Bought a Jeep

[Ranger850]

lol I do daily drive a 2010 Buick Lucerne... Overall, it is a great ride/ road trip car. some neat features, but the design and ergonomics of it was done by a High School shop class I think.... I can't get in and out of it easily but the interior is huge. I can sit comfortably in the back seat with the front seats almost all the way back (I am 6'1") the front seat I have to have a bit forward to comfortably reach the pedals and steering wheel. The radio/ infotainment package is pure late 90's tech. The column gear shift lever when it is in drive obscures the left side of the radio screen. It has the acceleration of a drunken whale. stopping it causes some pretty good body roll... I have updated the front brakes to drilled/ slotted rotors... helps stop the car a little quicker. the back up sensors are totally useless for anything moving. by the time they beep at you, whatever walks behind your car has already moved on about 15 feet from the car.

one of the features of the radio info tainment system is that if I have the blower motor on "auto" for a/c or heat, it will blow really really hard until the temp evens out to what it is set at, but if you have your phone going through the bluetooth, once thephone connects, the car automatically turns down the blower motor. you can only store 5 phones in the car, and you have to manually store phone numbers and what to call them in the car if you want to call using Buick's hands free. The wife's 2015 base model escape pulls the entire contacts list from you phone and you just tell it to dial <contact name>.

I feel that.. I had a ‘99 Buick Regal 3.8l that felt like it was indestructible and wouldn’t die...

My 88 Regal had the digital dash and had the AC feature that tapered off as well. That dash was the coolest thing about that car. The transmission would slip of you gunned it too jard, so passing was an absolute no-go. Same 3.8 v6 too.

 

[Dirtman]

The grand cherokee is not bad but I've seen way too many issues with the 4.7 engine. Everything from wiring nightmares to spitting out valve seats and destroying a cylinder. They give me the heebie jeebies now... Kinda like when you get food poisoning from eating gas station sushi, you just never look at fish at a sunnoco station again without wanting to puke.

 

[Ranger850]

If you eat "Gas station Sushi", you get what you deserve.

 

[Dirtman]

If you eat "Gas station Sushi", you get what you deserve.

Still a safer bet than Arby's...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

A guy on the radio was saying he stopped to get his favorite ham sandwich from a gas station. He was eating it while driving and thought it was weird, he must have grabbed a fish one. It wasn't too bad but about halfway thru it hit him he had never seen a fish sandwich there. He grabs the package and finds it is in fact a ham sandwich that had eluded the store employees in the cooler somehow and had expired like two months prior.

 

[wildbill23c]

The grand cherokee is not bad but I've seen way too many issues with the 4.7 engine. Everything from wiring nightmares to spitting out valve seats and destroying a cylinder. They give me the heebie jeebies now... Kinda like when you get food poisoning from eating gas station sushi, you just never look at fish at a sunnoco station again without wanting to puke.

Can't say anything about the new/newer ones, My Grand Cherokee is a 98 and other than the recent adventure with the serpentine belt getting shredded due to a seized idler pulley and causing it to get hot enough in the minute it took me to find a flat enough section far enough off the side of the highway to stop it blew the head gasket too, as well as caused some damage to the radiator....however, this is my 2nd ZJ, my first was a 96 which I put 232K hard offroad miles on without any major issues, a radiator at 189k and a starter at 212k not bad considering it got beat on all the time, yet was still extremely reliable as a daily driver on long trips out of town and out of state. I have a feeling my current ZJ actually had a leaking head gasket prior to the belt issue that just finished it off, I had noticed missing coolant from the recovery bottle, but could never pinpoint where it was going, now I know. So maybe that belt issue saved further damage. The shop doesn't think the gasket blew completely but caused a much larger leak.

I've hear of issues with the 4.7 V8's to me they did a huge disservice when they dropped the 318 and 360 options....still looking for a 98 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.9 that's in good enough condition to buy, not practical but the only year they offered them with the 360. The 318 wasn't bad though either. Both of my Grand Cherokees had/have the 4.0L I6....dang thing will go anywhere in the winter...my 96 ZJ was full time 4WD (Quadra-Trac), the viscous coupler in the transfer case failed about the 220k mark no surprise given its harsh operating life LOL. It had open front and rear differentials. My current 98 ZJ has Selec-Trac 4WD (both part time and full time 4WD) and rear limited slip should be pretty good for another 100k+ LOL. Been slowly going through it and servicing and fixing stuff as I find things here and there, haven't driven it much in the past 3-1/2 years I've had it, put about 10k on it in that time. Pretty loaded for being a Laredo base model, its basically a limited edition without the limited edition badges, I think it was an SE (Special Edition) according to the configuration build sheet for it.

I haven't had any complaints about Ford or Jeep, but haven't had any newer/new Ford or Jeeps LOL. My old stuff seems to do pretty well. I had thought about getting a 2nd gen Jeep Grand Cherokee (1999-2004) but haven't wore out my 1998 yet, so probably in another 10+ years LOL. After 2004 they discontinued the 4L I6 engines so anything newer has never interested me anyways. The only way I'd go newer is to find one with the 5.7L Hemi, I think I'd skip the 4.7L. The 2nd Gen Grand Cherokee also offered a quadra-drive 4WD system with limited slip (Vari-Lock) front and rear differentials, which may be an advantage in offroad conditions. The newer Grand Cherokees 2005+ only have a rear limited slip differential.

 

[Dirtman]

Shiny ham is the best!

 

[Ranger850]

Forget a grand Cherokee, het a Grand Wagoneer. My best friend from the neighborhood had one. Even had an Aztec type stripe on it.

 

[G8orFord]

They never made a "Jeep" Jeep.

Bantam, Willys, Kaiser, AMC, Chrysler... a long trail of dead companies that the parasite that is Jeep has sucked the life out of before moving on the next host.

Fiat is bigger so it will take a bit longer than it has in the past.

Don't forget Ford. They built some of the first ones during WWII as did several other carmakers.

 

[wildbill23c]

Forget a grand Cherokee, het a Grand Wagoneer. My best friend from the neighborhood had one. Even had an Aztec type stripe on it.

I'd love a Grand Wagoneer but they're getting more expensive all the time, but yes, someday I'd love to own one.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Don't forget Ford. They built some of the first ones during WWII as did several other carmakers.

Ford fought for the rights to own Jeep and lost, so they never owned it they just made them.

The infamous slotted grille... was courtesy of Ford. Willys has to change the number of slots to keep it.

 

[G8orFord]

Never said Ford owned them, but they did make a lot of them. Wouldn't be surprised if Ford made more Willys Jeeps than Willys did. Willy's won the contract with the Army, but couldn't produce the numbers, so the government stepped in and gave Ford and others the right to make them for the war effort.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Never said Ford owned them, but they did make a lot of them. Wouldn't be surprised if Ford made more Willys Jeeps than Willys did. Willy's won the contract with the Army, but couldn't produce the numbers, so the government stepped in and gave Ford and others the right to make them for the war effort.

Bantam won the design, the govt gave the contract to willys because of production capacity and later ford got in on it during the war.

 

[Dirtman]

Ford also built trucks, half tracks, engines, and rockets for the Nazis soooo...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ford also built trucks, half tracks, engines, and rockets for the Nazis soooo...

View attachment 47153

The engine in the Zero was based on prewar Bristol and Pratt & Whittney designs that had been sold to Japan too. Heck, Britain even built a lot of their battleships.

Kind of a pointless hole to go down.