In the market for a car

[niccolai]

I'm thinking a Jeep Cherokee sport in gold or silver.






I've never bought a car before so...

opinions/advice/suggestions?

I think I'm going to spend in the neighborhood of 5-6 grand.

I've heard mixed stories.

Some people say theirs have taken suvere beatings and go to like 250,000 without any major services.

and then some people say they have nothing but problems and things falls apart.

I've been told to go for an older model due to recent poor quality controll, so do you think a 95-96 would be a better idea?

I'm expecting to spend about 5,500 including the warantee, but I'll haveto finance it and I haven't established credit yet, so I'm not sure what it will end up costing me in the long run with apr and putting it on the road.

[makenzie71]

that's not a car...it's a Ute.  I know nothing about them...but if you want to spend $5~6k on a car, I can point you in the right direction.

Friend of mine says that anything with Jeep written on it is a 50/50 shot of losing your ass.  They're were built with hard use in mind and, being that, were built a bit sturdier than needed.  Giving that, there's very little to show for whether or not the vehicle was babied or dogged.  Says he wouldn't buy one unless the price was unrealistically low (accompanied by a clear title) or without full body, chassis, power and drivetrain inspections.  Chad is a hoard core jeep-o-phile, too...he'll never own anything that isn't.

[Turd Ferguson]

My old man lost his ass on a 95 Grand Cherokee Laredo.  It had been lifted and had 33's on it.  It was all-time 4-wheel drive and the transfer case kept popping out of gear.  Jeep would rebuild it and 2,500 miles later it would start doing it again.  They even replaced the transfer case and the same crap happened.

I'm not a big American vehicle kinda-guy anyways.  I'll only own European cars for the rest of my life.  My Audi A6 Quattro has been the most reliable vehicle I've ever even heard of.  130,000+ miles and all its needed is one A/C recharge and a new ignition switch.  The damn thing is part snowmobile, I swear.

-Turd.

[niccolai]

I'm not really into the whole huge SUV mentality either, but I'm in and out of bands and we play a decent amount of shows, so I wanted something I would be able to fit a good amount of gear in, but I didn't want anything big.

It gets up to 25 miles per gallon so it's arguably environmentally friendly compared to most of the other SUVs out there and also somewhat economic.

[vtlion]

I'm not really into the whole huge SUV mentality either, ... I wanted something I would be able to fit a good amount of gear in, but I didn't want anything big.

It gets up to 25 miles per gallon...

I got it...



Seriously, I have never owned a Jeep.  The only advice I can offer when it comes to light trucks and SUV's is AVOID FORD... I got burned twice by those junk-peddlers 

[Turd Ferguson]

Seriously, I have never owned a Jeep.  The only advice I can offer when it comes to light trucks and SUV's is AVOID FORD... I got burned twice by those junk-peddlers 

I'll second that.

-Turd.

[scottpA_GS]

I say SUV wise buy any Toyota or Nisan 

Car wise.. Acura or Honda .. I owned a Honda Accord with 320,000 Miles 

My Toyota pickup has about 115,000 and runs GREAT! I am in a band as well and I throw the cap on the back and I can haul A TON of equipment. I haul most of the PA 3 Bass guitars my 6 space road case and my 8x10 Ampeg Bass cab 

[roguegeek]

Jeeps are kind of a crap shoot. For the years you're looking at, they were built like tanks and pretty reliable. Recent models are plagued with reliability problems. The problem is that since the years you're looking at were built like tanks, people really ran them hard so you're going to have reliability problems with almost anything used. The key is finding one that was well maintained with low miles (which will be hard). The thing with SUVs is the fun you get out of them is almost completely negated by the price you'll pay on gas. Not sure where you found 25mpg at, but that's definitely not real world use numbers.

For $5-6k, you really have a lot of options open to you. If you want to go the SUV route, try and stick with Toyota and Nissan for small SUVs. I would really suggest you look into a different type of vehicle, though, like small to mid-sized sedans. Anything Honda and Toyota (excluding anything new from Toyota) will last you forever as long as you take care of it. You can't go with an Integra, Accord, or Civic. Stay away from domestic companies (Ford, GM, etc..).

The first car I bought was a 1990 Integra and put 200k miles on it. Gave it to my brothers a couple years back and they're still putting miles on it. Even though it's old, it's been, by far, the most reliable in our family.

You have a lot of people here that are knowledgeable on this stuff, so go ahead and bring on more questions.

[yamahonkawazuki]

ive never had probs at all with fords, if youre hauling gear, a windstar perhaps, theyre cheap, jeeps, dunno, usually unless its soccer mom that had it, a lot of times theyre going to be driven had 4wd' constantly etc

[Onlypastrana199]

I had an 85 Jeep Grand Cherokee Chief for a while, it had 170k on it when i got it, at 190 it needed a new motor..not a problem cause the camaro I had before that and rotted away had a bolt in..switched and the motor is still going strong at almost 280,000....my dad uses it as a field vehicle now cause it won't pass an inspection...you can't lean back on the seat though, the back will fall off...I beat the hell outta that thing...

[niccolai]

I say SUV wise buy any Toyota or Nisan 

Car wise.. Acura or Honda .. I owned a Honda Accord with 320,000 Miles 

My Toyota pickup has about 115,000 and runs GREAT! I am in a band as well and I throw the cap on the back and I can haul A TON of equipment. I haul most of the PA 3 Bass guitars my 6 space road case and my 8x10 Ampeg Bass cab 

I was offered a good deal on a titan, so I was thinking about it, but I got a baby so it wasn't practical to put a car seat in a pickup.

[pantablo]

this is my friends jeep: www.xxxpedition.com he's travelled the world with it and is currently crossing Australia.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6603135409455457118&q=video+jeep+australia

he's had no problems with his except what you'd encounter on a vehicle that has 200,000+ miles of 'wheeling around the globe...

get the silver, gold is ghey.

25mpg? dont hold your breath.

[pantablo]

and this is the kind of beating it can take:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7270258632860038644&q=video+jeep+destruction


(I love this video!)