I am interested in three vehicles, a Jeep Cherokee XJ, a Lexus GX470, or a Toyota Land Cruiser. I have not become too attached to any of these in particular, nor am I stuck on a certain year. However, out of the three I am most familiar with the XJ. So far the search has been a bit frustrating. If it has low miles then they want a small fortune, the same goes if they have done any sort of aftermarket mods, this makes it pure gold apparently.

Local Craigslist has a whole lot of junk, and most for ridiculous prices. I did take a peek on eBay and what is listed is definitely outside my price range. Then there was Autotrader, I had to basically remove the distance limit to start finding things in the mileage and price range I can live with. What it boils down to is that I am looking for no rust, decent shape, as few miles as is possible, and around $10,000 give or take a few grand. Is that too much to ask?

Is there any specific region I should be looking in for these? After seeing what a couple NY winters can do to a vehicle I am definitely not looking for anything up north. I don't mind going to wherever I can find the best deal, I drove my Rubicon a good distance home since I found a dealership online that beat everyone local by enough to make travelling that far worth the effort.

 

If you're willing to travel, go down south where they don't use salt or calcium on the roads.


I bought a car last year, model year 2003; wanted one, of this specific make, model and year.


Found one with 27,000 miles.  In Florida.


Drove down there from PA and bought it.




I drove 500+ miles this year, with my brother, to buy a 2014 Lincoln MKS (I think, the bigger one).  It was the one he wanted, at the price he wanted, in the condition he wanted.



If you are willing to go to the vehicle, you can score a deal off the national car sale sites.

Try buying a 4 door truck/SUV in Mo. Can you say "rusted undercarriage for 23+ grand?"

I'm not sure what it costs to ship a car to you, but 10K, or even 6K, will get you a
very nice XJ in Arizona that will be totally rust-free.

Honestly I'd aim for 4-5K, and then pay 2-3K (or DIY) to get all the gaskets/seals/hoses replaced,
use the balance to cover shipping.

If you're buying a southern vehicle don't accidentally buy a 2WD version.

FWIW I am in TN now. Lots of used car lots love to head up north to grab cheap vehicles that look great until you crawl under them...ate up with cancer.



I was thinking if I found something out west I would just fly out and drive it back. My wife would love for that to happen. Honestly, I have found myself torn here. I am familiar with XJ's, and know I can get them much cheaper than the other two vehicles, but I do really like the looks of the GX470. Price and mileage are what is killing me with those.

Is Autotrader and eBay the only decent national site to peruse?

Head west for Toyotas.  CO, AZ and NM.

I'd definitely add craigslist to those, and also carsforsale.com. Honestly craigslist will probably
be the most productive. There's also a local guy I know that sells about 50 XJs a year, PM if you
want his name.

I just bought a GX about a month ago. You're going to be looking at pretty high mileage to get down to 10k dollars.

Timing belt has to be done every 90k miles, some get exhaust leaks, check for leaking cv boots, radiator leaks. KDSS is supposed to be awesome, but it also makes other mods more difficult. Try to get non-nav if you can, they tie a lot into it and it will limit what you can do as far as upgrades.


Don't take any of that as anti-GX, I love mine. Just trying to point out things to consider. If you haven't already, go to ih8mud and check out the 120 forum (gx, 4runner, FJ). Lots of stuff for those cars will work with the GX or might need slight modification to work. Also check out "GX OFF ROAD" Facebook group.


Since I bought mine, I replaced the timing belt and radiator, installed Toytec boss 2.0 lift (ditching the rear air bags), OPOR sliders, and 265/70r17 KO2s.

Where are you located OP ?

You can pick up any of those up here if you are willing to import it back to the USA and save a metric shit tonne of money.
Our dollar is right around $.75 cents USD, right now I'm getting close to 50/50 on sales to US buyers Vs. Canuck buyers.

Your market is hot, ours is not.

This is my experience as well. I am willing to travel for the right car

I would buy a Toyota or Lexus and pay a premium before I would ever buy an out of warranty Chrysler.

I drove from TN to DC to get the Rubicon. I figure I should cast my net wide once again, local is just not getting it done.



Nice rig! The reading I have read so far did say to avoid the vehicles with Nav, didn't dig much beyond that. I figured out how to use the Lexus owner's site to plug in the VIN and see what service has been performed at the dealership, that did help narrow down my search a bit this morning. Still nothing really jumping out at me.

Any 2006 with around 125k all seem to be in the $14,000 range. Playing with the mileage and year of the vehicle seems to change this a bit back and forth. Looks like if I wanted a GX with only about 70k on the clock it will cost me in the $20's. At least anything within a three hour drive of Tennessee seems to be that way. Of course a decent XJ with at or under 100k is hovering around $8,000 in the same area.

This XJ I just found on Phoenix CL would probably be listed for at least $10,000 here.

Miles don't really bother me all that much, more the actual condition of the vehicle and to a lesser extent the ability to be wrenched on without a lot of hassle. Well, that and price/availability of parts is also a consideration. Years ago I bought a 1995 Range Rover County, and swapped out the air bags for coils. Then it needed a water pump. Then the exhaust manifolds cracked. Everything I had to replace I had to order online and wait to arrive. I didn't mind working on it, I just hated the cost and the wait.

Yeah, I forgot to mention MyLexus.  But like you said, you can put in the vin and check mx history.  I tried not to take that history too seriously, but you can look for signs of a lemon or signs of abuse/neglect.  Mine had great service for the first 80k miles, then disappeared for a long time, then popped up again with an inspection right before it was sold(telling me exactly what work it needed).

I paid a little over $12k for my '04 with 138k miles, needing a timing belt, but it was in excellent condition otherwise.

I found a GX470 in great shape, and the dealership just replaced the front CV axles when they took it in on trade. The timing belt was just done about 20k ago. I offered 12 and they were not even entertaining it, so I went to 14 and they shot back 14,500. Last night I told them 14 was my best offer and if they can't make the deal then I am moving on. Now I sit here this morning wondering if that $500 will truly be the deal breaker. I don't want to cave in and call them back, but I also think this is a pretty good deal with all things considered. It's the end of the month, I am not losing hope that they will call me later to take the deal, but there is that lingering doubt.

Land Cruiser for the resale.

Lexus is the same with higher maintenance.

Cherokees are cool if you don't mind broken down SUVs and terrible resale values.

I guess my real hesitation on getting a Cherokee is that they don't have the LATCH system and I like having it to install the car seat. Resale was never really a concern because it will probably be ready for the junkyard by the time I am ready to get rid of it.

The GX seems to be a real hidden gem, their price is not as high as a comparable Land Cruiser in what I am seeing locally. My guess is that people haven't figured out what they are.