You know how the saying goes — they just don’t make them like they used to. Today’s Jeep Cherokee is a far cry from the original XJ which debuted in 1984. When folks moved on from the original models, hundreds of thousands of examples hit the used market for next to nothing. They’re old-school, boxy SUVs that aren’t even close to the forefront of modern technology. As such, they ended up becoming largely worthless to most people…until now, that is.
In the last year or two, though, prices have gone through the roof for old Jeep Cherokee XJs. What used to cost at most $4,000 or so is now selling for more than double that. Let’s take Tommy’s 1991 Jeep Cherokee XJ as a very clean example.
Originally, Tommy bought the car with under 100,000 miles on the clock for just $3,300. Mind you, that’s the sort of price crappy ones that have been to the moon and back go for. A few months later, he sold the Cherokee on Bring a Trailer for a whopping $9,700. Other low-mileage, original examples have sold for well over $10,000 — and this 1999 Limited 4×4 with 22,000 miles sold for $21,699 in 2018. That’s nearly the same as the car’s original price!
Do you think Cherokee prices are too crazy?
Nostalgia starts to hit most cars after a couple decades out of the public consciousness, and it seems that’s the case with the Jeep Cherokee. Original models are gaining favor as collectable items. Perhaps people are looking back to the good memories they had in one, or they’re just sick of all the tech gadgets in modern crossovers, including the new Cherokee KL.
Plus these Cherokee XJs are, for the most part, dead reliable thanks to the 4.0-liter straight-six engine and mostly bulletproof transmissions. People clearly want old Cherokees, and they’re willing to pay the price to get them. As the Wrangler has only gotten more and more expensive, this has historically been one of the cheaper ways into Jeep ownership. If prices keep going up like this, that may not be the case for much longer.
Let us know what you think about Jeep Cherokee prices in the poll below:
[socialpoll id=”2602385″]
