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
The car itself isn’t what it once was. You imply that yourself saying that you’d do a ton of work to get it into a condition you’d be happy with. Its impact has been made. You have the pictures, the memories, the articles, and the stories to tell the kids. Don’t ruin those by creating bad/stressful memories. I’d get rid of it and focus on my more immediate projects. If the urge strikes later – perhaps as a project with the kids – buy the project that you’ll have time to do at that time and create new memories.
The vote tab isn’t working.
However I have to say reaching out and saving this particular XJ would be the equivalent of keeping your blind, deaf, and incontinent pet alive and suffering and then having it stuffed and mounted. Start letting stuff go or you will become a hoarder.
BTW you were a stud.
Bad voting choices. Sell your first Jeep, don’t buy the 2 door, and work on your ZJ if you must have a Jeep SUV. …Or sell that too and enjoy the sweat scent of freedom.
The answer is somewhere in between. Still having your first car is the crown jewel of a car guy IMO. My brother had been using my first car last and now it has been sitting for 7 years on the side yard of our moms house. He finally gave me the greenlight that if I can get it running, smogged and insured, its mine. Can’t wait to get my hands back on the YO (89 toyota pickup) and get it in my fleet. I know once its there, it will never leave. Because you only have one first car and although memories last a lifetime, they are never as vivid if you aren’t sitting in the drivers seat, remembering your grandpa teaching you how to rev match downshift.
But also, buy a real manual 4×4 for fun out in those southern california hills.
I often refer to my first car as “my first true love”. I miss it deeply, I have models and photos of it, occasionally one comes up for sale online and I always click on them and reminisce. I sold that car for a reason but I do still miss it but I’m also not sitting around trying to convince myself that it’d be a good idea to still own it.
In my case the car is long gone and the parts haven’t been available for decades. Neither of these apply to your situation so I say go for it! Bring it back! Bring it to CA and get it running and nice and then worry about transmission swaps much much later.
Neither or status quo. I’ve known several people that kept their first cars and people that wished they had. The people that kept them in a mangled original state and then sinking tons of money into restoring them to never drive them makes little sense and often causes problems as you have sunk alot of money into something you will never get back and just sits there. The stuff divorces are made of. The people that kept their first car as kind of an original driver beater seem the most happy. If you have free storage and it’s not really hurting it leave it there for a while. California typically is a place to visit then live with a lot of people leaving after a few years after realizing this. So definitely don’t tie yourself to strange laws that don’t exist elsewhere.
I’m kinda thankful my first car was a giant pile so I have no emotional attachments to it or even the model car it was.
Same or worse. For a little while here, the model kept cropping up in stories and comments for some reason, and it filled me with anxiety and anger because that piece of shit caused me so much grief and uncertainty. 😀
Neither.
You’re never going to finish the project of restoring the original XJ and manual swapping it. You haven’t even managed to assemble the “Holy Grail” ZJ. Let it go. Let somebody else wrench of 4-wheel it.
You’re also never going to do everything that manual 2-door needs. Even if you did, I know for a fact you prefer 4-doors anyways, and you’re really going to want 4-doors for brining little Delmar with you.
It’s about time you learned the value of your time.
Listen to this man
If keeping your old XJ means a cross-country drive AND a transmission swap, then just get the XJ that already has a manual.
David, wait for Leno’s Law to get a vote before deciding.
As the owner of a 1976 Maverick I’m waiting on Leno’s Law to get a vote. That Malaise Era inline 250 is going bye-bye in favor of a 302 if the law passes. If Leno’s Law does not pass, an EV swap will be researched.
Don’t hold your breath on Leno’s law (which reminds me, I’m surprised this site hasn’t covered it yet). There’s still a lot of pushback.
Just doing a CA legal 302 swap would probably be much easier than an EV swap. My 1985 Ford has a smog legal EFi 347 stroker swapped in.
The answer is staring you in the face! You ‘give’ it to Jason. (Sorry Jason) Think about all the cars everyone has already gifted Jason. The pickup, the minivan, that Yugo, the taxivan. Jason seems to just figure it out with all the cars. He either uses them, gives them away, mutilates them with a chainsaw, rolls it down a ditch or rams it into animals. You can get some articles from this.
