One of the best Vehicles ever made in America!

My Dark Baltic Blue 4 Door Selec Trac Jeep Cherokee 4 door was my very first car that I purchased. I made payments at a local used deal for $4500 in 1996. It has 72,000 miles on the clock.

I drove this vehicle a lot. When I say a lot you have no idea. I am talking some 50,000 miles a year (54mile each way commute to work)

I went everywhere with this Jeep. The Cherokee's were a bit ahead of the loop in features for relatively low end vehicles. Its the small things that make the difference sometimes. The routed heating duct under the center console so the people in the back got some heat. As for 4 wheeling (something I did often) it was king to me if you need a good compromise between a capable Off-Roader and a Daily Driver.

One of the best parts was the Selec Trac transfer case. This case has FULL and PART time 4 wheel modes. In full time you were in 4 wheel drive with an "unlocked" center diff. If you know how a car works the differential allows each wheel to spin at different velocities. This is what allows you to go around turns. If you ever heard an older muscle car "chirp" the wheels when making a turn what you are hearing is the locked or semi locked differential. Its preventing the wheels from differing in velocity. This helps with evening out acceleration on the straight away ie more power to the asphalt. The problem is when you navigate a curve the outside wheel has to travel a GREATER distance than the inside wheel. If the two wheels are LOCKED together this creates an issue. One wheel MUST go further or less distance than the other. SO what happens if things tighten up as the pressure builds and once this pressure exceeds the friction of the roadway the wheel breaks free and you hear that CHIRP. SO the OPEN differential was invented. This allowed the wheels to rotate at different speeds. BUT when your not just driving on the road this creates its own problems. The result of this is IF the friction is ever UNEVEN to the wheels the wheel with the least resistance will get almost all the power. This is why when you get stuck in mud or snow one wheel spins and the other wheels does almost nothing.

This is not good for Off-Roading but NEEDED for on road usage.

The transfer case is essentially another differential where its axles are the drive shafts going for and aft. So in 44 you have 3 differentials. The one on each axle front and rear and the transfer case.

For 4 wheel drive to work you need that center differential to be LOCKED. As you drive INTO say mud your REAR wheels on solid ground can PUSH you in and as you come OUT of a mud hole the front wheels now on solid ground can PULL you out even if the rear wheels are slipping. if this were open the moment your front wheels hit solid ground most of the power would goto the slipping rear wheels.

BUT as with tires left and right the FRONT wheels always travel a greater distance than the rear set of wheels in a CURVE. this is called wheel cheat. Ever nip the curb with your rear wheels but you missed it with the front wheels? thats wheel cheat.

Friction on road is SO HIGH that you can DAMAGE the vehicle if you use 4 wheel drive on road. Eventually the windup can be so great you can begin to damage things. If your lucky a few u joints might fail if your NOT so luck like me when My mom accidentally jammed it in Part Time mode and drove it anyway (the truck gets quite violent if you do this hence why I was so mad when it did not dawn on her to stop) you get unlucky and your U Joints hold and you get $2800 in damage :-)

SO jeep came up with a transfer case with BOTH modes Locked and Unlocked. Now in unlocked mode you can use 4 wheel drive on ANY surface without penalty NOT even a fuel economy penalty! fantastic!

The Cherokee was the smallest vehicle they could install this on as the Wrangler was "too short" the Selec Trac transfer case was longer than the normal command trac case and would not fit in the wrangler.

Jeeps are designed from the ground up for Off Road usage even though most people will never see dirt. Even the mirrors are designed for wheeling. They can "pop out" of there hard rubber sockets and are spring attached. SO if you whack a branch of cliff face the mirror will dislodge itself and move out of the way instead of breaking off.

The Cherokee is also very light. Lighter than a wrangler even. It uses unibody construction. This is where there is no traditional body and frame. Its a meld of the two resulting is much lighter mass. The wrangler used conventional body on frame.

Drain holes so if your ford water the water can get out. The Transfer Case and Transmission "vent" holes are tubed and run up high on the firewall so they do not suck water when your mudding or fording. Etc..

Then you have that amazing engine. While I would always prefer an electric motor if I have to have a non diesel engine it would be the Straight Six in my Jeep.

I stopped driving my jeep about 4 or so years ago. It just got so bad that it was not worth driving any longer. It ws leaking over a quart of oil every day. One time while 4 wheels I managed to get 1.5 quarts of MUD in the crank case without knowing it. (found later when I drained the oil)

Trashed every bushing bearing and seal in the engine. I put ANOTHER 200,000 miles on it after that before I stopped driving it.!

Another 200k you say? Well I have roughly 452,000 miles on the clock of my jeep Cherokee! nearly half a million miles! I can only imagine how many miles I could have put on it if I had not gotten the mud in there! I also never did ANY major work to that engine. Original seals original guts I did not even replace the timing chain in all those miles!

My jeep is modified. I have 31" off road tires a 4" suspension life and Rancho 9000 shocks all around as well as a full compliment of skid plates.

Driven carefully I can manage 22-23mpg mixed highway with my jeep! (now if I go to the mountains I suffer for those larger mass tires and get 11-14mpg)

One time on a trip to Alabama I went over 400 miles with zero stops never going below 60+mph and got 25mpg out of it!

Well My baby is coming back to life as I type this. I bought another 88 Cherokee Wagoneer on Ebay. Its a rust bucket but it had a nearly virgin engine with only 119,000 miles on the clock so I have just about finished transplanting this engine in my Cherokee. Since I had the engine out it only made sense to do some work on it. Even though it did not need any work it just made sense to do it while it was out (much easier to do on a hoist than inside the car) all news seals and gaskets all around water pump hoses timing change etc.. etc.. My baby will get new life and will continue to serve me well!

If you need a very compact light weight capable vehicle that will be dependable for life if taken care of and still have space for a family and cargo while still relatively sipping gas compared to today's large SUV's then trust me. Go find a 1997 or older Cherokee.

Repairs and parts are cheap. This vehicle has remained virtually unchanged from 1984 to 1997.

They are Dependable Reliable Good looking and well made. Just make sure it has that straight six engine. As long as you do your oil changes regularly and never let it overheat that engine should last longer than you will. Its one of the reasons they do not make it anymore I think. Its just too good :-)

A few stipulations on the "ratings" for build quality I give this Vehicle a 5 but for some reason epinions links build quality to Ride Noise which are completely unrelated??

Its a Jeep. Its an SUV with aggressive tires. Its NOT ever going to have a silent ride. For Build Quality I give it a 5 for Road noise a 3

For Handling. Especially if lifted I gave it a 4 some roll. I have never rolled a Cherokee and neither are you likely ever too. They are very stable. I once had to perform a maneuver to avoid a car that had stopped to late and popped out into my path while I was doing 40mph. I would have sworn doing that would have flipped that truck but it held solid. Did not even lift a wheel. I was impressed! Sometimes it might FEEL roll prone because your so much "higher up" off the road way than in a normal car but this jeep is likely smaller than that other car. So it might FEEL like it but it never will. Your just not used to the ride hight and vehicle size.