I’m facing a dilemma. Right now, my first car — a 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ — sits in the woods in northern Michigan, abandoned, alone, and scared. Its owner ditched it and moved west to California, where he bought a bunch of rust-free cars and built a new family. Now it doesn’t know what to do, because it worries nobody can appreciate it like its former owner did, and that it is doomed to the scrapyard.
Right now I’m trying to decide what to do about my first car, a 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ.
That’s this thing standing next to 19 year-old me:
Look at how nice that Jeep looked 15 years ago, and look at how fit I was! Alas, times have changed. I’m balder and fatter, and my Jeep’s rocker panels are filled with holes, the bottoms of the doors are rusty, and the flat suspension has been lifted.
I have to say: That was the best $1,400 I ever spent, even if the Jeep did have 218,000 miles on it at the time. Learning to fix this Jeep got my foot into the door at Cummins diesel company, which got my foot into the door at Chrysler, which got my foot into the door at Jalopnik, which led me here.
I owe this Jeep a lot, and the nostalgia of it all does tend to get to me.
It’s hard not to wax poetic about all those times I drove with my brother in the Shenandoah National Forest back in college:
And all those times I used that XJ to really hone my off-road skills.
That Jeep was the vehicle that took me to Detroit for the first time; I recall my mom road-tripping with me from Virginia. The Jeep had no AC, so we rolled with the windows down. Mom actually enjoyed that.
Then, when I got a full-time job after my Chrysler internship, that Jeep really took me to adulthood, and showed me the city of my dreams — Motor City.
I eventually lifted the Jeep:
What an absolute tank a stock XJ with a 3″ lift and 31s is:
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Anyway, Michigan winters and the stupidity of my youth did a bit of a number on my XJ. I hydrolocked the original engine, then I overheated the new engine and filled the rear axle with water during the off-road trip shown above (Drummond Island, the Mudfest of Michigan), toasting the bearings.
So now, after 30,000 miles and 15 years, here sits my first car — a 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ — on a reader’s property in northern Michigan; it hasn’t moved in two years:
I want an XJ in my life, as XJs are what started it all for me, but I’m facing a dilemma.
Do I rescue my OG XJ and try to bring it back to life, fixing its body, restoring it, and eventually going through the considerable effort of a manual transmission swap, since I have no interest in driving an old auto Jeep? Or do I just pick up the two-door five-speed XJ below, which needs floorboards, carpeting, steering column trim, and a little bit of seat and rocker love, but otherwise seems great?
The reality is that finding an already-clean five-speed is a $10,000 affair, and I’m not about that. So that two-door above is tempting, though my original has my heart.
See, this is the trouble with first cars. There’s only one, and nostalgia’s powerful pull makes getting rid of it difficult, even when maybe that’s the most logical move. And so maybe the move is to just embrace that, and to get my OG XJ back and turn it into the ultimate.
All Images: Author
Pssst, I added a poll if you wanna scroll back up and tell David what move to make with your vote 🙂
Needs more options…
Is it me, or are the votes not being counted? I voted, and it still shows zero votes.
Maybe this is divine intervention of some kind, from the Automobilia gods.
Or it’s just a glitch, your choice.
You forgot the “Ditch ’em both and focus on getting the cat birthing center out of the Galpin parking lot” option. I’m willing to bet it would get at least one vote from Beau.
That’s my vote! Stick with me here: One car for your wife (whatever she chooses, in this case it’s a Lexus), one DD for you that’s SAFE and RELIABLE, and a third car that is whatever the flavor of the month is. Want something else? Sell what you have.
As much as I get the appeal of the 2 door Cherokee, Delmar is going to be in child seats for years and having rear doors will make life easier, especially when you are trying to transfer a sleeping Delmar in or out of the car. Rescue the ’92. I still miss my first Cherokee. And my second. And my third.
I watched an attractive, but healthy sized woman wrestle a rear facing car seat loaded with a child whose legs were beyond the end of the squab, out of a 4 door Altima into the back of a VW SUV. I can’t imagine how much more difficult that would have been if either vehicle were a 2 door.
You only have your first car once. In an episodd of Roadkill, Mike Finnegan references another Davids first car saying “you would think that would be his favorite car, but its not. Its just Daves car”.
