One of the toughest things about getting older is watching many of the things you love disappear, and there’s often nothing you can do about it. One of those things, for me, was what I’m going to call the “Cheap Cherokee Era” — a time when true off-road capability was democratized in a way the world had never seen before and has not seen since.
I’m not even 34 yet, but I’m already feeling quite old, especially when I reminisce about where the car world stood just 10 years ago, when I started as a car journalist.
Back then, enthusiasts were still obsessed with brown diesel manual wagons, EVs were barely a thing, and not every car on the road was an expensive crossover. We were at the tail end of many golden eras, but the one I want to talk about today is one near and dear to my heart.
The one vehicle that has stirred my soul more than any other — and that changed my life’s trajectory entirely — was the 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ you see above, a vehicle that I bought for $1,400 from a Craigslist seller at my college football stadium parking lot. The burgundy machine had 218,000 miles on the clock, rusty rocker panels, and some bad oil leaks, but I didn’t care because it was mine.
That Jeep introduced me to a beautiful world — one of genuine classlessness, a diverse world of people from every walk of life. The Jeep Cherokee democratized off-road capability like no vehicle ever. This is the true story of the XJ; as entertaining as Jason Cammisa’s “The XJ Jeep Cherokee was America’s Favorite Hot Hatch” YouTube video that everyone keeps sending me is, that title does not at all describe the XJ and what it meant to the world. The XJ was the great equalizer. It was the “disposable Jeep.”
Jeep sold over 2.8 million XJs between the 1984 and 2001 model-years, with a bunch of clones in China coming thereafter. It wasn’t until 1987 that the XJ really became the XJ we know and love thanks to the introduction of the “bulletproof” four-liter, though I’d say 1991 to 2001 models are the ones that really gave meaning to the XJ name. These vehicles, especially if equipped in the most popular way (Chrysler 8.25, NP231 transfer case), were mechanically flawless aside from a few cylinder head casting issues on 2001s.
I don’t mean that literally, in that nothing could possibly fail (ask any XJ owner how many crankshaft position sensors, neutral safety switches, rear upper shock bolts, and oil filter adapter o-rings they’ve had to swap). What I mean was that, from a design standpoint, the major mechanical components — the AMC straight six-derived 4.0-liter, the Aisin-Warner AW4 automatic, the Aisin AX-15 manual, the Dana 30 front axle, the Chrysler 8.25 rear axle, and the NP231 transfer case — could quite literally last 500,000+ miles if properly maintained.
The rest of the car — interior electrics, various sensors and seals and the water pump and alternator and radiator on and on — absolutely had a propensity to fail, and the bodies were as rust prone as steel wool in a salt bath, but the main mechanical bits allowed XJs to just keep on tickin’. And with the sheer volume of XJs out there, it meant a truly reliable machine could be enjoyed by all for — in some cases — just a few hundred bucks.
But XJs didn’t just offer cheap reliability; they appended these two qualities with genuine off-road capability to the point where — on a mass scale — the XJ’s off-road capability-to-price ratio became the highest of any vehicle ever.
I don’t mean there literally were no vehicles that were more capable that you could get for less money, I’m saying that, on a mass scale — probably well over a million XJs still driving around in the U.S. in the mid 2000s — there was nothing that you could easily find on any Craigslist in any city that offered this much capability and durability for this little money, particularly if you did minor modifications.
This is also key to what made the XJ what it was. All it needed was a dirt-cheap and simple (thanks to the dual solid axles) junkyard lift kit (you could use Chevy S10 leaf springs in the back) and some 31-inch tires, and it became a formidable monster off-road that, it’s also worth noting, you could reasonably daily-drive.
It had four-doors and plenty of space inside, it offered good power and decent enough comfort — it was an unbelievably cheap, unbelievably off-road capable, unbelievably reliable machine that anyone — truly anyone — could buy for pennies and live with daily.
And that era is over. Its peak was from about 2005 to about 2015 — the Cheap Cherokee era. And my god was it glorious. Look at that giant mudpit I’m driving through in the image above. Check out the off-roading I’m doing here in that same $600 XJ:
I also hydrolocked my burgundy XJ back in November of 2015 while giving too much skinny-pedal in a deep mudpit. It was no matter, though, because the next morning I bought a replacement engine for $120 from some dudes in a barn, who took me late-night off-roading on their property in — of course — a jacked up XJ.
