Topic: Sell me on the TJ

[BigBoi]

Hi folks,

Here's the situation. I've got a little dough in my pocket, coming back from Australia in 2 months time. I'm 100% certain that I'm buying a Jeep, however I'm trying to debate which I would go with. The most I'm looking to spend is about 8000$ CAD. That would get me about a '98 TJ with lower KM's.

HOWEVER.

I've been looking at some YJ's as well. They are obviously much cheaper and you can easily get one with low KM's with a 6 cylinder for about 5K. Why wouldn't I buy one of those instead?

This is a daily driver BTW. No offroading.

Cheers gents,

-Marco

[jimmyl]

This is coming from a YJ driver who loves his YJ.  Buy a TJ.  More creature comforts.  Drives like a car (bounces around less)  What part of Canada are you from.  I ask because Jeeps rust.  They rust all over.  The newer the vehicle you purchase the quicker you can do things like undercoat the Jeep to stop (or at least slow down) the rust.  You wil be hard pressed to find a YJ that will not need thousands of dollars of work to be in the same condition as a well looked after TJ.

Cheers

j

[chrisfranklin]

No offroading? I kinda said the same thing with my YJ until I found myself in an area with a lot of decent OHV trails (So Cal.).  OHV trails don't cost anything to use unless you break something.

I'd personally go TJ 6, 5spd for on-road only unless you are "MacGyver-Hardcore," a bit of a masochist and want to give the others, the TJ4,  or YJ4, auto/5spds a shot.  YJ6 is not going to have the coil suspension of the TJ6, so some ride quality and articulation will be sacrificed

Frankly, though, The Great Equalizer for Wranglers is off-road driving -- 4 or 6, YJ or TJ, if properly set up, they are all going to do fairly well off-road.  6cyls will have more torque for sure, but stock low range gearing almost triples torque getting to the ground with a 4 cylinder, so you'l be getting about 300lbs/ft at the wheels with the 4 off-road in low range which is pretty darn good.  Course, in this day and age, the 4 is nice, because it's good off-road and it doesn't kick you in the head at the pump for buying a 12mpg 6 cylinder  

My YJ4 5spd is going on 13 years old and is great off-road on difficult Cali OHV trails with just a $250 Aussie auto-locker in the front end.

[Guardian7]

If you buy a YJ (square headlights) make sure you buy a 91 or newer as there were many changes in 91 and alot more after market for the engine performance can be had. Jeeps in southern califormia dont normally have any rust due to the environment, it might be worth it to find a Jeep here in SoCal and drive it back to were you live in Canada. One of the best places to start looking is AutoTrader also known as the TruckTrader http://www.autotrader.com/ which has lots of nice Jeeps in your price range. Put in your desired price range and be amazed at some of the awesome Jeeps that will come up. Here is another site I was eying when shopping for my Jeep, they do nice work but slightly high on priced they helped me learn what I was looking for; http://www.jeep911.com/cars

[chardrc]

thats like what happend with my jeep.. the old owner got it from florida so it has less rust than if it spent its whole life here.. but it still does have alot of rust on the underbody.. but thats normal on a 16 yerar old jeep...but there is still some paint on the frame

[BigBoi]

Thanks for all your replies.

Jimmy: I live in eastern Ontario. Yep...we've got lots and lots of salt all over the place. So, they will rust. Believe it or not it isn't too hard to find about a 97 or 98 with decent KM's on it without any rust. Some people learn from their previous mistakes of no undercoating.

There are a few extra features that I obviously wouldn't mind having from a vehicle such as air bags, and coils. Coils being the greatest to tell you the truth. They may be the selling feature. They are so very close other than the coils.

Other than that...you better believe that I joined this site because I honestly believe in the 4 banger. I'm planning on driving this thing around Ottawa, rarely on the highway so I have no need for the six.

Someone on this site once said it best:

"It was good enough to win the war...it's good enough to cruise around my city"

Cheers,

-Marco

[chardrc]

nice quote... we still have the willyz go devil 4banger in our cjs.. the same motor that won the war... but we ahve upgraded them abit form there stock 60hp

[Guardian7]

Yep, the 4 banger is one of the best engines ever made and they seldon break drive line components compared to the more powerfull engines because there isnt as much torque.
I have an 89 YJ with zero rust because it's been in Southern California all it's life (High Desert). After buying it we cleaned and re-coated the frame and underside with paintable sprayon rubber so it looks real pretty underneath too!  Bigboi, did you see the 98 TJ on the Jeep911 Website?