That XJ might not be your favorite, but its your car. You know its ins and outs, its needs, and some of its history. I vote to fix it. Sure it needs work, but why not? You can get rust free parts now easily. You can weld now. You can do mechanical. For now you can get it running and safe and have a jeep that will fit the whole family. Maybe Elise NHRN will drive it. Maybe Delmar will have some of his earliest memories there. Maybe youll realize your true self driving it across oklahoma on a final trip, bridging your old life and new as you bring it to meet a new life in california.
Speaking as somebody who still has their first car, you only get it once. Sure it may bare the scars of younger mistakes, need some work, and be less than perfect. But its your car.
It sounds like the OG might be pretty far gone to be a restoration project given your current time-crunch situation. May I suggest that you save something from that Jeep… steering wheel, badges, that sort of thing and install them on the new Jeep? That way you have a piece of your first car on the new vehicle you will be making memories in with your new family.
This is a great idea – save some of the nostalgia, leave the headaches and excessive time-consumption.
I have small piece of every car I’ve ever owned. And the only marque or model logos I saved were from cars headed to the crusher.
My first car was a 1967 Chevy Camaro 327 w/ Powerglide that was red on red. After some upgrades, it crushed… EVERYONE said “keep it forever”.
I sold it to pay for tech school after college in 2005. One of the best decisions of my life.
Family, kids, a few house moves; it got me to understand that a car is just a car, but wrenching is enjoyable.
It opened up me up to other cars instead of being a “Chevy guy”. Eventually, I fell into the cult of AMC and AMC-era Jeeps, along with owning an air-cooled VW Beetle, Fords, Toyotas, modern Jeeps, Hondas, a Pontiac, an Oldsmobile, etc.
The pictures and memories are what matters, not the metal and glass.
Honestly, I think most of us would be better off with a bit less nostalgia.
To riff from the Disney movie Frozen, “Let it Go.” Read this post in the voice of Idina Menzel if it helps.
Keep the jeep, endless source of content if you plan to fix it up properly, not to mention we only get one first vehicle.
I am currently planning on resurrecting/restoring my first car – 1971 triumph spitfire for my 15th anniversary of ownership next year.
Like you my car has opened a lot of doors for me, and it’s had a massive impact on my life/career and pushed me into engineering (amusingly away from automotive).
At this stage unless the car either is destroyed or stolen it’s with me for life. ( even though we have an abusive love hate relationship)
I got my first car when I was seventeen years old and kept it as my daily driver (for nearly all of that time my only driver) for about fifteen years, which is to say it had been a fixture throughout my entire adult life to that point when I let it go. I thought I would regret parting with it but that was [unintelligible] years ago and I’m still fine with the decision. My advice is to do the same.
David, your ’92 XJ is very similar to my old ’89 XJ Laredo. Hit me up if you want to sell.
First car was a ’78 LTDII Brougham coupe. Got almost a year out of it before it spun a bearing in the 351W. Too much rust to be worth fixing, got a Fox body LTD next.
“… which needs floorboards … but otherwise seems great”
Oh goodness, no. That’s not a minor restoration. Once you get to floorboards, I’m out.
I’ve had two cars restored and the three things I took away from it were: 1. It will cost three times what you expect 2. It will take twice as long as you expect 3. In the end it won’t be worth what you’ve spent on it (If it’s an emotional thing and you can afford it, then accept this). And neither of my cars needed floorboards.
For the record one of those cars was my first, and I still have it.
Floorboards aren’t bad… Until you hit the pinch seams in a unit-body car (like a Jeep YJ has), then you can start to kiss the integrity good bye!
For XJs floorboards are a wear item. Seriously, they all leak from the windshield or the dash upper and rust out beneath the carpet. I riveted/seam sealed floorboards into an XJ, it wasn’t bad and did the job for years of DD work. If I could’ve welded it would have been even better.
It is a burden.
Romanticizing any car, truck, motorbike, whatever, is a burden.
Cars are tools; their purpose in our lives is to execute a task.
Maybe that task is getting you to and from work, maybe it is track days, maybe it is making you feel warm and fuzzy when you look at it… It can be one of those things. A combo of these things or even a whole list of things I have never even thought of that YOU value in a car.
My opinion is that if you have a car that is not bringing something positive to the table, it is time for it to move on.
My first car is long gone; I sold it to finance some other dumb fixation.
Maybe from time to time, I do miss it a little. But then again, I also miss several of the people I have dated that I am FOR SURE better off without.
I have owned several similar trucks to that first one over the years and I never would have been able to experience them had I clung to that first one.
So much this, life and time move on.
