Question about selling price...

Starscream

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Columbia, SC
I'm sorry if I put this in the wrong place, but since I'm not really posting it for sale, I figured I'd do it here...

I would like to know how much someone would be willing to pay for this Jeep considering the mods and such...

Here is the specs... So far I am asking $7000 and have had at least four people jump at it, but want to do payments- hell no, I need cash up front.

1996 Cherokee Sport 4WD 4.0L HO
146,000 miles- tuned regularly and oil changed every 3K
Minor dent in passenger door (hardly visible)
Scratches on front grill from wheeling- nothing major, but noticable
NEW 3" BDS Full Spring Pack lift with BDS shocks and OME stabilizer
NEW BDS track-bar relocation bracket
NEW BDS T-case lowering kit (not installed since it's barely needed)
NEW 31x1050 ProComp AT's with less than 1K on them
NEW 15x8 Rock Crawler series-51's
Midland 40-Channel CB
Mini Antenna (roof mounted)
Eclipse 3434 CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3 Deck
Eclipse 4-Channel, 500 Watt RMS amp
Eclipse 10" Mica-injected Sub pushing 250 Watts RMS
Standard issue tight-sealed sub box with aircraft grade carpeting for sound sealant
Focal 5.25" Polykevlar Component mid-bass drivers with 1" silk-dome tweeters and crossovers, all running 125 Watts RMS (per pair of drivers and tweeters)
Directed Audio 8-guage wiring throughout (amp/sub/drivers/tweeters)
For the bling, I have a 60-bulb EMS red light in the front wildshield... It screams ricer but...

That's what I'll but next hopefully. I've been bitten by the import-bug. I wanted one before I got the Jeep, but I can't get them outta my head.

So does $7000 seem right? I tallied everything up for just the cost of parts, and it came out at over $7K. With installs figured in, it's closer to $8K. I kept it at $7K seeing as it's all used, except for the Lift stuff which might as well be brand-new.

Thanks.
 
nice plug
 
You should have jumped at the offers, payments or not.
 
Have them finance it from their bank, that way you get paid up front and dont have to wait till the 15th or whatever for your payment. You NEVER get back what you put in to it but at least with a jeep it is always worth at least $1000 no matter whether it runs or not....and it's not tooo bent up :D
 
Like RichP said, the resale value of add-on accessories and mods is a fraction of their cost new. In general, I think it's a lot more difficult to sell a modified vehicle than a stock one, because there are far fewer people looking to buy modified vehicles. And your mods may or may not be what they want.

I have only bought one modified vehicle in my entire 61-year life -- my '88 MJ -- and I bought that only because it was dirt cheap. It cost me a lot to fix all the problems, and the mods were not done the way I would have liked and 5 years later I am still working at undoing them.

To get an estimate of the resale value of your Jeep, I would look at www.edmunds.com. Get the price for a stock XJ of the same model and mileage as yours, then either use that or deduct $1000 because a modified XJ is going to be more difficult to sell.
 
I know a lot of people said that they'da jumped at the payments, but the problem is that I'm only 17 and can't own the title. My mom was mad that I wanted to sell it after I'd done all this stuff so recently, so she said unless I get $7000 one way or another at ONE TIME that I can't sell it.

I know you guys said that I should not expect full returns from the prices I paid for mods, and that's why I underpriced it. Like I said, if I'da done straight return from all my costs, it would've been closer to $8500.

A few things I forgot about my parts I have added:
Sylvania True White Headlamp conversion
Hella 550 H3 Driving/Off-Road lights
New actuators for the rear hatch
Vent Shades

Thanks
 
I'll give you $4.18 and the remains of the Six-Dollar Guacamole Bacon burger I got for lunch today.

This is a limited-time offer as I may decide to devour or throw out the remains of the hamburger.
 
Starscream918 said:
I know you guys said that I should not expect full returns from the prices I paid for mods, and that's why I underpriced it. Like I said, if I'da done straight return from all my costs, it would've been closer to $8500.
I don't think you're hearing what we're saying.

What the parts cost you doesn't matter. You cannot expect to get back more than a small fraction of what they cost you, and even then it's going to be difficult because the pool of potential buyers for a modified vehicle is a LOT smaller than the pool of potential buyers for a stock vehicle.

