Hey guys this is my first post here but i've been registered on the site for about a year now.
i'm finally going to be able to get my first Jeep and i'm wondering what you guys think i should aim for in terms of mileage and overall condition. i'm looking to spend about 5000 ( i'm only 20 and money doesnt exactly come flowing in ) so obviously i'm in the market for an earlier TJ or later year YJ. how many kilometres is too many? what should i aim for? i also see that most if not all jeeps at my price range have some surface rust, should i worry about that? I live in the Greater Toronto Area as well if you or anyone you know is selling a jeep i could afford please let me know! I'd really appreciate all the help I can get!

 

Well, it is a bit personal your question... Do you drive a lot of km/year? How long you plan to keep the Jeep? I am actually thinking about buying a second one but not as a daily driver. I wouldn't be shy to go for one with 150k km. Anyway, if you take care of your Jeep and do all maintenance at the time it is suppose to be done, you should keep your Jeep for a lot of klicks on the odometer! I would surely go with the 4.0L engine especially if you have to take the highway often. But then you have to think about fuel consumption, it can be expensive to ride a 4x4!! :( In that point of view, km/year or even km/week remain good questions. As per the rust, the 1 thing to remind is it deteriorates rapidly. That being said, I would try to avoid as much as possible unless you think about sending it to a body shop and redo the whole thing or just partially to correct couple of imperfections. But then again, more money involved.

If I buy a 2nd hand jeep, I would go with TJ 2003, a little over your price range though. A TJ Sahara 99-01 or even a Sport with at least the 6 cyl 4.0L, I think 180 hp or so, is something you might not regret!

Hope this helps, in case you did not already do it, search online for the specifications on different Jeep generations.

Happy shopping!

 

thanks for the reply, even 150k kms seems to be hard to find! the lowest i've seen in my price range is 180k kms. i've heard the 4.0ls are very reliable and they last well into the 300k range is that true? yea i've been doing plenty of reading and i'm pretty well set on a jeep, my work and college are both only 5km away from where i live so i dont put much in terms of mileage on the car anyhow thus fuel efficiency is not much of a factor, i'm also hoping that the recent hike in gas prices might help lower peoples asking prices a bit( i can only hope!) i'm also fairly handy and do alot of repairs and a fair share of body work on cars so i should be able to handle a little bit of rust just fine! thanks again!

 

Hey there,
In my opinion your best bet would be a TJ. I used to own a 1984 CJ in my college years and dearly loved it but it fell apart apart with rust. The YJ is not too different from the CJ in design and given the vintage of the YJ model you'll most likely be buying a money pit. I currently own a 2004 TJ with a 2.4l and a 2004 LJ with a 4.0l. My 2.4l in the TJ gets about 400-500KM on a tank and my 4.0l in the LJ gets about 300 KM on a tank of gas.

I would not be too concerned about the odometer but look out for the following and beware some TJ's can be infested with rust as well. Check the following:
Blistered rust on or around any metal to metal seams. ( ie; front fenders)
Rust stains on the inside of the windshild frame especially around the defrost heater duct
Severe rust around the driverside floor pan area. (haul up the carpets)
Severe rust around where the roll bar attaches to the floor. (haul up the carpets)
Underside, look for severe rust rust between the body mounts and the body/chassis.
Underside, look for severe rust around the steering box mount.
Underside, look for severe rust blisters on the engine base pan and wet spots.
Underside, look at the chassis for severe rust: Where the skid plate meets the chassis; at the rear cross member, at the point where the chassis turns up just forwrd of the rear wheels.

Don't worry about the surface rust on the hinges. They all suffer from that.


Hope this helps u out