Recently I sold the engine out of a legendary machine known as “The Greep.” It was an engine I dragged all the way from Michigan to California, and that I planned on using someday. But eventually you have to stop ignoring cold, hard truths, and now that I’m a dad, I’m seeing lots of those around here. And one of them is that I’m never using that motor, and that if I don’t sell it, it’s going to rust out.
As a bit of a recap, this engine came from the famous original “Holy Grail” Jeep Grand Cherokee, which I wrote about in October of 2019.
This was my gateway drug into the world of stickshift ZJs:
This article led someone to send me a link to another Holy Grail, which I flew across the country to buy. I then sold that, bought a mint-condition one, which I sold because I had been given both the rusty Greep and a red rust-free ZJ without a drivetrain, and I felt obligated to turn the two into one so as to at least save one Grail from the scrapyard in the sky.
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Anyway, Greep’s (so named because of the letter above) transmission went into the red rust-free ZJ, but because the red ZJ still had an engine, Greep’s engine just sat, and ultimately came with me to California:
The thing just sat in the Galpin parking lot for years, and was rained into multiple times, as the cylinder head was missing. For the most part, though, the cylinders looked good, and I was able to sell the thing for $50 to a Chrysler technician:
When I told my friend Dustin, original owner of The Greep, that I’d sold it, he asked who had bought it.
When I told him that it was a tech with an absolutely mint 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee — one equipped with the unstoppable AW4 automatic — Dustin replied: “I’m so glad that it lives on!”
Humberto, whose Jeep is shown above, plans on having the engine completely rebuilt for his gorgeous machine. The Greep will indeed live on.
This came after a chat I had with my friend Fred Williams, who had just sold the crusty (by California standards) CJ-5 you see above to a high school farm kid. Was it cheap, at $3500-ish for a nicely running, driving early CJ? Absolutely. But Fred was thrilled, because it went to someone who will appreciate it and learn from it. And, especially since it was a kid, he believes the sale had value to the whole four-wheeling hobby at large.
But some people don’t care about any of that. Some people just care about the cold, hard cash. Me personally? I once sold my Postal Jeep to a snooty guy for the money, and he immediately crashed it. I regret that sale, because I knew as soon as I sold it he wouldn’t value it like I did, and I was right. Now I’m debating selling my Jeep J10, and I had an interested buyer, but based on the questions he asked me, I lost interest in selling it to him, as it was clear he didn’t really care about it.
Top Image: Fred Williams
The perfect buyer is the one with cash and present in front of me.
Sold my XJ to my boss’s sister-in-law. Real cheap. He held me to a price I just threw out before I was even serious about selling. Uggh. I wanted to be mad but, she was an older lady with out much money and needed something dependable. So fine.
The perfect buyer for our 2005 Acura RL will be the wrecking yard, but that car (244K) won’t die. It may outlast our new cars. We still love it.
My 2002 Infiniti Q45 (196K) also needs to go the wrecking yard. Many small issues and missing key and title. Basically an S class. I loved that car. It’s probably just some TLC away from being on the road again but…
No selling for me. I don’t trust anyone after getting burned by buyers, leaving me holding the bag for a now abandoned car the State still says is mine.
Any car with life left in it that I no longer want I gift to family. My 2012 Passat TDI SEL went to my daughter last year.
What’s this “selling a car” thing you keep talking about?
I’ve never sold a car either, unless you count getting a few quid for scrap value.
Just went through this. I sold my Nova. It was a REALLY nice very original car. I didn’t want it to go to a flipper, somebody who would leave it outside or somebody who would modify it. Basically it survived over 50 years without being ruined and I couldn’t be a part of it gettting ruined. I declined to sell to a flipper and think I found the right buyer for it. I felt a lot better about it.
Both of them are selling below MRSP. A quick google search will show comparable 392 Jeeps going for $12k-13k off sticker.
The rapid change in credit markets, uncertain economic conditions, and impact of inflation on everything else has put pressure on new car purchases.
I had three instances of this recently!