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Who or what do you blame for your Cherokee ADDICTION??

dirteexj94

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Thornton
Thought this would be a fun/interesting thread to start.
I blame this movie for my Jeep Cherokee addiction. Who do you blame for yours??!!

GOONIES_zpsaba36830.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi0vSYhU7E4
 
Being broke when I moved back here from vegas. Needed to find a cheap ride and found an old renix 2door. Been hooked since.
 
I had a 1996 Limited V8 ZJ from the time I was seventeen to just about a year ago. When I bought it I was pursuing some kind of career in custom car audio installation (I was seventeen) I wanted a car with better acoustics and room for good 6.5 component/coaxial set up front and rear. I also wanted more power, still wanted 4 doors, and wanted the option to tow a trailer with the dirt bike and stuff.. I had previously owned a Jetta and my first car was a '76 2wd F250 with a built 428 big block. So the ZJ was my third car, and the one I've owned the longest, and the one that gave me the most problems (1996 ZJ)....

Loved the car to death, hated the electrical gremlin chasing every other weekend. I swear to god I still seem to have dreams about owning the car every now and then. Unfortunately the entire time I owned it while it was in it's prime I had 20" wheels on it. It was much less a Jeep and more of a cruiser. Custom color paint, probly approaching $7,000 dollars in the stereo, wiring, and dynamat(won several competitions for SQ and SPL), the 20" wheels on the fancy 295 wide directional performance road tires, 5% tint, intake, exhaust, chip, programmer, 5.9 fuel rails/injectors, had the engine compartment dressed up a little bit.. The list goes on and on. At the very end of her life I bought her some new shoes (15.7 powder black aluminum XD's and 31x10.50 Micky MTZ's, ripped the front bumper off, cut and folded the wheel wells, was going to start building her to wheel, purchased a set of adjustable teraflex lower's and got some 4" coils.. And then she just wouldn't run for me. Strangest problem I've ever ran into with a vehicle, but it wasn't reliable enough to get me back and forth to college anymore. I retired her, bought my Nissan Hardbody and then just last summer had an opportunity to buy a vehicle again and instead of spending ten grand on an Xterra we spent eleven grand on a 98 XJ and a 02 325XI..

Told myself I wouldn't own another ZJ unless it was a 98 5.9. XJ's are more economical, more utilitarian, and cheaper to build. Seemed like all my buddies always has stock or pucked and shackled 2" XJ's but they used to seem bullet proof.

I'd say my ZJ got me hooked on XJ's... I try to push them on everyone now!
 
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I'm in recovery.
 
They're cheap and just big enough to make you think the entire family and all the camping will fit. Honestly I keep trying to get away but always wind up going back.
 
I blame my buddy Matt and having kids
Sold my then wife's little sun flower i mean fire to afford an SUV
Bought the cherowagon cheap...Matt sold me my first lift spprings
RE3.5's and it was on after that
 
Grew up with a 89 limited. Looked at a lifted wrecked 87 for 5 years at a private junkyard in Longmont. Owner went to sell the land and asked me if I wanted to buy it. At the same time the family 89 caugh fire the first went I had it. Dad didn't know about the injector gaskets leaking. Cold weather and the rail leaking became fire. After the fire new engine and parts jeep made one great jeep fo a senior in hs. After that have tried keaving he cherokee but I some how get pulled back in. Either price ir friend of a friend is selling one. With a family now, camping is important. So same situation as Dutch.
 
My first Jeep was an 82 CJ-7. It had a soft top and heat that barely worked. I lived in Evergreen at the time. Driving it in the winter though was less than desirable, girls don't like being cold. One day I was venturing up spring creek and ran into some fellow Jeepers, one in a TJ and two others in XJs. I watched them come up the first obstacle which was no issue for the TJ on 35s, but I wanted to see the XJs come up it. I think they were on 31s, one was locked in the rear and the other was open in both. I was quite impressed with the capability of their XJs. I liked the 4linked coil front suspension combined with a simple leaf in the rear, meant lifts wouldn't be overly expensive. An enclosed interior to stay warm in winter and dry in summer was very appealing. Production numbers in the millions, meaning lots of them in salvage yards to find parts. There were a lot of reasons I wanted an XJ! I finally purchased one in 2010 and its changed quite a bit since I first drove it home, it has been reliable, for an XJ, and I am happy to be here in CO with such beautiful places to wheel it!
 
my wrangler . great off road but lacking storage. now with MJ and lacking space and great offroad. but i can put shi---er stuff in the back if i need to :)
 
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I bought a '99 XJ back in '01 with my girlfriend at the time ( now ex-wife ) for her daily driver. It was super clean and I really enjoyed driving that thing. We later sold it to get something a little bigger after having a kid, and I always kicked myself for letting it go.

Fast forward a couple years.....my best friend at the time had a decently built XJ that I helped him wrench on all the time and also rode in on wheelin' trips. I had another buddy who was selling a 4 door XJ that had the roof chopped off and caged...but was more or less stock suspension wise...just cut up running 33's. Worked out a deal with him and scored it cheap with the intention of just building a budget wheeler. A few days after I bought it, I got a credit card offer in the mail and being a dumb chit, signed up and the parts started coming! LOL

I've had 8 XJ's total now all ranging from stock, mildly built, hardcore streetable, and full on buggy.... Been a fun run with them, but I'm ready for a change.
 
I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe, but my 90 was one of the quietest and most reliable cars I had owned up until that time. And we enjoyed driving it! Got used to the 4wd early on. Then the net happened, and I wanted to find a set of headers for it, and ended up on the forum that gave birth to NAXJA. And before NAXJA was the old XJlist, which started me on trails and mods. I expect I"ll die still owning the 90. I'm stubborn about some things, and I don't give up.
 
I blame Moab. I picked up my first Cherokee after ditching my lifted '91 S-10 in favor of a Dodge half ton and then got a lifted '84 XJ that had a 4.3 Vortec swapped in.

Towed it to Moab and had such a good time with it in spite of the poorly engineered electric fan / overheating issue and a pair of busted welds that allowed my D35 punkin to rotate on the tubes and nearly ruin a great day on Cliff Hanger trail.......

The family here at NAXJA kept me hooked on XJ's. :thumbup:
 
Moving out west, discovering the limitations of my Ranger, best vehicle for what I wanted and available funds!

Even now after 7 years with it, There is nothing I have looked at that I think is a suitable replacement! Maybe a 2012 JK Umlimited, but they are so overpriced!

So really my XJ made me an XJ addict!
 
I blame my wife, she went car shoppin and picked this one. :)
 
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