If you’re looking to live a life of luxury, then today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jeep is not the car for you. If instead, you like the idea of cranking your own windows and shifting your own gears, then we have much to discuss. That will include this simplistic Cherokee’s price.
The comments on yesterday’s 1990 Chevy Corvette ZR-1 followed two primary trains of thought. The first was something along the lines of “meh, it’s a C4,” while the other was a lot more lust-driven and involved a noticeable amount of implied drool. A $17,900 asking price sealed the deal for the lustful droolers, earning the ZR-1 a solid 75 percent Nice Price win.
A pretty common meme is the picture of the guy tapping his finger to his temple with the quote “you can’t ____ if you don’t ____” implying that lacking certain niceties relieves you of the problems those niceties sometimes involve.
This all brings us to today’s 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4X4 because it is about as basic a car as you can imagine, which means it shouldn’t cause too many problems as there’s really not much on it that could go wrong.
This Jeep has a modest 94,000 miles showing on the odometer and comes with a clean title, both attributes that support we’re off to a good start. It also has a fresh paint job, what the seller says is a “rust treatment,” and… well, that’s pretty much it.
Everything else about it is as basic as it gets. This is a two-door XJ which is kind of rare-ish, and that means fewer door seals to fail as well as less chance to trap water and rust. That body rolls on black-painted steel wheels which are a timeless design and should serve for years without issue. Inside, it’s all cloth upholstery and manual-crank windows which will get the job done with little muss and fuss.
Even the mechanicals are pretty basic, and that’s where the parsimony might start to get in the way. At issue is the 2.5-liter OHV four under the hood. That’s a derivation of the larger straight-six, but with just 120 horsepower and 139 lb-ft of torque, it’s down on muscle. Luckily, it’s paired with a five-speed manual rather than a party pooper slushbox. A Selec-Trac four-wheel-drive system wraps up the simple mechanicals
According to the ad, it “Runs great” and the seller claims the Jeep is ready to drive and enjoy. The ad also says it has new leaf springs in the back and has had a recent “electrical overhaul” although no detail is provided as to how extensive that was.
The interior shows some wear, most notably in a tear on the side of the driver’s seat, but it’s not in any way unlivable. Continuing the bare minimum theme, the instrument cluster is made up of a speedo and a fuel gauge, leaving all other information to be communicated by warning lights and, potentially, strange noises. Being a model built in this century, it does at least come with a pair of airbags in the dash. I’m not sure if it also offers A/C though.
As noted, that’s not a lot of stuff, and that means there’s also not a lot that could go wrong. Aside from the four under the hood, everything here looks to be a perfectly satisfying ride for someone who just wants to get by and isn’t all that into flashy baubles or the latest fad. How much should such a frugal shopper expect to spend in finding out whether less is really more?
The seller asks $7,499 for the Jeep and I’d like you now to weigh in on the truck and that price. What do you say? Is this very basic Cherokee worth that $7,499 price as it’s presented in the ad? Or, does the Jeep just not have enough kit to command that much caboodle?
You decide!
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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