I understand that this is a bitter pill to swallow at the age of 17, but ... welcome to the real world. That's how it works.

The one modified vehicle I bought? It's a 1988 Comanche, 4-liter, 5-speed, a/c, tilt wheel, sliding rear window, off-road package (skids, tow hooks yada yada), Chief package, gauges, sport steering wheel, and when I bought it it had a recently installed AX-15 transmission and YJ 231 transfer case, and a Trailmaster 4" lift. Mileage was about 99,000. I bought it in November of 1999, so it was eleven years old. Paint faded, very little rust, no body damage other than a couple of SMALL door dings, and the wheel well trimming necessary to run large tires.

I paid $500 for it. That's right -- five HUNDRED dollars.

I sympathize with you, but I seriously doubt that you will get anywhere near $7,000 for your XJ. If your mother has set that as the bottom line, I think you need to reconcile yourself to being an XJ owner.
 
Definitely take the stereo stuff and the CB out. That stuff costs a lot of money and can easily be taken out and doesnt add to the selling price. I hope you still have your factory stereo, if not consider that a lesson learned too. Plus, you can put all of that in your new ride. If you dont have it i wouldnt sweat it too much you can get one cheap in a junk yard or even ebay.
 
And just to reinforce it, I built a 75/76 Dodge maxi-van back in 76, 440, B&M trans, every chrome accy in the mopar direct connect catalog. This was a show truck and I worked part time for a van customerizer so I had access to all the toys at good prices and the talent to do stuff I did not know how to. It won trophys at various van shows and van in's, was in magazines. Paid $5,550 new, sold for $5,000 4 years and 180,000mi later. I probably had $4-5000 in bling and performance. Did I feel bad that I could not sell it for $10K, kind of but the satisfaction I got building it outweighed the sale price. You *may* get some one who wants it, but you probably won't. Good luck but get all the cash at once.
Personally I would not build a tuner car, I'd build a TJ, they are alot more fun and a lot less trouble prone from a ticket and insurance angle, not to mention the ability to go topless and doorless. A wrangler can be built to be alot more high profile and attention getting than most any other. Just something about jeeps...
 
I ate the burger. Sorry, deal's off. Guacamole sucked me into its tempting, tempting maw again.

Other than that, what Eagle said. Never, ever, expect to make back your money on *any* vehicle (regardless of how tweaked it may be) unless it's a Morgan - and even then it's not set in stone. Any car is only worth as much as the buyer is willing to pay for it, and with modified vehicles there's always doubt about how well the modifications have been performed.

Not knocking your mechanical abilities in saying this, but rather pointing out a fact of the used car market. I've walked away from otherwise pristine-looking vehicles in the past simply because they had non-factory rims: my reasoning was that if the last owner spent that money on looks, it probably wasn't spent on maintenance.

Just a heads-up; take it for what it's worth.
 
Last edited:
I AM hearing what you are saying, I was just asking what you thought. I know I can't get ALL my money out of it. I realize that. And if you read back, you'll see I said I MAY sell it. I put out $7K just 'cuz I wanted to see if anyone would bite, and sure enough they did. Someone is looking at buying it right now. If they don't, boohoo, I have plenty left on my list of things to do. It's a fine vehicle and has plenty pull left in it. I still have the stock radio and suspension. Believe it or not, I'm not a total retard. :O

And Eagle, didn't you say that MJ was practically nothing more than a headache, then spelled out how it was so wonderful? I mean no disrespect in any way, believe me, but it seems as if you used it as an example against modified vehicles, then glorified it... doesn't make sense to me.

I wanted a tuner car just 'cuz it's been a dream of mine for a while, but I do agree that with the weight of insurance and gas, it would level out to about what I'm paying now.

I do understand what you have all said, and I do realize I won't get all my money out of it.

Thanks everyone who added something useful, including the guy with the guacamole... now I'm hungry.

BTW, how much do you think Line-X'ing my flares will cost?
 
Starscream918 said:
I still have the stock radio and suspension.

Hey, the only reason I said that is because I've seen a lot of my friends make that mistake. They'll give away their stock radio or sell it for like $20 only to need it later when they sell their vehicle. No offense intended. :D
 
Back
Top