - 'posted less than 1 minute ago'
 
Heres a nice one.. Only 700!! /QUOTE]
I think the wife would shoot me if I came home with that for her :) I think a full roof is the minimum. Anyone remeber what years to avoid for cracked heads? 2000-2001 I think?
 
Heres a nice one.. Only 700!! /QUOTE]
I think the wife would shoot me if I came home with that for her :) I think a full roof is the minimum. Anyone remeber what years to avoid for cracked heads? 2000-2001 I think?

I believe you're right. head re-design in 2000 was more prone to cracking, in particular if overheated at some point. Concensus seems to be '98-'99 for the best of the late models.
 
1bolt jeepstrokers.com said:
7120 (91 to 95 I believe) this head somehow got the reputation as the "best" head... I can only guess because it's popular for the 4.2 head swap because some misinformed early swappers claimed the later 0630 head didn't have a water temp sender boss (sometimes is does sometimes is doesn't).
0630, 96-99 (98 on a ZJ I believe) this head is supposed to be identical to the 7120, I haven't flowed my 7120 yet but I believe it will flow the same. This head supposedly doesn't have a water temp sender location, but it does on 4 out of the 5 that I've seen... there's a small bolt in it depending on what model Jeep its in.
0331 2000+ (99+ on Grand Cherokees) this head is prone to cracking in its first few years of casting.
 
I saw quite a few down in Dallas (Oregon) rolling around. Quite a few though didn't meet your minimum requirements of having a roof. Evidently you must cut the top off and replace with a roll cage so you can relocate your gas tank to the back seat. Beat to heck and back...
 
You speaking to me? I'm doing well, and almost finished with my YJ build.

Sorry I was talking to James, but I haven't seen you in awhile either! I've been keeping up on the build on PNW though, I look forward to seeing pics of it at KOH!

~Scott
 
Hey Scott,

Yeah, been pretty busy at work and with the wifes jeep dead even less free time than usual. I think we may be out looking in ernest next weekend.
 
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