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Disturbing trend or sign of the times?

DaveNJeep

NAXJA Forum User
Location
NorCal
I've noticed in the most recent past (year or two) that some folks are buying up whole XJ's that are seemingly in restorable condition and simply cherry picking parts and parting out the rest. Then scraping what's left.

Now this is just my opinion but I think that this trend is very disturbing indeed. Maybe it's my age (48) and the fact that I drove my XJ off the showroom floor back in 91 and have many memories in that XJ. Hell, my kid (who has her own Jeep now) rode home from the Hospital as a newborn in that back seat!

Jeeps shouldn't be picked at by vultures, they should be rebuilt, restored and enjoyed for many years to come. Just my .02.
 
Yeah but every car goes through this phase. Old enough to very cheap even for a pristine one yet new enough for no one to care. I own a 66 Mustang GT and its desirable now but I hear so many stories of when they were at that useless age and people did the same thing. XJs will have their time eventually and people will want them like they do other cars. It's a shame but it is what it is.
 
both. It is disturbing and it is a sign of the times. things wont change until people can start to buy up rigs for what they are really worth , until then, they will sell them for less as a whole, and others will part them out for more. Market arbitrage .


I can speak to this from first hand experience. All in all, I think things like this could have been happening on a smaller scale that you were not aware of, locally in small wheeling groups, possibly happening on a smaller scale, are now just more visible for you, since they are on a larger scale, online on forums. Before a group of buddies would buy a used rig , that was mostly junk except for parts, and maybe they would use the parts. Only feasible if you had alot of buddies that needed parts. now its much more feasible with forums like Naxja and cherokee forum since the breadth of the market has grown to all of your buddies in your wheeling club to all of the guys in the US that own a jeep. We have hit a market in a era where the sum of the parts is greater than the sum of the whole. A rig is worth more in parts than put together. People will exploit this arbitrage opportunity until the 2 markets reach equilibrium, that is, when the price of a whole jeep = price of all parts summed up. There are so many factors that may account for this.
Also, "seemingly restorable " is very subjective, and each case is very unique for many individuals for each buyer/seller case. furthermore, you can put this on the demand side, why is no one buying this jeep for what it is truly worth that forces someone to sell it as parts ? That side of the coin is sometimes easier to explain, no one has 10,000$ cash lying around these days to accomodate the amount of money we put in our jeeps .

Much of it has to do with craigslist and online forums .
One increases supply of the aftermarket parts built XJs, one increases overall demand by connecting supply to demand where before such things there was no comunication channel.


whereas people used to send old junked vehicles to the junkyard, or simply let them sit and collect rust on their property , these days, they tend to post more on craigslist, the times have changed alot. There are now niche communities for each type of car now, with online forums, so savvy individuals know that these seemingly junkable rigs are worth something to the right people, so instead of it going to a junkyard for rape-worthy pricing, they go to someone that loves the car and who knows others who need the parts. basically the communication web between enthusiasts has grown exponentially with online forums and craigslist. years ago, before the internet, these same jeeps would have gone to the junkyard or just sat in the same yard and collected rust , or tried to sell in the newspaper classifieds, or in their front yard with a for sale sign. think of it like the show american pickers, we see the gold in the old rusty jeeps that no one wants.

also the market has changed drastically, most "Built" Xjs are actualyl worth more in parts, many guys know what they put into their rigs, they know in these tough economic times, people cant afford to buy a 5000$ XJ, but they can buy parts, so many XJs are worth more in parts when you run the numbers, in addition to it being a PIA to sell rigs on Craigslist, which trust me, I know its a major PIA to sell cars on craigslist.


not as bad as you think dave, many of these parting out rigs would simply sit like a rust bucket in someones yard until they were forced to get rid of it (parents, the city, moving, need money, etc) . Usually have serious engine problems, lots of back fees. with cherokees being a dime a dozen, people settle for what they can get, knowing someone needs to put in a few grand or more and countless hours to get it running. easier to dump it when its cheap enough .

here are my criteria:
usually has all of these fulfilled in order for me to part it:

wont pass smog
tons of back reg
needs a lot of work to get back on the road, and even more money
been sitting for years and years
the person is leaning towards parting it out themselves anyway, just doesnt want to go through the hassle
crazy chains of ownership= DMV hell
and i know guys needs the parts,

plus these jeeps are like organ donors, each part is used, and someone we know can now keep their jeep going, and keep it one step further from going to the scrap yard itself.

the only "restorable rig" i ever parted was my DD. I tried to sell it whole for 2 months for 4000$. couldnt even get that. woulda probably got 2500. I easily got 5500 in parts. parts where easily worth way more than 5500, but 5500> 2500, that increases my Utility, im a happy camper, it really really really sucked to part out out such a good rig, but money talks and I can part out an entire XJ in like 8 hours or less. Its very very sad to part out a built rig that was someones baby. It never feels 100% right.
 
