Blue Thursday: 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport XJ
To the average guy walking down the street, they probably won’t take a second glance at a 20 year old Jeep Cherokee, but to a certain subset of the population, this next feature is the bee’s knees. Personally, I’m ambivalent and would probably get a 4Runner if I needed a 4X4 SUV…but, why drive boring when you can drive turismo? Find this 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport XJ here on eBay bidding for $6,001 with 3 days to go, located in Woodbury, NJ.
The XJ generation Jeep Cherokee defined a new standard in compact sport
utility vehicles as it was a capable off roader that eschewed
body-on-frame roughness for a unibody chassis that gave it relatively good fuel economy and good road manners. The Sport version was the a mid range option package that included cloth/vinyl uphostery, AM/FM stereo, air conditioning, and optional alloy wheels — but it was still available with the 4.0 liter AMC 242 inline-6 that puts 193 horsepower and 231 ft-lbs of torque into a 4-speed automatic gearbox.
See a car with a nicer shade of blue? tips@dailyturismo.com
If that thing was a 5 speed, it would be the holy grail of XJ's. Other than the Diesel, of course.
I'd rather have the Jeep than the 4Runner; these are far more resilient mechanically and whole lot easier and cheaper to repair when they do break
Owned both, loved the torque of the 4.0 and the 5-spd manual in the Cherokee. Love the road manners and general refinement with the 4Runner (despite being body on frame).
I prefer the 4Runner. But I've never owned one in the rust belt (my Cherokee was a rust belt car, without rust until I sold it at 150k). I hear up there they don't last more than 150k miles due to road salt.
Yeah, these are going to be something of a minor classic.
I used to have a black, manual transmission '01 XJ Sport in mint condition with 89k miles. I let it go for about $6k in 2011. I'm such an idiot.