When I bought my 1992 Jeep Comanche 4×4 5spd, I thought I got a white-hot deal. After all, $6,500 for such a rare, beautifully-spec’d truck is on the lower end of the market, especially given that it immediately made easy work of an 800 mils drive from Boise, Idaho to LA. But upon arriving home, I found several problems, and now the Comanche has become a money-pit.
I’ve purchased enough old vehicles to know that the sale price is only the beginning of a wallet-punishing journey towards the unreachable goal of vehicular perfection, and yet my latest Jeep Comanche expenses are still painful to swallow.
Before we get into them, let’s go through the positives, because otherwise I’ll go mad. The Jeep Comanche is essentially rust-free, which is a huge deal. Rust repairs are the worst. On top of that, the truck seems to be, at least from a powertrain/drivetrain standpoint, in almost perfect condition. The engine makes good power, it burns no oil, and it’s hooked to a transmission that shifts like it’s brand new. The Comanche is a true joy to drive, and I adore it.
But it’s a bit needy. For one, the mud-terrain tires that came on it were loud and old. I bought a new set of Kumho all-terrains, and that cost me a pretty penny: Over $400!
Then I took the MJ to get smogged, and it failed. Spectacularly. In fact, the technician at the Smog shop told me there were so many holes in the exhaust, his sniffer couldn’t even get a reading.
A glance under the truck revealed the numerous issues:
So I bought a new muffler for $40:
But I also snagged a new, California-compliant catalytic converter. Is it possible the old Idaho cat could still get me through?
Maybe? I’m not familiar enough with California Smog laws to know. Also, I’m having someone weld up an exhaust for me, so I may as well make sure they don’t have to do it twice.
There goes another $400. So that’s $800 on top of the $6,500 asking price. Another issue I realized was that my rear suspension was bottoming out over even the smallest bumps. What was the issue? The shocks were completely toast:
There goes another $100.
I fear, though, that the shocks aren’t the only issue. Even though ride height doesn’t seem too low compared to stock, I get the feeling that the rear leafs are not ready to handle the enormous 1,400 pound load I’m about to subject them to in the form of four axles, a transmission, and a transfer case for my eBay WWII Jeep build.
So I bought more leaf springs, to the tune of another $400.
There are a few expenses that, admittedly, I could have held out on, but I couldn’t resist. For one, the rear bumper is original, and given how rare factory bumpers are on MJs, I don’t want to have to worry about this one, so I’m going to replace it with a beefier one, which cost me $280 with brackets:
I also spent $200 on the trim piece for the back of the cab — a piece that is basically unobtainium. It wasn’t cheap at $220:
Add the $700 in California tax/registration fees, and I’m in this MJ deep. Much deeper than my asking price.
[Note: I also bought spare rear fender flares while they can still be obtained (they are hyper rare). Those cost me $200. Gulp!]
That puts me at over $9,000 spent on this Jeep Comanche, and I still haven’t installed air conditioning. This thing ain’t cheap! But given that it is enabling me to sell both my Chevy K1500 and my Jeep J10, I will still come out ahead. Between that, and the fact that I just adore this little red Jeep, I still have no regrets.
Top graphic images: David Tracy; DepositPhotos.com
Jeez, Everyone Expects Perfection. As you mentioned – some of those repairs could have been pushed back with the bumper-replacement being completely unnecessary and I wouldn’t count the registration fees at all as that’s just a thing any vehicle is going to have. This feels more like “money-divot” than “money-pit”.
Based on the title I was thinking you picked up a rock-crack in the windshield on the way home, the rear axle grenaded itself, followed by the transmission going and you then discovered the entire front end needed to be rebuilt. Plus tires.
Glad to see that’s not the case though – keep on Jeepn’ on!
You will be replacing that $40 muffler within a year or two. The cheap ones do not last, and rot from the inside out.
Also, almost all XJ interior parts fit. We upgraded my buddy’s cracked Comanche dash interior with an XJ dash, center console, and bucket seats.
Drill a hole at the bottom to make it last longer 🙂
It’s SoCal; that muffler will last 20 years.
OK maybe 10 (yields CO2 + *H2O*)
Are you using stainless steel parts?
David, modern cheap mufflers rot from the inside out because they’re made out of very thin metal that is not properly corrossion inhibited, especially on the rolled end seams. Engine exhaust condensate is corrosive, because the CO2 combines with the water vapor to form carbonic acid. The moisture will collect in the end seams and rot them out.
Honestly expected worse.
Stop it. It’s just smog – neither an acronym nor an initialism, and absolutely should not be all capitalized.
Damn straight. It’s a portmanteau of smoke and fog.
Exactly!
Wow you feel strongly about that lol. It is done.
A money pit Jeep. Imagine that.
You wanna keep this truck for a long time?
