Faults:
The main faults with this car have been normal wear and tear: brakes, radiator, tires, hoses, starter, sensors, etc. Everything has broken down around the time it was supposed to.
Somewhere around 190,000 the drive shaft fell off... on the freeway... at 70 MPH. Did not hurt the rest of the car, surprisingly enough.
Mysterious leaks are the biggest issue with this car. It doesn't matter how hard my mechanic and I look over my Jeep, we can never find where the leaks are coming from, but come the rain season and I have wet carpets... puddles even. I know part of the problem was because I had to replace the roof after rolling it one too many times.
The radio sucks. I replaced the original which had a tape cassette... it had stopped working somewhere around 100,000 miles.
Oh, and one of the doors is hard to open from the outside. For some reason the button just doesn't want to kick in place and open the door. But it still opens... I view it as a built in anti-theft device.
General Comments:
This is the toughest car. It takes a beating and keeps on working.
I have rolled this car at least 3 times while off roading. But it always spring back and works great.
I have been fairly rough on this car as I have had it since high school when my parent gave it to me. While I am a girl, I have not treated it nicely. It has smashed into other cars, snow banks, rocks, posts, and numerous other objects. And while it may not be the prettiest thing, it still works, and great.
It always starts right up. The only times it has not is when the battery finally kicked the bucket and when the starter died. Otherwise it starts right up, even in the middle of the harsh Alaska winters.
While not the most comfortable, it does have a lot of space and the seat are far more comfortable than a lot of other SUVs of that period. It is also really roomy!
It is also the easiest car to work on. I will admit the parts can be expensive, but almost everything can be done yourself. Just grab a manual, look it up online, or ask a mechanic friend for some help and you have it in the bag. Oil changes are a snap.
Brakes are slow, like most SUVs, however they work well.
Is the most protective thing you can be in. As I stated before, I have rolled this thing numerous times. And each time, while I definitely dented the car, I was never harmed. Not even a scratch.
Goes the distance. Drove this thing all over the US. Even up to Alaska, where it continues to perform beyond well. Even in the winters it does well. Whether it is loaded to the max and there is no suspension left, or is free of any load, this SUV pulls it weight.
Gas mileage kind of sucks, but that is to expected. And it gets much better than most, including newer SUVs.
