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Quick favour if you don't mind. It's two-pronged: 1) If you own (or have ever owned) a Jeep of any kind, can you tell me about it? i.e. how you felt about it, keywords you'd use to describe it, why you chose it, whether you'd have another etc. 2) If you've never owned one - how do you feel about Jeep? Thanks! (Sorry for bringing work-based stuff to the forum.)
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Keywords I'd use: Spongy, floating, indirect, hard plastic, chaise longue, smalest-ever-glovebox, 'cheapish', *VROOOUUUM babble babble babble*. '97 ZJ Grand Cherokee 5.2. Not personaly owning this, but am sort of 'involved'. Would I have (another) one? Yes for the V8 & it's towing and off-road capabilities - no for anything else. Everything feels spongy, floating and indirect and sort of 'cheap', there's no feeling of "valence"/"quality" to it, mainly due to the cheap feel of the plastics used in the interior. The mechanics are tough, though, I like the total smoothness of the gearbox & overdrive and low rumble of the V8. Hope that helps
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I always fancied one of the 60s/70s Cherokee or Wagoneer type Jeeps with the proper V8.
I'd say they were tough, rough, basic, manly, macho, kitch, utilitarian... but that's hardly the current range...
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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96 cherokee 4.0 A soft, floaty thing with a tacky interior but competant enough doing what it did. Rusty too. It was parked up in a garage for a year and turned itself into a flintstones mobile.
Wouldnt have another - well certainly not the petrol engine. Cant justify that sort of running costs on an average daily car.
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1986 Panda 4x4. 1990 Metro Sport. 1999 Ford Escort estate.
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jbeenz
Part of things
Posts: 51
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Oct 28, 2011 10:16:09 GMT
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Ive had two...in one word, Sideways, both totally differnet and, both for different reasons. The first Was a 1974 Mahindra cj4a That is an indian licence build version of the aerican cj3, but with a longer wheelbase. Mine had Dana 44 diffs, a transit gearbox mated to a jeep transfer case, all behind a 186ci Holden red motor (3 litre, 6cyl petrol) It was light, powerfull, and to be honest, dangerous and unreliable: The second is a 1993 Cherokee 4 litre auto. The engine is fantastic, big power, huge fuel consumption - brilliant It has a very harsh LSD, it is difficult to park, it will drift beautifully in the rain! Its cart sprung at the rear,so its rock hard, but its great for towing. The inside is hideous, cheep leather, nasty woodgrain and general ammerican-ness. yuck I matt greened it to match the tacky brown tinted windows Oh - edit, don't do it, buy a landrover - seriously, the quality of a 93 Discovery is way above that of a 93 cherokee. - yes, they are that bad!
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Last Edit: Oct 28, 2011 10:20:34 GMT by jbeenz
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Oct 28, 2011 10:18:17 GMT
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My mate got into Jeeps for a while, my experiences with these ones was that they are like a "cool" version of a series landrover with more power, they have the same feel about them to drive but i guess as you see far less of them they seem to be more interesting. you feel like you should wear shades and a cowboy hat in them and they don't feel right when its raining.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Oct 28, 2011 11:37:41 GMT
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Jeep wrangler in NZ, crude and desperately in need of a V8
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dbdb
Part of things
Posts: 821
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Oct 28, 2011 11:37:54 GMT
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Quick favour if you don't mind. It's two-pronged: 1) If you own (or have ever owned) a Jeep of any kind, can you tell me about it? I.e. how you felt about it, keywords you'd use to describe it, why you chose it, whether you'd have another etc. 2) If you've never owned one - how do you feel about Jeep? Thanks! (Sorry for bringing work-based stuff to the forum.) My Grandfather had one which looked similar to this but without the wood in the 1970s. Despite its vast diesel V8 it had little discernible performance because it was partially armoured which it needed to be since he lived in Rhodesia at the time. It felt a brute: utterly confident, charismatic and American. Indomitable, really. A friend of mine got a Grand Cherokee Limited CRD as a company car in about 2006. It was nice enough if very plasticky. It had no character that I could find and felt almost German but without the black soft touch plastic fest. I was disappointed by it and felt the marque's best days were in the past. David
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Jeep: your opinions...Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Oct 28, 2011 12:09:36 GMT
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my take on them(this kinda applies to cherokee models onwards, which is what i assume youre after seeing as youre asking about brand image)-
they're a typical late-model american vehicle. by that i mean they're utterly curse word compared to any foreign competitors in the SUV market, but americans keep buying them due to familiarity or misguided patriotism (the whole 'buy american' thing). traditionally they never sold that well over here, as the uk market just isnt the same as most of the rest of the world, and we had the land/range rover to fill the niche over here. i mean come on, who in this country really needs a SUV? but through forceful advertising and lifestyle branding, most of the the middle class suburbanite idiots in this country are now 100% convinced they need a jeep/x5/merc ml/or some other similar stupid pseudo 4x4. they don't, and theyd be far better off with an audi estate or a people carrier.
