Jeep Commander

jeepdude10000

jeepdude10000

NAXJA Forum User
Location
LaLa land!
Well i currently have an 89 XJ 4.0L dana 30front(non disconect)/35rear(limited slip)/ NP424/ auto OD and 410 gears.

I have been looking for a newer jeep, but can only find junk! or way overpriced! :explosion

I have owned other 95 XJ / 98 TJ both 4.0L . not bad jeeps but I prefer my 89 XJ over both of them.

What my question is has anybody own or owned a Commander.
I am interested in buying one but dont have alot of info on them, i dont trust dealer web or mags.

If some one has more info or hands on info that would be great.


Thanx
 
jeepdude10000 said:
Well i currently have an 89 XJ 4.0L dana 30front(non disconect)/35rear(limited slip)/ NP424/ auto OD and 410 gears.

I have been looking for a newer jeep, but can only find junk! or way overpriced! :explosion

I have owned other 95 XJ / 98 TJ both 4.0L . not bad jeeps but I prefer my 89 XJ over both of them.

What my question is has anybody own or owned a Commander.
I am interested in buying one but dont have alot of info on them, i dont trust dealer web or mags.

If some one has more info or hands on info that would be great.


Thanx
Click to expand...

What exactly do you want to know?
 
Short version, the commander, liberty, grand are the same as all the other suv cars that are out there, cast iron blocks, alloy heads V6's or V8, the liberty is the only distinctive looking one, the grand looks like a mitsibishi/nissan/mb/etc. The commander only stands out because of it's size and boxey rear. Now if you want a Jeep the TJ and unlimited are the last of the breed, the unlimited has a much better ride than the TJ as well as more interior and cargo room, I think it goes from 47cuft to 63cuft.
Commander is big inside, seats are hard for long trips, prepare for butt barnacles otherwise it's pretty nice. If someone gave me one I'd take it, I'd also immeadiately turn it over to my wife, she would appreciate it more than me.
I've been desperately trying to gather the funds for an 06 unlimited but with two kids in college it's not going to happen before the 07's come out and I wanted a 4.0L Unlimited. This is the last year of the 4.0L, replacement is a iron/alloy V6 w/4 bucket seats. We've got 2 wranglers and both my kids said 'why did they put buckets in the back' neither of them have ever had anybody in the back except for my son who had on more than one occasion filled his with chicks from his enviromental class for field trips but that was only for one semester.
The 06 unlimited with the OME suspension rides better than my 98XJ and rides almost as well with the stock suspension as my XJ..
 
RichP said:
seats are hard for long trips, prepare for butt barnacles
Click to expand...

Disagree.

But what would I know about it, I just own one.

I should also add that putting the grand and commander in the same category as the liberty is ridiculous.
 
what i wanted to know is the commander good for off-road (not extreme - just moderate) and if there are aftermarket products such as lifts, bumpers, ect.

the reason im looking at the commander is because i did not loke the TJ i had before, but my 89XJ is really nice to drive on and off road, since it is "limited" it has leather power seats, power everything else. It is a very comforable compared to the 95 XJ / 98 TJ which i owed before, that is why i still have it.
 
jeepdude10000 said:
what i wanted to know is the commander good for off-road (not extreme - just moderate) and if there are aftermarket products such as lifts, bumpers, ect.

the reason im looking at the commander is because i did not loke the TJ i had before, but my 89XJ is really nice to drive on and off road, since it is "limited" it has leather power seats, power everything else. It is a very comforable compared to the 95 XJ / 98 TJ which i owed before, that is why i still have it.
Click to expand...

The commander is so "young" that there isn't a lot available for it yet as far as off-road products go. There are a few companies offering kits in the 2-4" lift range, like Superlift. Sway bar disconnects are non-existant also as far as I know.

We bought ours for a strictly on road ride. My wife DDs it. We got the 4.7L V8 because we wanted to tow, but didn't want the hemi. It has plenty of get up and go while have decent mileage for a big ride.