[chrisfranklin]

Wishful thinking, but I'd like to get a million miles out of my 4 banger.  Now at 136,000 miles and have been running synthetics in everything on the Jeep that takes oil since 64,000 miles.  If you keep the engine oil clean, change the filters regularly, use synthetics, make sure your air intake is clean, a million is probably feasible.  

Course, it'll probably be the grandkids that hit the million mile mark with it given the few miles I drive a year.

[BigBoi]

Guardian:

Yeah, I had a look at it. It's actually a pretty good deal. I've noticed anywhere I've looked within Canada, the 6 cyliners are way more expensive. I'm talking at least 2 thousand more. To me, that money is just wasted. Everyone and their dog will try to tell you to go for the six right now, but I'm honestly not interested. The only attractive feature to me is resale value...in which I would never buy a vehicle based on that fact alone.

But that Jeep is actually quite nice.

I've seen a couple in Autotrader that have exactly what I'm looking for. 2.5 5 spd, 80-120KM, bone stock and both tops included. I would like to get both the tops right away if I could...as it would be a bonus. A/C would be bonus too, but not nesassary.

Let me throw this at you though...would it be a bad idea to buy a '97 instead? The year isn't as much a concern to me...I'm just wondering if I should buy the first year of a new model?

Cheers,

-Marco

[Guardian7]

I know they had some problems in the late 90's but I dont know exactly what years had what issues (Ask Jeffy for more info). In general the 1st year for a new model on any car is good to stay away from. I went with an older 89 Jeep so I could get one that was already built for hard core off roading with most everything I wanted already on it. My feeling is Tough Jeeps Are Built Not Bought so find one with everything you want on it and built up some already which I know can be had in your price range. Also, the 6 bangers can eat some serious gas which is why I went for the 2.5L after hearing sellers tell me they got 15mpg's and the pumps were hitting $3 per gallon.

[jagular7]

I purposely bought a 97 TJ 4cyl on the basis of cheap wheeling rig which has a vast aftermarket support. It didn't matter if it was a YJ or TJ, but I got mine pretty cheap at $3400.
Your requirement looks to be a street-able conv't Jeep. Have you looked into an Island Jeep or a DJ5 model Jeep? These are also full conv't Jeeps but 2wd rather than 4wd. Though an Island Jeep is rare to the states, you could actually make one rather easily with either a YJ or TJ. All it requires is a little labor work and a 2wd front XJ axle. You could opt to sell off the t-case and replace the 4wd tranny for a 2wd tranny.
The DJ5 is the mail delivery Jeep. Those are readily available but not through a network.

Adapting the XJ to the front leafs of a YJ requires a little welding of spring axle mounts. For a front swap on a TJ is just a simple bolt out bolt in.

For a conv't street Jeep never to go offroad or take a dirt road which a minivan could drive, I would suggest a TJ with 4cyl and 5-sp, swap on the 4wd axle for a XJ 2wd, sell off the tranny, tcase and 4wd axle, swap in a Dakota 2wd AX15 tranny, redo rear ds and have the doorless conv't street Jeep. Losing the extra 4wd weight will help with better gas mileage. TJ will have a much better ride in comparison to the YJ. But if cost is a big concern, then cheap is where its at.

[Mozman68]

I kind of glanced over the replies...but did anyone mention that the TJ has airbags.  That was actually one of the reasons I was looking for one that was 2000 or newer....old enough to be cheap but new enough to have airbags and the "creature comforts" mentioned above. :)

[chrisfranklin]

In general the 1st year for a new model on any car is good to stay away from.

Yeah, no joke, Guardian.  My Dad bought a Ford Explorer EB in Summer 1990 which was a 1991 model, the first year for the Explorers.  Generally a bad idea, but he bought an Extended Warranty on it.  

He had that Explosion serviced so many times, he estimated he ran up close to $20,000 in covered repair costs over the life of that 100,000 mile extended warranty (and this was on a vehcile he paid $24,000 for back then  

You want a first year, try a Japanese make maybe.

[Mozman68]

Hah...My parents that first year Explorer as well....Eddie Bauer...I think it came out in the Spring...a little late.

I eventually took it a few years ago when I was in between cars (hey...free truck).  It died on me while I was making a turn to my house (in between a major road :shock: ).

When the mechanic checked out what was wrong, there was some sort of short in the fuel pump....if I had actually gotten it to turn over he said there was a good chance the thing would have actually exploded.

Got it fixed and ended up selling it to a co-worker for his son...$700...he ran it until it dies for good...over 200k miles...not bad.