I later ended up flooding my rear diff while off-roading at Drummond Island:
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But that’s nothing compared to what others were doing with their XJs during the Cheap Cherokee era. For one, the XJ became the GOAT of Tough Truck Challenges, flying high off of jumps and rolling over in slaloms:
XJs were also the darling of budget-off-road challenges like my own and like my friend Fred’s:
Very few vehicles throughout history have been beaten on as hard and at as large of a scale as the Jeep XJ, which was flooded, jumped, bashed into trees and rocks, chopped up and just generally hammered by the masses. Because why not? XJs were cheap, and they were going to stay cheap forever:
The below supercut is great, because it includes this caption:
Jeep Cherokee drivers are incredible to watch. They push their Jeeps harder than anybody I know. They work with what they’ve got and beat the snot out of their rigs. I’ve been making offroad videos for six years, and whenever I need more footage for a video I know to look for the Jeep Cherokees. They ALWAYS do fun stuff and disregard their 4×4’s body. Open diffs & missing windows, these guys just go for the skinny pedal. I made this video to give thanks to all guys that don’t care about the chrome- they just want to wheel!
But of course, Jeep XJs didn’t stay cheap. Sometime shortly after I finished my aforementioned $600 XJ series (the finale did over 250,000 pageviews), XJ prices went through the roof and some folks blame me for it:
But while I undoubtedly made the world love the XJ just that tiny bit more with all of my fawning stories, the timing was just a coincidence (and it wasn’t a direct result of Cash for Clunkers, which happened in the middle of the Cheap Cherokee era). XJ values going up was inevitable, because that’s what happens when a beloved, super high-volume, especially-off-road vehicle gets old.
Nice versions become more scarce, memories of all the wacky off-road adventures turn to nostalgia, people like me who were once young become older and better equipped to spend more money/store cars, and in the end values go up. Nostalgia + disposable income + space = high car values.
On some level, I’m happy about that. Dirt-cheap XJs into infinity means all the vehicles would have beaten on until there were none left, but at the same time, I miss the Cheap Cherokee era. I loved being part of a vehicle community that was truly economically diverse and passionate. The XJ was a gateway into the car world/off-road world, and that period when anyone could get one and enjoy its capability truly to the very limit — it was absolutely epic. And it’s making me want to spend far too much money on another XJ, but a nice one. I’m grown up now, you see.
FourWheeler’s “Disposable Hero” XJ build was one of the biggest influences on my life as an off-road geek. It’s how I’m building my beater lifted BH Outback as and off-road Dad Battlewagon.
I stripped and crushed several 3rd gen Firebirds back in the day, and now they’re rare and coming up in value.
I still see a lot of fairly cheap XJ’s on marketplace. Maybe not 600 dollars cheap for running and driving, but in the post 2020 world, 2 grand is the new 600. I have 3 or 4 saved that are not completely thrashed and are in the 3-4K range. IMO that’s still fairly cheap for a running, driving 4×4 with such potential.
I’ve always kind of wanted one, maybe I’ll pull the trigger. Whenever I think of modding my 4Runner more for off-roading, I always think to myself that I should just get an XJ.
$2K is the new $600. It irks me to no end.
Same thing happened to Miata’s. It doesn’t make me sad… it increased the value of my nice one.
Yup. When I sold my last XJ I got more than triple what I bought it for.
I paid $2,250 for my ’95 Miata five years ago, with a hardtop no less. The fact that it’s worth a few times more than that now doesn’t fill me with glee, since ALL interesting old cars cost way more than they used to five years ago. If I were never going to buy another old car, I suppose that’d be OK (from a myopically selfish POV) but since I’m almost certain to buy more old cars (including the Volvo 240 wagon I purchased a couple days ago) this rise in prices fills me with sadness. 🙁
I remember reading lots of 4wd magazines in the 1990s and XJ just did not have much of an aftermarket of off roading parts for a long time. I think people did not know what they were yet.
Also I remember going for parts for my friends XJ after a cash for clunkers program and saw 100s of XJs in the junkyard with intentionally wrecked motors. It was so sad.
My mom had an 2-door ‘87 Dodge Raider (rebadged Mitsubishi Montero) with a 6 cylinder 6G72, 5 speed manual, lockers, and factory 31” tires. She bought it in about 1996 for $800 and it was awesome. I “borrowed it” a few times with friends and beat the balls off it off road. That thing was seriously off road capable with zero mods. Thing had an inclinometer on the dash from the factory to help prevent tipovers!
In about 2002 it developed a slight rod knock, and she gave it to me for free since it was effectively worthless. I lived about 35 miles away, and figured it would make it back to my place so I could check it out and see if just slapping bearings in it would keep it running. Worst case, I figured 6G72s were in everything for the past 15 years so they’d be cheap from the junk yard.
Well, I made it about 20 miles before the knock kept getting louder and louder. At 24 miles it went kaboom. I could still keep it running I just couldn’t idle or it would die.
When I finally made it home and inspected the damage it was catastrophic. The new PCB vent that had emerged in the block was the size of a human fist and there was a mangled broken rod hanging out of it. I can’t believe it made it 15 miles like that!