Get Bilsteins. Every single other brand of shock I’ve used on old trucks were shit and I wish I had just paid a little more for the Bilsteins every… single… time.
You spend ~$900 replacing wear items on a 33-year-old truck and that’s…needy? No, sir! 🙂 This is just the price of making an old purchase right. Sometimes you get luckier (the biggest expense in the first two years I owned my 911 were a set of tires) and sometimes less lucky, but if you want it reliable you have to spend something.
And honestly, there’s some joy I get in FEELING the improvements that I myself get to make.
There’s the thing, right there — the wins are noticeable, and you did them yourself.
Recently, I did the end links on my Sonata. It wasn’t a big deal to do, but I took the hour to do it, enjoyed myself (er….mostly), and when I was done, the car was noticeably improved. That’s always a great feeling.
Loving a vehicle and wanting to make it better (the bumper) is also completely OK. When you love a vehicle, not everything has to make sense. It just has to make you happy.
This is like 80% of the happiness I get in maintaining my cars, when they’re not driving me crazy. There’s even some *dis*satisfaction when I do something that’s necessary but provides no obvious change in experience afterwards.
Not unexpected stuff with the age.
I don’t have Jeep colored glasses, I’d be flogging it while it’s fixed and keeping the Chevy. It is a better pickup.
Exactly. Keep the Wrangler for Jeep things and California cruising with the top down and use the Chevy for truck stuff.
The Chevy is indeed the better pickup. But, if I were keeping only the “better” vehicles, I wouldn’t own any of the cars I do now. lol
California David Tracy: Complains that 1992 Jeep Comanche (33 years old with 200,000+ miles) has rotted exhaust, needs new tires, has borked shocks, and needs new leaf springs. A well-maintained $6,000 vehicle with a few thousand put into it, some of which is cosmetic and registration.
Michigan David Tracy has shown us a vehicle that is more rust than steel, says it is totally acceptable to put unholy wad of money into vehicle that doesn’t deserve it in the least; basically proceeds to rebuild vehicle from iron oxide.
There’s gotta be a middle somewhere in here.
On ANY used vehicle with 200k miles I’d be budgeting for exhaust, tires, shocks, springs…This all seems like completely normal (and predictable) stuff to replace on a decades old vehicle with 200k miles on it along with the A/C which apparently needs work as well. Major engine or transmission work would really not be out of the question either, hopefully it passes the emissions test with just a cat and exhaust, that was always my big concern when looking at out of state cars to import into California. The one good thing is apparently no rust repair needed.
Agreed.
Mercedes is the new David
She is the one in the rust belt, so yeah, you’ll get more rust content from Merc for sureeee
So you’re saying I should buy semi-rusty cars? Maybe cars from, say, Virginia or Maryland?
Ha! Enjoy the non-rusty cars for me, as I will almost assuredly have to deal with them all my life.
I know that “My 200,000 Mile Comanche Needs Some Wear-Related Repairs (And Registration and Cosmetic Stuff Too)” isn’t as compelling a title for a post, but the money pit for this particular vehicle doesn’t seem deep relative to the age/mileage. (I saw the edited title, just FYI)
Pretty much all cars are money pits. The only difference is if you are in the pit at the beginning of the vehicle’s life for depreciation, or closer to the end for maintenance/wear/repair. You know this all too well.
Your (good condition!) Comanche has come to a happy new home and a good story to it. It is less ‘money pit’ versus ‘worthy tender love and care’.
Hey realize the holiday but why can’t I get access to member right after I paid for a year membership?
Mr Sarcastic, we’ll look into this right away!
Just Empty Every Pocket 😛
You should’ve gotten a Borla exhaust and Bilstein shocks 😉
I’ve just about quintupled the $1,200 purchase price of my old Forest Service Chevy in the six and a half years I’ve owned it. Comes with the territory. You do it because you love it, or you don’t do it at all.
Your headline is a bit shock-jock-ish, Don Imus. I would not as far as to say money pit… yet.
I tweaked it. I’m not here for shock-jock. Just telling you stories about my cars, as usual.
Maybe a money divot
I may be different than your average bear, but instead of having your friend weld it, buy a cheap flux core Welder for $90 from harbor freight and have your friend teach you. Great thing about learning on exhaust is it doesn’t matter what it looks like, and if you learn on thin metal + cheap Welder you can do next to anything with a good machine and thicker metal.
I’m abysmal at welding thin stuff. 1/8 to 3/16 is my happy place.
I probably spent 10 hours welding on my own with the only instruction being what was in the owners manual on a cheap Lincoln flux core welder before I spent about 1 hour with someone who actually was good at it. They kept telling me what I was doing wrong and showing me the right way to do things over and over, and eventually you understand that the sound is the most important thing to pay attention to at first, and what it should sound like for different scenarios. Having unlocked that knowledge everything after came easy including learning TIG or using an unfamiliar welder for the first time. I’ve fixed a ridiculous amount of things around a race track with the worst of the worst harbor freight welders and a small generator or battery pack, and I’m sure that could be useful at places like Moab.
