Views on Jeep Grand Cherokee

[Zanderman]

Morning All,

I am looking for a large 4 x 4 and have been looking at the above.

Basically as my 3 lads get bigger I need something that can get bashed about, something that can take them all, loads of kit in the boot and will handle the winter if we continue to get loads of snow (and for camping/shooting/football/rugby etc). Also dont want to spend a huge amount!

I have been looking on the Trader and you can get a 04 ish Jeep Grand Cherokee with sensible mileage for around 5 or so grand which seems like a good price to me. Would spend up to say £7k for something.

They look fairly nice to me and cant seem to find any real horror stories.

So are they any good? Is there anything I should be looking at around that age/price bracket?

Cheers!!

[Arthur Jackson]

I have a mate who works (free-lance mechanic) for a 'Prestige' (LOL) car sales place and he dreads them getting these in. He reckons they are unreliable and awkward to work on.

[mercfunder]

Ain't the three litre diesels a Mercedes engine?

They are the one I would look for, a lot easier to get fixed.

[m3jappa]

I have had a 2.7crd 04 reg for nearly 3 years and about 20k miles. The only things to have gone wrong were a pipe came off the turbo making consumption really bad, a slightly leaky injector and a module of some sort went on the autobox costing 400.

I think thats quite reasonable,certainly not unreliable.

Btw they love the snow

[Aeroresh]

Ive got a V8 Overland model as a family hack. Its been alright reliability wise save for a new rad. Parts can be expensive in the UK, although theres a few indy suppliers about who'll save you a bit of cash. Ive imported a few bits from the states easy enough though (including an amazing sounding flowmaster exhaust centre box for £50).

Wouldnt say they're any more or less difficult to work on than anything else.

Edited by Aeroresh on Saturday 17th September 10:47

[redgriff500]

Get the V8 with an LPG kit on it.

They won't be as reliable as Jap stuff and will be far better than Land Rover and Korean stuff.

[Zanderman]

So it looks like they are not too bad in terms of reliability and they certainly seem to offer good value for money.

Anything else I should be looking at in this price bracket?

[anonymous-user]

I gather parts price and availability in the UK can be problematic. I would expect the petrol engine to be ultra reliable as the Merkins seem to expect a whole other level of mechanical robustness and longevity to us. Diesels less so, as always. I drove one as a hire car in Miami a few years ago and it was pretty bloody awful on the road even my US domestic car standards.

ETA - also really very cramped inside. No more room than a medium sized estate car. Bit of an anti-tardis. If real space and practicality are what you're looking at, but you insist on 4WD I'd consider quattro Audi A6 avants and Volvo XC70 / V70 AWD models. Truth be told for your usage I see no "need" for 4wd but that doesn't mean you don't want one.

Edited by dme123 on Saturday 17th September 14:33

[Deva Link]

dme123 said:

I drove one as a hire car in Miami a few years ago and it was pretty bloody awful on the road even my US domestic car standards.

ETA - also really very cramped inside. No more room than a medium sized estate car. Bit of an anti-tardis.

I've driven a few in the US & Canada and they vary a lot. A rather battered looking proper AWD (the Florida ones are only 2WD, despite the 4x4 badge on the rear door) version in Canada was the nicest to drive. Agree, especially bearing in mind the OP said "large" that they're not massive inside.

I tentatively looked at getting a new one in the UK but the local dealer went bust. This would be a big consideration for me on a new one, and something to bear in mind used - who would you get to look after it? If you're fully capable of doing it yourself, then fine, but I'd want to make sure I had someone lined up who was familiar with these vehicles.

Re parts, I also heard RHD specific parts can either be hard to get or expensive or both. I read a comment from someone really struggling to get headlamps after a minor frent-end bump.

[Lanby]

Make sure the drivers side heating blows hot or the blend doors will need fixing and use this as bargaining power as it's a dashboard out £1000+ fix (unless you look up the bodge!).

Apart from that and expensive for parts they are a great vehicle

[Zanderman]

Must go and check one out as the internal size is kind of the point for this car.

Has now got me looking at RRS, FFRR, Cayenne's and even Audi S8's............

[bazking69]

Stats and figures don't lie. Not especially reliable, especially as they age, and UK aftersales is a point of contention, coupled with extortionate parts prices.

[Zanderman]

I guess that goes some way to explaining why they are so comparably cheap!

bazking69 said:

Stats and figures don't lie. Not especially reliable, especially as they age, and UK aftersales is a point of contention, coupled with extortionate parts prices.

[bazking69]

I wouldn't say they are a terrible ownership prospect, but I'd advise to budget for repairs or get a decent warranty just incase.

[sawman]

They are not really that big inside, which always surprises me. I looked to buy one a couple of years ago I was looking at 7-8 year old ones, and failed to find one at a dealer that had everything working. Ended up buying a merc estate which appeared to work initially, but was actually a lemon. If you want big you might be better looking at shoguns and landcruisers

[TheD]

I have a few friends that have them and they swear by their reliabilty. Infact they reckon it is one of the best motors they have had. I personally have a the older (96) model with the straight 6 and it also has never missed a beat and is at 127,000. Like anything else it is just your donald.

[Fire99]

The '04 will have the 2.7 5-Pot Mercedes Diesel engine, which is a pretty good lump by all accounts.

However, if you can stretch to the revised '05 model, you get the later 3.0 Merc diesel which is an excellent engine.

For around £7k you may be able to stretch to one.

[Mastodon2]

There was a thread about these recently on here, someone got an Orvis limited edition one. I seem to remember someone mentioning problems with the diffs, apparently they all grind their diffs eventually. Definitely something to look into because it could get pricey!

[m3jappa]

I think the reliability issues came from the original 3.0 diesel in the jeep. Thta was pretty bad from what i can gather. Not heard anything bad about the later ones though. Infact i think we are going to sell our wj and replace with a newer shape (about 06 whatever that model is called).

[Zanderman]

I have started to look at newer ones so around 06/07 and £10 - £11K so something like this looks like amazing value.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

But that puts me into NEARLY RR territory (older higher mileage I guess). Would it be worth putting a little more into the pot and looking at something like this:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

This however is what I would really like:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Started looking at £5K cars and am now its going up and up.................... God I wish I didnt give a st about what car I drove!!