A friend has one of the square lighted Jeeps with a straight 6 and a stick. He was having problems with the ECU and apparently in CA you have to have vehicles even that old emission tested. He has had to resort to buying used ECU’s, which is hit or miss and they are hard to come by.
It might be worth you while to buy a new base model if you can afford it or one that was a leased vehicle to avoid the parts issues with he old ones.
Pittsburgh Area. I will get picturesthis weekend. 4cylinder, 5 speed, and a pretty big list of stuff done to it
Thanks to all for your replies & suggestions. We found a nice Suzuki Samurai but after much consideration we decided it wasn't really what we needed. It would be great as a toy for local trail scrambling but we'd be holding up traffic on the paved roads. Have altered the parameters somewhat and now looking for something that is a comfortable long-distance cruiser and can also handle some moderate unpaved. Chatted to a local 4x4 rental guy in Salida CO and he recommended Jeep Grand Cherokee. The search continues!
my former roadrace mechanic of 10+ yrs is selling his gf jeep.. $14k but worth a quick look. FL driven so zero rust. https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/706632867940626/?media_id=0&ref=share_attachment
Not sure how much on vs off road but the Grands are heavier, bigger and more expensive to turn off road. Also most are manual and the early-mid 2000's Chrysler autos are pretty bad. Same tranny as in the durango and trucks around then and do some searching. Lots of issues. Also I am pretty sure that one of the Grands...ZJ or WJ is all time 4wd and the transfer case uses a viscous coupler that will wear out. If you want the more "luxurious" feel of the grand or the bigger vehicle, go for it. But definitely do some research.
Yep, the 1st few years of the Geo/Suzuki were some tough mofos. We used to take my 89 around the MX track and clear the doubles. lol Haven't even seen one in years though. Mine went thu a couple ECU's iirc
If you end up buying Grand Cherokee, look for 04 WJ with 4.7 Quadra drive drive train (all wheel drive)! I was mechanic on Jeeps for 10 years and bough one of those new, drove it for 200k sold it, it was driven 50k miles more and was totaled by being rear ended!!! All this on original engine and trans. People will talk all kind of shit about these vehicles based on no personal experience as an owner and or mechanic… If you want to get different Jeep besides GC, but XJ (Cherokee), those are one of the most reliable Jeeps I have worked on! 4.0 engine and AW4 Asin trans was match for reliability and longevity of course if you do your part!
Another good old vehicle and cheaper than jeep is Isuzu rodeo/honda passport. I bought one of this for my wife, 02 fully loaded. We gave it to our daughter about 10 years ago, she is still driving it. Only thing outside maintenance I had to replace is water pump. Isuzu Trooper is bigger version of it.
You wont get a deal in state (I live in Colorado Springs). They are just too popular here. I often see good prices in places like TX/OK/KS/NE, etc.