Any Grand Cherokee WJ owners around here still ?
Discussion
'cause I've gone and bought another !
Yep, sold my WJ Overland about 3 years ago after 7 year ownership and have been driving around in the wife's old bog standard Focus.
Had been thinking of a newer Jeep for ages but it just didn't happen for me (Covid, paying for the Daughter to get through her degree etc), and now we've "lent" the Focus to our daughter full time for a year so she can get to uni for her Masters and work.
So I needed a cheap car at short notice and I saw an add for a 2003 Overland, 68 K miles, 3 owners (2 were same family) full service history for under £3K. Nothing to loose I went for a look.
Having done lots to my jeep over the years, and knowing most of the problem areas I checked it out and it seems absolutely spot on.
No Black death, no rear axle oil seal leaks, engine and gear box oil tight, no air bubbles in the fuel lines etc etc. 12 stamps in the service book and 11 of those are from Main Chrysler garages !!
I will do a full fluid change in my own time, but if the Jeep dealers have looked after it properly then all should be fine.
Bad points, Its showing the generic 0700 gearbox fault code (they all do?), but drove fine so hopefully that's no concern right now. I don't think a gearbox oil change was ever a service item (Merc said they were sealed for life but we know that's not true now, and I did it on my old jeep so I'll do that too on this)
The rock rails must have got rusty (as they all do?), so someone painted then silver with a brush. Lastly the A/C struggled so that can go to my local AC guy for a look over. The check valve failed on my old one and I had that fixed.
Apart from that the body is excellent, (the silver paint shows signs of light fading but I've read silver is the worse colour for that) and the interior is spotless.
Yes the fuel will be expensive, but I don't do as many miles now. I can look after it mostly myself and depreciation isn't going to be massive. But mostly I just like to drive them, I find there comfortable, easy to drive, and we have a dog now so he can ride in the back.
Pick it up Tuesday and hopefully it wont all end in tears !
Yep, sold my WJ Overland about 3 years ago after 7 year ownership and have been driving around in the wife's old bog standard Focus.
Had been thinking of a newer Jeep for ages but it just didn't happen for me (Covid, paying for the Daughter to get through her degree etc), and now we've "lent" the Focus to our daughter full time for a year so she can get to uni for her Masters and work.
So I needed a cheap car at short notice and I saw an add for a 2003 Overland, 68 K miles, 3 owners (2 were same family) full service history for under £3K. Nothing to loose I went for a look.
Having done lots to my jeep over the years, and knowing most of the problem areas I checked it out and it seems absolutely spot on.
No Black death, no rear axle oil seal leaks, engine and gear box oil tight, no air bubbles in the fuel lines etc etc. 12 stamps in the service book and 11 of those are from Main Chrysler garages !!
I will do a full fluid change in my own time, but if the Jeep dealers have looked after it properly then all should be fine.
Bad points, Its showing the generic 0700 gearbox fault code (they all do?), but drove fine so hopefully that's no concern right now. I don't think a gearbox oil change was ever a service item (Merc said they were sealed for life but we know that's not true now, and I did it on my old jeep so I'll do that too on this)
The rock rails must have got rusty (as they all do?), so someone painted then silver with a brush. Lastly the A/C struggled so that can go to my local AC guy for a look over. The check valve failed on my old one and I had that fixed.
Apart from that the body is excellent, (the silver paint shows signs of light fading but I've read silver is the worse colour for that) and the interior is spotless.
Yes the fuel will be expensive, but I don't do as many miles now. I can look after it mostly myself and depreciation isn't going to be massive. But mostly I just like to drive them, I find there comfortable, easy to drive, and we have a dog now so he can ride in the back.
Pick it up Tuesday and hopefully it wont all end in tears !
Edited by pcn1 on Monday 1st August 11:34
Just a little update on this Jeep. Its been almost a year since I bought it, and I've had a few issues to deal with (which I expected from a 20 year old vehicle) but apart from that its been fine.
I expected to put £1K into this jeep plus a set of tires in the first year to give it a "bumper to bumper" oil and fluid change and do all the little maintenance it might need etc, and that's with me doing all the work.
I have in fact put nearer £2K into it plus the tires. With hindsight £500 of that wasn't necessary at this point in time, a new gearbox PCB and front CV joints that were in fact still ok. But I suppose I'm well ahead of the maintenance cycle now.
It stands me at over £5K all in, and I've just done 600 mile round trip to Cornwall with no problems, and I'd jump in it now and drive to top of Scotland with full confidence.
So I'd say to anyone, if you can find a decent example to start, that has proven service history and looks like money has been spent on it then they still can make a decent full size 4x4. All the common problems are documented on the internet with fixes.
But you do need to be able to do most of the work yourself or have a spanner man you know who works for sensible hourly rate. If your paying a garage with VAT etc then the costs would start to be prohibitive.
I expected to put £1K into this jeep plus a set of tires in the first year to give it a "bumper to bumper" oil and fluid change and do all the little maintenance it might need etc, and that's with me doing all the work.
I have in fact put nearer £2K into it plus the tires. With hindsight £500 of that wasn't necessary at this point in time, a new gearbox PCB and front CV joints that were in fact still ok. But I suppose I'm well ahead of the maintenance cycle now.
It stands me at over £5K all in, and I've just done 600 mile round trip to Cornwall with no problems, and I'd jump in it now and drive to top of Scotland with full confidence.
So I'd say to anyone, if you can find a decent example to start, that has proven service history and looks like money has been spent on it then they still can make a decent full size 4x4. All the common problems are documented on the internet with fixes.
But you do need to be able to do most of the work yourself or have a spanner man you know who works for sensible hourly rate. If your paying a garage with VAT etc then the costs would start to be prohibitive.
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