Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Jeep is named for the proud people of the southeastern US - whose land many consider to have been stolen from them. It’ll be up to you to determine if this supercharged Cherokee’s price is also a steal.
While yesterday’s faux Firebird featured a traditional screaming chicken on its shaker hood, it was in fact the Thunderbird that took its name - and in early iterations its turquoise trim - from Native American legends and traditions. The Firebird legend arose half a globe away in the Greek mythology of the Phoenix. Fitting, don't you think?
While it was impressive, and that particular car represented the model’s rebirth from the brand’s ashes, its price wasn’t seen as myth-making, and the car fell in a 81% Crack Pipe loss.
Did you ever play cowboys and indians when you were a kid? I didn’t. In fact, my favorite Westerns are the revisionist fare like Little Big Man, Jeremiah Johnson, and Dances With Wolves.
There’s a lot of discussion going on these days over the use of Native American names for sports teams or products, some of them, like Washington’s Redskins, being considered egregiously offensive. Some have suggested that the time has come to change that team's name to something less controversial, like say the Washington Crackers, or maybe the Washington Gap Shoppers.
Hopefully today’s 1999 Jeep Cherokee SUV will prove sufficiently awesome to not bring shame to its namesake tribe. Helping it to do so is the prime motivator under its highrise hood. There you will find the legendarily stout and reliable 4.0 inline six. That engine was good for 190-bhp from the factory, but here it likely pumps out a good bit more as it has an actual pump feeding it on the supply side.
Along with the supercharger, the 4.0 gets a bigger throttle body, an OBD2 monitor and water/methanol injection. There’s a bunch of new parts in there along with the blower - including a new radiator, water pump, starter and battery. And it all looks appreciably tidy.
It all rides on a 4” lift that features Bilsteins at the corners, a 4.10 LSD in back, sway bar disconnects, and 31x10.5 tires which all should make this Jeep capable of some serious off roading. The best thing about it is, it won’t look douchie while doing it.
The gold paint looks good, especially with all the black trim. That includes a substantial roof rack and the requisite under body reinforcements. And if you don’t like the custom fabbed hood, the ad says that the factory one comes with the truck as well, you’d just have to drop the blower to use it.
There’s 98,000 miles on the clock and the interior - at least in the pics - looks to have stood the test of both mileage and time. These weren’t the most ergonomically correct or well screwed together Jeeps in history, but this one doesn’t evidence any boogers at all.
The Cherokee name has become a venerated property for Jeep and while these trucks were the first uni-body Jeeps made, they acquitted themselves as Rubicon-worthy from the get go. This one is appealing not just for its Goldilocks Mama Bear presentation, but also that supercharged mill under its hood. And how nice is it that the builder actually went to trouble to enclose the blower? Are you listening Mr. 2JZ Bimmer selling man?
The asking price for this cool Cherokee is $12,500 which would be an eyebrow raising sum for a stock truck, but in this one’s case you need to take into account its added power and overall condition, which are both pretty sweet.
What do you think about that price? Is that a good deal for so choice a Cherokee? Or, is this a Jeep that needs to be more cheap?
You decide!
Denver Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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