Hi, wondering what to look for when buying a Jeep xj. I’ve been looking for one for a while and want to know if this is a good car. It seems like the support for these is immense. What are your thoughts. Also they’ve been hard to find in my area, any places I should look.
I have one. They're good vehicles though there are things to look out for. The best years are considered to be 1997-1999 though earlier models are fine as well. (2000-2001 have cylinder heads prone to cracking and more complex emissions systems.)
Most are equipped with the 4.0 inline six, Aisin-Warner AW4 automatic transmission, and NP231 part-time 4WD transfer case. (A full-time transfer case was optional.) With proper care they can run for hundreds of thousands of miles. The XJ is not very good on gas unless maybe you get one with the 4-cylinder engine and manual transmission. With 4.0 and automatic you're typically looking at 15-16 mpg.
Although built much better than new Jeeps they are old. You're dealing with vehicles whose age is measured in decades so there will be old-car type issues to deal with. In particular be careful of RUST.
You can find a lot of specific information and advice here:
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/
Do a search as this has been discussed already:
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/jeep-cherokee-xj-model-years/#post-83112
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/jeep-cherokee/#post-5769
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/2001-jeep-xj/#post-89456