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I accept your explanation for what it is, well written and logical.

But two questions remain; If this is just the circumstance you and others find yourselves in, why does it keep happening, and secondly why do you keep doing it?
 
Just my 3 penny's short of a nickel here but I've also noticed that most ppl xj's are hardly xj's at all any more. With all the bells and whistles they throw on them and cutting this off and adding that, not that it's a bad thing, they look good and in some cases downright badass but its this thing I've noticed that had fueled the plans for mine, which are to leave it looking stock ass possible. Basically I'm okay with adding some things like lights, lift and maybe(maybe!!) a roof rack(I'd love that factory tire carrier for the roof) but I don't want to take or cut anything off. Thus maintaining that classic xj look :)
 
I think the problem comes into the fact that the newest XJ is 11 - 12 years old. I also feel that the people who would buy XJs are much different today as well. Look at NAXJA, the membership has become much younger over the years. Young guys normally don't have as much disposable income as the old guys to spend on their rigs.

Lately I have seen more and more Wranglers on the trail, mostly late model TJs and a growing number of JKs. There is also the trendy Toyota crowd as that seems to be the chosen model for the young flat-billers and wanna-be moto guys.

Basic economics are what drive us all. No money to buy a built rig? We can just buy a few parts here and there and build up to what we want as the money comes in.
 
I too, Dave, hate to see XJ's cut up and torn apart. But I do have to agree with what was said here and that is it is a money driven market so when the XJ becomes more of a commodity, meaning valued more for the tremendous all around off road vehicle that it is, then they will be fixed up instead of tearing it apart.

There were only 2,884,172 made and they will become more valuable as time goes on. I think it is one of greatest car of all time and still the best SUV ever made.

I know I ramble and don't make much sense, I just love the Cherokee.
 
All of which makes perfect sense Skipper. XJ's are cheap, and yes they leterally made millions. My own XJ is worth maybe 5k in parts, but as a whole maybe 3K. I get that.

But it's wrong. All of you who are doing this will be sorry someday. These Xj's won't be around forever (except the ones we own). Think about all the old movies like Bullit, don't you cringe ever time they wreck another 68 GT Mustang!? I know I do!
 
My plan is for the future is to wheel my XJ til it falls apart, fly out west and find a Cherry XJ or MJ to keep around then build a 4 door JK. I don't see me not owning an XJ for years to come. Hopefully i'll always have one. Around here we have rust so its hard finding a complete XJ that isn't rusty to build up.
 
But it's wrong. All of you who are doing this will be sorry someday. These Xj's won't be around forever (except the ones we own). Think about all the old movies like Bullit, don't you cringe ever time they wreck another 68 GT Mustang!? I know I do!

I agree with this and I know ill regret it for the jeeps ive parted. Its part of my XJ addiction now, and Im trying hard to kick this part of the jeep addiction, not to look for part out rigs anymore, but I look 5 times or more a day on Craigslist on multiple CL, and have apps that alert me of a XJ crawler within 100 miles as soon as one posts for under 2500$, Im like a jeep crackhead, unless the jeep is already going to the junkyard, and it just comes to me on the way. See, theres the addiction talking.

An interesting note, since I love scouts and used to own 2, they only made the scout for about 20 years (1960-1980 RIP) I wish they still made them I would buy one!
A 20 year production run and they are still crazy hard to find and the Xj was only in production for 16 years(adding the WJ to 2004 could be a stretch, but last straight axle jeep with the cherokee name) but there are also ZJs, Yjs, Wjs, Tjs, with lots of interchangeable parts, and a lot more after market support than scouts seem to have, so who knows where we will be 40 years after the XJ, but imagine in another 20 years how hard it will be to find XJ parts.

We should all start a collective stocking up now. Like basically start our own XJ junkyard at some point. that would be such a fun job.
 
Dave, for most people monetary values overcome sentimentals, at which point it becomes just another expendable possession.
Once XJ numbers start to diminish and they actually become rare people will come to realize they were one of the best suv's ever made and cyclical trend sets will raise values. And hopefully you'll see less of this mad max hackage that most of us succumb to. The mustangs and belairs of yesterday are still far and few to the xj.
But you’re right, it is sad that we put soo much blood sweat and tears into our rigs and then we whore it out like sockton blvd garbage. I can see why you express heartache for all this, your rig is one of the finest examples of a well kept and built xj I’ve ever seen. Its really is sad that more people don’t share your devotion to such a fine machine.
 
I think its a combination of things that everyone here has touched upon. An XJ can be had for much less than any other comparable vehicle, based on the fact that there were so many made. Looking at what's out there, I've seen stock TJs going for almost $10k, while a comparable XJ goes for half the price. Heck, even a built XJ won't bring that much. That's why they all get parted out and the chassis scrapped most times. Until the number of XJs out there begins to dwindle this trend will continue.
 
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