I'm looking for a winter car, I'm looking into getting a grand cherokee limited 4x4. Its a 94 146k lifted 4" with new tires and rims for 3k, looks to be in great shape from the pictures i've seen. It has the 5.2l v8. If anyone could let me know if that is a resonable deal or if had experiences with the cherokees on how the run and how reliable they are I would appreciate it
I had a 91 cherokee larado with the 4.0 straght 6. It was near bullitproof as far as the engine and trans. The interior was always falling apart allthough. Sold it at 140k.
Im looking to be getting an 09 F-150 FX4 towards the end of the year. That'll be my DD/winter "beater" for many years to come.
Personally I would look at getting one with the 4.0 inline 6 instead. As mentioned before, that motor is bulletproof, not to mention, better gas mileage. My brother has a '95 Wrangler with that motor with 126k miles on it and it runs like new. My cousins have each had 4.0 Cherokee's with near 200k on them and they ran awesome, and my friend in HS had a '97 Grand Cherokee with 290k on it and never had the valve covers off! He only got rid of it because he got a screamin' deal on a newer Grand Cherokee.
I haven't looked into the 4.0 too much but after starting to read more I think prolly should. Seems to get 4-5 mpg better and as I already knew they are bullet proof, but the one I found has a 5.2l in it so its not going to deter me, i'm more worried about the trans as that seems to be the weakest link.
I had an 89 Cherokee 2 door with the 4.0, and that thing had some TORQUE. Never had a single problem with the engine, although the POS Peugeot 5 speed trans that I had in it was a problem from day one. The newer ones were not as problematic.
I'm out in the Chi-town area and we had our fair share of snow last year. If I had a Mach, I certainly would not want to run it in the winter either. My 04GT, while she is clean isn't anything special so it is my winter goat and does very, very well. Thoughts on the Jeep: The 5.2 is gutless, I would rather rock a 4L personally. Look up by the chi-town area, there are more cheap GC's than I can shake a stick at.
I had a grand Cherokee briefly. It was ok, but mileage sucked. Also had newer Liberty special edition. What a complete piece of crap that was in the snow and the mileage sucked. I couldnt believe it. It was a POS. I was 10x safer in my RWD BMW 525i with snow tires. That car was badass in the snow. I'd drive past trucks that couldn't carry on. Manual tranny makes SO MUCH difference if you ask me. The BMW was the only manual tranny car of the bunch and it was so good. My Ford Escort was the worst of the bunch in the snow. That car was such a POS. I'd get an AWD car personally. A BMW, Subaru etc. My X3 is absolutely staggeringly good in the snow.