Two shitbox showdowns in one day. What a treat!
I’m voting neither.
David, you have far too much on the go to deal with hauling that thing back from Michigan, finding a parking space and even think about working on it. You have a young child, a new house, in reality a whole new life. The K1500 can serve as your wrenching fix. The time with your family is far more important. Now that my younger son is 6 and the older is 9 I can carve out some time on weekends to get some small projects done.
Let it go. Don’t buy the 2 door until you sell the others or commit to selling the others. I’m sure the cold, hard reality of how much free time you have with a wife & kid is hitting you hard. It’s just not there! Honestly, anything beyond 3 is almost a burden and eventually not worth it. You have to ditch one of the trucks and the other Jeep and your brother’s Mustang as they are just reminders of time you don’t have. Sell the YJ to get the XJ 2 door. The first car is gone at this point, honestly – even if you keep it the memories will always be better than the reality. Being 15ish years older than you I realized the sentimentality of cars is like 10% the car itself and 90% the stage of life you were at when you had that car. Might as well make new memories with a new car. Loving the XJ is a reason to get the 2-door over the YJ, not a reason to keep your first.
Easy answer…..ask Elise (NHRN), and then do that. That’s what I do, and it’s worked for 35+ years. Of course, I don’t drive a sports car, I don’t have a boat, I don’t have a cool truck, and I don’t have my first car (1974 Toyota Celica). But what I do have is a happy wife….and that means, happy life!!! 🙂
“Just keep the cars that make you happy. And don’t think about selling our wedding Jeep!”
You are a lucky man……my wife is far more practical and isn’t afraid to provide “direction”
.
There really is someone for everyone! 🙂
That 2 door sounds like a potential diaster that you might have ready for Delmar to drive to college. If you’ve already found rotten floors and rockers there will be other rust to deal with – and fixing that is going to be far more work than swapping a transmission.
I think they’re both bad ideas and buying one that’s good in the first place is the correct thing to do with all of your time constraints, but of the two I would pick the first car.
(mine has been sat in a garage for over 20 years. I’ll get to it…soon)
No you are in the land of rust free vehicles. Let little Delmar pick his 1st ride and then work on it together. Have his 1st under age beer with him in the garage.
No. If you have to have one because you like the vehicle that much and not for the memories it doesn’t hold, get a much nicer one that’s already finished. Unless you have enough money for the kid’s future, the house is paid off, you have a decent retirement account, and you can afford to pay someone else to restore it, consider it gone. You will not have the time to DIY and, if you try to make the time, you will just be throwing away more money before inevitably junking it down the road while neglecting people that are far more important. Nostalgia was originally, rightfully considered a disease. We’ve kind of let that part slip as the definition has expanded quite a bit from its original attribution to war veterans, but it’s still a disease that costs time and money to people who cannot afford the indulgence (for those that can afford it, it’s not nearly so bad). What you’re trying to hold onto through an old vehicle is a rose-tinted, highlighted memory that you already have. Holding onto that vehicle will get in the way of the now and of future memories.
I have no interest in having my first car back or a different one like it (and that was a 240Z), but subbing in my automotive true love, the ’90 Legacy wagon I had to let go of as part of getting into a much nicer house in a much lower-stress place, I’m ultimately better off for it being gone. The stress of guilt from it sitting in the garage for over a decade awaiting restoration funds that kept going to renovate the 1st house was a burden I didn’t realize I had until the car was gone. It’s not necessarily easy, but life isn’t and, of course, there’s far worse than this.
Nostalgia starts with “no.”
It also starts with N.O.S. like the parts David will need.
I still love my 1st, a ’91 Toyota pickup. Regular bed, single cab, vinyl seats and floors, no rear bumper, no a/c, manual everything. It was a powertrain with a place to sit and a place to haul stuff. It would be immensely foolish to buy it again (if I could find it, if it still exists) because my life revolves around my kids’ needs, not my desires.
You have a newborn, your 1st. You’re only just beginning to realize that it’s not your life any more, it’s Delmar’s. You’ve got at least 18 years until your life is yours again.