as for the cars themselves, the build quality is cheap, nasty, plasticy, and with terribly badly designed/thought out interiors, yet somehow they still try to proport to be a upmarket brand. I'm not sure how the hell they manage to do this- compared to say a land cruiser amazon, the different is night and day. they seem to be largely unreliable, both through electrical and engine problems. running gear rarely goes wrong cos its so agricultural. body styling is either bland or ugly, or suprisingly both on the newer models. they depricate massivley, possibly worse than anything else.
in short, a car designed by americans for americans, and the american market, forced upon the uk market cos they're looking for somewhere else to sell em, and bought by idiots that don't need them over a normal car cos they think it says something about them that makes them one notch above their neighbours.
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Oct 28, 2011 12:12:31 GMT
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This is all brilliant, thanks chaps.
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andyf
South West
Posts: 415
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Oct 28, 2011 12:56:19 GMT
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When we went on a Caribbean cruise (get me ) my mate and I hired Jeeps and just went exploring on a few islands (whilst the wives shopped). The first day we did it, we drove on the road and it was as described above, Crude would be an understatement. However, we found a large off the beaten track area to go off road, and truth be told we absolutely hammered this poor thing and it took everything we threw at it. I actually came away with a little respect for it. Off road is where they shine.
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1980 Triumph TR7.
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Oct 28, 2011 13:16:01 GMT
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Rusting badly built curse word, love em and on my second My old 4.0 Cherokee (XJ) My new 4.7 V8 Grand Cherokee (WG/WJ) Sorry to post a modern but you did ask, they get no better. Honestly they are rubbish, just American Landrovers but even more uneconomical and with less spares/accessories available to the UK consumer. And you can't own one without Landrover owners hating on you either, and there's a lot of them.
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10mpg
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,253
Club RR Member Number: 204
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Jeep: your opinions...10mpg
@10mpg
Club Retro Rides Member 204
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Oct 28, 2011 13:20:15 GMT
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main word 'Dreadful' especially post 2000 bar the 4.7 and 5.2 V8 engines which are wonderful, the old 4.0 HO straight six was lovely too, everything else about them is dreadful, small cramped unreliable cheap finish, badly made badly designed and badly conceived...
a 70's Wagonneer is wonderful but after that I wouldn’t touch one with yours, and that's coming from a P38 Range Rover owner
I spent my formative grease monkey years working in a 4x4 specialist, we used to hide when Jeeps came in so we wouldn’t get put on them
I also had the pleasure of testing and inspecting a ww2 jeep for a customer, absolutely terrifying, god knows how those GI's belted about in them...
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Last Edit: Oct 28, 2011 13:32:33 GMT by 10mpg
The Internet, like all tools, if used improperly, can make a complete bo**cks of even the simplest jobs...
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Oct 28, 2011 13:28:43 GMT
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I can comment on the WW2 willys/ford ones. My dads into them, he has three, and has loads before. Ive never worked on them, but they're essentially very simple, you could build or restore one very easily, my dad did recently out of parts, and they make a really cool noise. So basically to answer they're question, they're unique, easy to build/restore/ work on and good fun to own and thats why we like them. Heres one of ours next to my mini:
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Oct 28, 2011 14:14:13 GMT
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I had a CJ5 (ex Iraq army compete with machine gun holes down the side - really !). I'd have another in a shot however getting rare / expensive compared to the CJ7 / Wrangler.
Paul H
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Oct 28, 2011 14:17:26 GMT
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Here's mine (XJ) Well, interior is flimsy and paint is applied like its gold leaf so rust is an issue but its engine and drivetrain is tough. Quite lively to drive but it has an odd seating position in that the steering wheel feels a little too close (not sure if thats just me). In my experiance its been very reliable and puts up with allot of punishment mechanically but the quality of everything else is a bit suspect. I'm not sure if I'd own another but I've had this for 4 years so it must be doing something right.
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Oct 28, 2011 14:54:27 GMT
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Had a 41 GPW- back in the dya that i pulled out of a cesspit. curse word easy to restore & a complete hoon to drive. Sadly had to sell it to raise funds many moons back. Worth a mint now.
Particularily loved the original Workshop manual that described how to ford streams, change combat rims & how to deal with bullet holes in the rad!
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Oct 28, 2011 15:20:59 GMT
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Very tough as here demonstrated here
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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Oct 28, 2011 15:40:38 GMT
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I work on a 90's 4.0, the words that spring to mind are , floaty rear wheel bearing, rear diff play and relays that have a mind of thier own. Earlys ones all i think of is M.A.S.H ;D
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R.I.P photobucket
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