So I start researching new engines. They came in Dodge and Mitsu minivans, cars, trucks, they were a dime a dozen. The problem was that they weren’t interchangeable and I guess the bolt pattern on the cranks was different on the one I had vs the most commonly available ones. A replacement was going to be $1500+, and then I wouldn’t just slap it in. New clutch, distributor, plugs, wires, gaskets, belts and seals. It was gonna cost $2500 plus whatever labor I had to do in a drive way for something worth a couple hundred bucks at best. It needed new tires and brakes too.
I ended up selling it for $500, but still regret it to this day. There wasn’t a ton of those in the first place and even less now. Thing looked like a miniature LR defender or G-Wagen. The body was in great shape and the interior was dirty but would have cleaned up great. Second worst car decision of my life, after selling my fully cosmetically restored VW Corrado because there was a weird ABS brake gremlin that I (nor any shop) couldn’t figure out for about 2 years that made it unsafe to drive.
I saw a first gen (80s) Montaro 4 dr at the hardware store yesterday. the name badges were gone so It took a moment to recognize it. It was in fantastic shape for it age here in long winter/road salt midwest. IF there had been a for sale sign on it I would have called my wife she was a fan back in the day.
Lucked out and bought my purple 99 XJ at the end of the cheap Jeep era for $1200. 250k miles and well worn but almost no rust due to living down in southern VA most of its life.
Sure, there were things to fix I never faced before; like welding the notches worn in the brake caliper brackets that were causing the calipers to hang up.
It’ll only do a few thousand miles a year from here out so hopefully it lasts forever!
I still want an XJ.
Almost 10 years ago, I was deciding on an off roader and the XJ was always my first choice. I love them for so many reasons, but ultimately, I decided against it. At the time I had a new baby and I wanted something (theoretically) a little newer and safer and I liked the idea that the ZJ had rear head rests, as well as coils all the way around.
So I have a ZJ (which recently saw the motor reinstalled), which I love, but the XJ still calls to me. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure at this point it’ll be perpetually out of reach and never attainable for me.
When I had a ZJ, I always slightly longed for an XJ. In all honesty though, the ZJ was much nicer and you didn’t have to give up any capability. Only downside was that the rear suspension was just a little more involved to lift.
I understand the feeling. I had two XJs, 1986 and 1997. I live in the PNW and still see quite a few on the road in great shape. I’m often tempted to buy one, but I have enough vehicles for now. However, a quick Craigslist search of a fairly wide area shows some likable candidates. Here’s one for $2000: https://tucson.craigslist.org/cto/d/tucson-clean-jeep-cherorkee/7855834503.html and another that’s slightly more battered for $1,800: https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/cto/d/north-las-vegas-2000-jeep-cherokee/7854648314.html
You’re welcome
Oh Mr. Bologna, that white one in Tuscon looks a lot like the one my neighbor’s kid just got for her first car. I’m tempted… 😉
We used to have a near infinite supply of cheap Japanese 4x4s streaming into New Zealand. You could pick up a relatively high mile Toyota Hilux Surf (4Runner), or Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) or Isuzu Bighorn (Trooper) etc for not a lot of money. I remember my dad sent our diesel manual 4Runner with 350,000kms to auction with a blown head gasket and got only $1500 for it. Today in the same condition even with the blown head, it would be worth 5x that (in fairness I did try to convince him to fix it and keep it as a spare truck – I know he regretted it cos he still talks about it 20 years later). Those days are gone. The Japanese don’t really buy off roaders anymore, they buy RAV4s and CRV’s so we just don’t get good cheap trucks. These were our Jeep XJs and now they are gone.
Thanks for this David, and for the video links as well (I only watched the last supercut one since I’ve got some other things that I must get done this Sunday morning 😉 ).
I’ll come right out and say that I’m not a Jeep guy. I like them (some more than others) and I definitely appreciate their capabilities (even though I’ll never engage in such shenanigans myself) but I’ve never owned one, and given my age, chances are good that I never will. I’ve yet to even own a vehicle with all wheel drive (though I’ve owned some that could have been optioned that way).
I distinctly remember my first time in an XJ. I was still a skinny kid in my twenties, a film student at NYU, spending my days (and most nights) running around NYC in guerilla-mode, shooting no-budget short black & white movies using the school’s very well-worn Arriflex 16mm film cameras. One classmate of mine, a slim and freckled redhead with wire-framed glasses, had a shiny red Jeep XJ that (presumably) her parents had just bought her (some film students were from loftier tax brackets than I).