Eh, when it comes to wrenching, train the kids early. I grew up with a Ford V8 block sitting in the living room before Dad put it all back together to sell. I have fond memories of learning to read the numbers on box-end wrenches and learning the difference between Philips and flat-head screwdrivers. I’m sure David will get pride and joy from teaching such things to wee Delmar_B.
So David should be able to back to wrenching in six years or so.
Two-door seems great for a new dad. For when you’re not toting Delmar on the back of a GSXR and splitting lanes on the 101.
Unless you think you will get a lot of clicks ($) off making content restoring either one of them (and actually doing it), I’d say pass. At least for a few years while you raise the kid.
DT doesn’t do restoration articles or actual restorations. Much like my computer search history DT does barely legal. Car Restoration
Lemme get thus straight, DT. You can somehow justify spending THIRTY EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS on a fancy-shmancy, gold edition Bee-Em-Dubya, but somehow, the mental gymnastics to rationalize purchasing a good condition, manual equipped XJ is just a bridge too far.
Sell all your junk. I mean AAAAAALLLL your junk. The Jeep truck. The various and sundry GC Holy Grails. Basically, everything but aforementioned fancy-shmancy, gold edition Bee-Em-Dubya, the Mustang (not yours anyway), and the Chevy truck. Then buy a good, clean stock XJ equipped the way you want.
Then ruin it for content.
Tough call on what to do with a rusty ’92 XJ. The memories are great, but the tin worm never sleeps, yada yada.
I wouldn’t presume to have the answer, but I can share what happened with my own 92 XJ:
When I was a newish Chrysler employee, I steered my Dad into buying a twin to your XJ, a new ’92 Laredo, except in Spinnaker Blue.
That thing was amazingly reliable and completed its entire life cycle within our family. Dad drove it for 12 years, then sold it to my brother who drove it another 5 years. Then I bought it and let my kids drive it during college.
Finally, they graduate and I find myself with a rusty 22 year old XJ. I had visions of restoring it to its former glory, but just doing the body would have been a massive undertaking, so I just drove it as is for a couple years.
One morning I got in it to head out for the day and the front seat is soaked due a chronic leak I never found the source of. I decided right then, it owed us nothing and it was time to sell it.
I sold it to one of my dealerships sales managers for his kid to drive to high school. I still miss that XJ, but fully recognize it did its job for almost 24 years and it was never coming back to what I was.
Of course, I still look at CarGurus and Bringatrailer often. For $25K or so, there’s some really nice rust free XJs still out there. Might still be one in my future.
Considering the work it would take on that two door, just restore the one you truly love.
I can speak from experience on both sides of the keeping/selling equation. I sold my 1988 Crown Vic that I loved. It needed a lot of work to survive my move from small town to state capital and be useful. I miss it from time to time.
That then influenced my decision making after my Dad died when his 1999 Ford Explorer XLT (that was my grandfather’s, then mine, then my dad’s) came available. My Mom didn’t need it, my siblings didn’t need it, and I didn’t really need it since I was living in Boston and was already renting one parking space for $150 a month. However, nostalgia is a bastard and I paid to get the thing running and shipped it up to Boston from deep south Georgia. The problem was it had a million little problems (broken trim, bad window motors, broken door handles, locks, failing electronics, 200,000+ miles) and I had a baby. So, I sold it. Felt deeply emotional. Got better.
If I’d had funds, space, and knowledge things would be different. You want an XJ and want it right? Spend the money on something you truly believe in. Your son will appreciate it when he gets older. The wealth of knowledge and stories is irreplaceable. You only get this chance once.
As others have said, it is what you were able to do with your car, the memories you created and the fun you had with other people that count. Not the car. Yes, it is an important tool in enabling you to do the things that mattered to you. But the car does not have feelings. It won’t love you back.
It’s tough to not have feelings for the inanimate things that are such big presences in our lives. I think I do this with my houses more than the cars but still do it with the cars too.
Now, repeat after me: I do not have time in my new life, with a newborn child and newly-wedded wife, to fully restore a Jeep in such a bad state. No matter how emotional I may be in letting it go, it is the right thing to do.
Is this even a question? You only get one first car. This is your old friend and you have the chance to keep it. Mine is razor blades now and I would love to sit in and drive it again. Put in the body work and take your time.