Check your springs and gvwr sticker, 1400 pounds in the bed is probably near your total payload. You’d better start dieting and not take any luggage on your trip.
Not sure if its a metric ton or not. If it isnt, its 1500lbs. If it is, its 2200
DT hasn’t said if it has the big ton package, if not, payload is 1400-1500 depending on options.
Quelle surprise!
It sounds like you’re fixing the issues for a reasonable cost. I sure hope none of these issues are surprises. Most of it sounds like basic stuff that you hopefully saw before you bought the thing.
So you’re losing money on each fix but you’ll make it up in volume? Because math!
Also, $400 for new name brand tires = “pretty penny”? Now you’re just trolling us.
If it was $400 each, I’d understand, but $400 total? sign me up!
Keep in mind just how extraordinarily cheap he is.
I remember when spending $400 on a set of tires was a pretty penny, but now especially for an AT truck tire that is cheap.
Brand loyalty ain’t cheap 😉
You probably could have had the rear leaf springs re-arched for less than 400 bucks. Maybe a lot less. For that matter you could probably have done it yourself for free if you have a press and some time.
With new bushings, it’d be a wash. And given that these do fracture with age, buying new was the move.
Having just bought my dream truck, an 89 4Runner for 7500 then proceeding to replace the alternator and tires, I feel your pain. I also will be using this post as evidence to my wife that I’m not a lunatic.
Your plan is to use DT as a paragon of sanity?? Um… I see one minor flaw in your plan.
Yea but I wasn’t going to tell her that!
Set high expectations (low expectations???)
I did just buy a new head unit for 1 whole dollar. So that was a win.
Dude, you bought a car that was manufactured when the first George Bush was in office. Of course it’s a money pit!!
Oooh – that’s a fun way to think about cars! I have one that was built when Nixon was barely still in office! Then one Clinton and three Obama. Good years, those Obama years. I think I draw the line at cars built during his presidency – no need for me to ever go newer than that.
Yeah, it’s a different perspective on the age/era of things. I like to remind my wife that when we first met in Germany, the Deutch Mark was at an all-time high vs the dollar. The D-mark is no longer in circulation. One of our first dates was in Czechoslovakia, a country that no longer exists.
Oh yeah – times sure have changed (for better and for worse, but the constant is change).
One of my best friends is a Hungarian guy from Budapest. Came to U. Maine Machia to play basketball on a scholarship fall of ’89. His whole damned world had changed when he went home for Christmas break. He’s now a US citizen and living in my hometown in Maine with his Hungarian wife and two kids. I did NOT see that coming when I was tutoring him through Accounting 101 in 1989. 🙂
My best friend and I did the Eurail thing in the summer of 1989 . . . at one point we had to decide if the next destination was going to be Amsterdam or Berlin. We flipped a coin and Berlin it was. A few months later, The Wall, which we spent a couple of eerily quiet hours walking along was gone and the world was a dramatically different place.
I visited the Wall Museum in 2011. Creepy. If not near as bad as going to Dachau in 2015. That sort of place really makes you think about just what horrible creatures humans can be.
David Tracy you fail to answer the big question. Okay it is a money pit. But is it a Holy Grail Money Pit? Don’t tell me you don’t know when you get a good deal there is going to be something. Also replaced a perfectly good bumper is on you. I have added a a lead spring or two but you can resend the existing leafs or turn them over. I took a job one time and the leaf springs in both company trucks were bent in the total opposite direction. The owner’s son ordered trucks that could only handle the box and 9 empty mail carts. Once those mail carts were filled with newspapers the trucks were thousands of pounds over weight.
It is indeed a grail. And yeah, my springs are not nearly that bad. They’d be fine for daily driving.
Yeah, that’s how old vehicle ownership goes. As long as you and your lovely wife Elise (NHRN) are agreed and not jeopardizing your kid, it’s fine.
Yeah but keep an eye if Elise NHRN ups your insurance pay out. JK
I can’t tell if these and similarly themed Mercedes posts are thinly veiled click/rage bait for those who follow or not
Nah. They are authentically what they present themselves to be. They may both be crazy, but they’re OUR crazy, and they are for sure real.
Seconding what Shop-Teacher said. Yeah, seems like you’re new around here, lol, otherwise you’d know by now that David & Mercedes are seriously and genuinely legit about what they are and what they do. They’re the real McCoy 🙂
As for catching up, their old posts are indeed worthwhile reading…
I have been following since the very first Jalopnik article. At some point, there is a brand to maintain