When it was her turn to direct a film that semester (so, the rest of us in the group would serve various roles as her crew… I was usually the DP/camera operator since I was the only one who’d paid attention when taught how to use a light meter so as to be able to properly expose film) she went all out, providing transportation and even some actual food. Transportation came via that shiny red XJ… I’d never been in one before and when I piled in with everyone else and all that heavy gear (old Arri film cameras last for decades even under film student abuse, in part because they’re so heavily built… if necessary, you could literally bludgeon someone to death with an Arri 16S and then, after wiping off the blood, etc… just go right back to filming with it and it’d work perfectly) I was surprised… it was a bit smaller inside that I imagined, and overall, the car felt lighter and more nimble than I expected. But it did fit an entire student film crew and all their gear, and it also seemed easy to park, facilitating the traditional shoot-and-scoot tactics we employed when outside of the university’s defined coverage area for permits and insurance.
I liked it a lot, and even though I later got to drive other Jeeps, along with Toyota Land Cruisers, etc… over the years, an XJ still appeals to me, despite their rising costs (everything costs more than it used to… I just bought an old Volvo 240 a couple days ago, and even though I paid a fair price for it, had I bought it five years ago, it would have only cost me half of what I paid now). My neighbor’s kid just got a remarkably clean and stock-looking plain white XJ as her first car, and I glance at it with admiration and a bit of envy every day. 🙂
Love this. At Fitchburg State in the late 90s we were using Volvo 240s as production haulers (and another kid had an 80s 4-Runer).
And we shot with CP-16s, equally good bludgeons
Agreed. The French cameras they had (Eclair, maybe?) were way more fragile than German, British, or American stuff. But the French ones were so much easier to carry.
Besides, the 16MM cams made the old 2-piece UMatic ENG rigs seem like boat anchors!
PS: I did (surprisingly, to me anyway) get just a wee bit of auto maintenance done on Sunday. Well, a pal of mine did, but I lent moral support, provided a semi-clean bathroom for him to use, and kept my dog in check/occupied. My pal just replaced most of the hoses on a first-gen Toyota MR2 he’s restoring, so he had a bunch of special-purpose tools to make getting brittle old hoses out of engines easier. My first-gen XC90 has had an evap error for a year, and I’d already purchased a few feet each of different hose diameters, so he came over and we (he) swapped out 4-5 segments from the appropriate section. There’s still quite a bit to go yet (so much plumbing on those 5-cylinder turbo engines, and it’s amazing how brittle hoses can get in just 20 years) so I haven’t disconnected the battery to reset the errors to see if the problem is resolved yet. Right now, I gotta find a cover or tarp for the 36-year-old 240 wagon I just bought, since I strongly suspect that the gasket around the windshield will leak prodigiously if it rains.
It never ends, this old car thing. At least not until you die.
I have one of these stories! My buddy had 2 Cheep Cherokees and built a track in the woods at his house that we called “JeepCross.” Basically a small track that would be perfect for an ATV or side by side but we instead hammered through with XJs. Yes, there were jumps. We kept lap times and the Cherokees never stopped running despite lap after lap of wide open running. Like you said, it was all skinny pedal, all the time. With good tires it was INSANE how capable these XJs were. Then one day I guess someone showed up with a ZJ with a V8. Took it to a whole new level. That day is talked about in reverence forever..
David, you are right that the era of the cheap XJ is over. At 48, I’ve missed the boat on every car I’ve wanted or should have bought while they were cheap. VW Beetles and Busses, 80’s Porsches, 90’s Porsches, first Gen Broncos and Blazers, CJ7s, MK4 Supras, MR2s, RX7s, Volvo wagons, Lexus LS400, Nissan 240s, Toyota pickups, Nissan D21s, BMW E30s, I could go on and on.
Every time I would see these vehicles when they were cheap, I was at a point in my life where I had no money (still don’t) and also had no workspace to store a project and fix issues. Now good examples of any of the cars of my youth are all expensive and thus too much to rationalize getting.
I’m happy to say that I owned an XJ when I lived in Colorado and with a 3’’ lift and 31’s it went everywhere I needed it to go and we had great adventures.
Same! I’ve always wanted a K5 Blazer, and when they were 3-5K I couldn’t spare that. I’ve started to look again, and it’ll cost 15K for a decent driver.
I also regret selling my running, driving, 4×4 K10 shortbed for 1200 bucks back in 2001. I bought it for 900 bucks 5 years prior, sunk a bunch of money it through high school, then sold it a few years later to buy a Trans Am.
“Not yet 34.”
This is a grenade.
Now, children, pull up a chair and I’ll tell you about the decades-long era of cheap RWD Volvos, aircooled VWs, and Saabs.
I liked it when you could get a decent vintage VW bug for $2000, or a nice used autobahn capable french station wagon for $800