I still have my 96 XJ from over 20 years ago, with no plans on selling it, even though it only sees maybe 1000 miles/year and is objectively kind of terrible at this point in a lot of ways. Unless you count the 92 XJ my parents had and I drove in high school, it’s my first car. That said, it has also been my only car in the “extra” or “project” type of category for that entire time.
I’d say a first car is a blessing if it is your one extraneous vehicle, that still gets at least occasional use, but a curse if it is just one of many, and in that case, most/all of the extra vehicles are more of a curse. Pick 1, maybe 2, and focus on those.
I’ve told the story here before, but my first car was a hand-me-down 1984 Subaru GL sedan with 4WD and a digi dash. I did not appreciate it at all when I had it and happily dismissed it when my father got me a Mustang.
Guess which car I miss way more 30 years later? And guess which car is nearly impossible to find? I did find my new project 1989 Subaru GL hatch, which is the closest thing I could get and it definitely touches on the nostalgia for me.
To be fair, tho, the first car I got with my own money was my 1968 Olds, which I still have 30 years later and will NEVER part with. So I get it. If you have the means to hang onto it, no other car is ever the same car.
Ditch everything except the bimmer, the chevy. Keep first jeep, as your only wrenching project. It will be enough.
I would go with the clean Jeep as a new chapter with your kid, I think the young version of you is gone and just a nice memory, you will need time to fix the jeep sitting in Michigan and just the logistics of fixing it and then moving it or just transport it and sit for months now at Galpin Motors, no bueno.
It’s quite the dilemma considering you now have Delmar (nhrn.)
I feel like the best option is selling it to a good home, preferably to an Autopian, who has the time and money to fix it up. Letting it rot in the woods is the worst option right now, don’t get into the “dreamer” mentality, which is where you tell yourself (and dream) that one day you will fix it but you ultimately never get the time. This “dreamer” mentality will end up with the car rotting away for 10 years to the point where there is nothing to salvage.
I currently have my first car, and it’s been my only car. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it, because I absolutely love it and I know if I sold it I will be kicking my ass in the future.
Blessing. I have the first car I bought when I got my first job out of college. Its a 1980 MAZDA RX7 GS which I bought used in 1983 for about the same price it sold for new in 1980 and it had a 19% 5 year loan. Do the math, its scary. Still have it and just finished going to DGRR https://www.dealsgaprotaryrally.com 20th annivesary meet. Dave, you really need one of these. I know we have discussed it ages ago,
David, I had the same experience with my old jeep as well. I bought a 1990 YJ Wrangler when I was 13, and spent 3 years doing an engine swap & suspension upgrades to have ready for my 16th birthday. I drove through highschool and college. eventually I took it off the road and kept it around at my parents place, and then friends yards for ~5 years. After marriage and a new baby, realized I needed to simplify my life. So ended up selling the YJ and an old Silverado and decided on a new-to-me Jeep Gladiator. Absolutely great decision, and excited to wheel with the Family. The YJ was the car for me, the Gladiator is the car for me & the family.
My BIL kept the family 63 dodge until sometime in the 2010s and it was a mouse filled rusty hole in a barn floor when it was gone. Let it go to some kid to be their first car.
I’ve never been able to understand the idea of a forever car, I love my cars, but after 1-3 years, I am always ready for a new adventure and sell them. Very rarely have I ever regretted a sale. Having said that, I also have never had the option of accumulating a large number of vehicles, so that has a lot to do with my attitude. When you’re capped at 3, you have to let stuff go. On that note, to quote the snow queen “let it go”, it sounds like it’s time to move on. Someone far funnier and more creative than me could probably come up with a whole song for it, but that someone is not me.
Let it go. Cars age, and most reach the point of no return sooner or later. It’s important to let something go when it’s needs take up too much time/money/energy/etc in life. It did what you needed it to for so so many years, part ways with it now, and keep the good memories, the longer you hold onto it, the more it will hurt you, annoy you, and cause pain and strife. Let it go on a high note, and be nostalgic for it, letting it’s absence pave the way for new exciting memories, before it’s presence turns into a burden that stands in the way.
David, part ways. I did this last year with my 88 Fiero Formula that my dad bought when I was nine and then I had for 15 years. I LOVED that car, but it was the best decision to move on. As Peter Eagan would say “old car are old cars.” Find something that needs less work. You’re in a new chapter with kids and that is more important.
Well in the case of my first car, owning it was a burden, and a major one at that. It was a Mercury Bobcat, I haven’t seen it in 40 years, and that’s ok.
Let it go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk
drink to moving on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLch9kVSNA