In my opinion and my wifes (and everyone that has been in it for that matter) it is very comfortable, especially for a Jeep. It has excellent manners on road.

I can't comment on it's off road performance since I have only even had it in 4 low twice. I will say that IFS gets a lot of chit that is undue if "light to mild" off road is all you intend.

It is a big pig though (actually only 2" longer than the new grand) which will make tight trails a bitch.

We have averaged around 17-18 mpg during the 7200 miles we have on ours in the last 8 months.

The only things I really don't like about it is, the full time t-case makes a whining sound at higher speeds. Our ZJ before had the same thing though. Also the B pillar is right in your line of sight if you turn your head all the way to the left.

Feel free to ask any more questions.

There are pics floating around here on this forum if you want to search my username.
 
I bought my wife a '05 Grand limited a few months ago and we love it. It will never be a rock crawler but we didn't buy it for that reason. We wanted something with more room than the current car she had that we can take to the mountains, snowboarding trips, or camping etc. And we have used it for that several times. We also looked at the commander and it was a hard choice between the two. Sometimes I wish that we had purchased the commander but we are still happy with the Grand.
In regards to it's off-roadability- It won't be better than a TJ or a XJ but I would suspect it would outperform any other IFS SUV currently being manufactured
 
hey thanx guys, i going to dealer today and se if i can make a deal an one.
 
Off road the commander is pretty good, I spent a week with various ones giving off road demo rides at camp jeep last year, from base models to the hemi. The seats in those were hard, especially after spending 7-8 hours in them. The 'oh $hit' handles are on the A pillar, bad location and the mirrors peel off to easily and tend to screw up the power windows :D [yea, did a door too :D]...
It turns amazingly tight, at camp jeep we built the trail for the TJ/KJ and the day before CJ opened our trail was turned into the commander/ diesel KJ trail. Other than having to cut down one tree [mirror and door issues] we did not modify the trail other than getting the taller rocks out of there to save transfer cases. I liked the auto tranny, in 4lo smack the stick down into first and it stays there AND it locks the torque converter so you can use engine braking while crawling, it will also crawl at 5mph with no input to the skinny pedal. Around any rocks that are more than about 8" high, forget it though the ones we had did seem to have pretty good armour under there.
The other nit is they tied the front air dam to the front fender flares, hit a water obstacle too hard and you bend the air dam back which results in the front flares acting like a set of wings as they pop loose from the retainers on the fenders. Other nit was with the 3rd row of seats up your visibility out the back is gone but the rear sensor lets you know when you get to close.
As far as bunching the KJ/grand/commander in a group, well, they are IFS utes and therefore totally out of the live axle jeep line. JMO
 
Dirk Pitt said:
We bought ours for a strictly on road ride. My wife DDs it. We got the 4.7L V8 because we wanted to tow, but didn't want the hemi. It has plenty of get up and go while have decent mileage for a big ride.
Click to expand...
Why not a Hemi? I have heard nothing but bad about the 4.7L I know they run good. I have driven several but I also know they are a gas pig?

Not picking on you...just curious.
 
BrettM said:
If you're looking for comfortable and decent offroad abilities, I would look for a Land Cruiser, and I don't mean that new ugly one.
Click to expand...

TLC FJ-80 / Lexus LX450. That's where I'd be looking if a 2001 XJ didn't work for you.
 
DrMoab said:
Why not a Hemi? I have heard nothing but bad about the 4.7L I know they run good. I have driven several but I also know they are a gas pig?

Not picking on you...just curious.
Click to expand...

Even with the cylinder de-activation, the max mpg is about 13. At least according to the people I talked to that own them. I knew the track record of the 4.7 and was happy with the reputation. 18 mpg is not much better than 13 though.

RichP, I love the transmission control built into the stick. It will hold any gear until you bump the stick.
 
So i got the commander for one week to try it out, the salesman told me to try it out, that way i know if i like it before i buy it.

what a nice guy.
 
So I broke the commander. The transfercase is in about 6 peices.
I decided not to buy!
 
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