1990 Jeep Cherokee 4.0 liter, straight 6 cylinder from North America
Summary:
Biggest piece of unreliable junk I've ever seen or driven- I'll never own one again
Faults:
Water pump stopped working- had to replace it.
Alternator stopped working- had to replace it.
Coolant reservoir broke. I replaced it with a new one THREE times.
The piece of junk overheated when climbing a moderately steep hill in the summer. You'd have to stop to let it cool, and then the coolant reservoir would spew out a bunch of coolant. Extra bottles of premixed coolant were fixtures in that Jeep.
Parking lights burned out twice.
Stabilization bar (front) broke.
4WD transfer case stopped working. This cost $1600 to repair.
Windshield leaked water at bottom and top onto the two front passengers' feet.
Distributor stopped working twice (first time: the cap had a crack in it; second time: different problem that I don't recall).
The oil filter was placed at such an angle that you could barely squeeze the filter wrench in. When you managed to get the wrench in place, you could only turn the thing about two degrees at a time- literally. So, taking the oil filter off took about fifteen minutes.
Rear wiper never worked.
ABS brakes malfunctioned several times.
Rear drum brakes didn't work properly. The star wheel mechanism did not self adjust as it was supposed to, and the brakes never tightened properly.
Engine died all the time (probably thanks to the lousy electrical system).
General Comments:
This piece of junk was better suited to rusting away in a lonely parking lot than to being driven around (on pavement or off-road).
If it was raining, I could never have the front wipers, the headlights, the radio, the heater or air conditioning, and the rear window defrost on at the same time. I could only run one or two at a time, or else the heap would die on me at a stoplight.
I had serious trouble with the ABS system, which resulted in greatly increased force required on the brake pedal and greatly increased stopping distance- VERY DANGEROUS. There was a safety recall for the ABS pump motor, so I took it to the dealer from which I bought this four-wheeled death machine. When I got it back, they said they cleaned a connector, said that this is what was needed to fix the safety recall issue, and took my recall notice. Six months to a year later, the same ABS problem came back. I took it to the same dealer, and this time they said that the ABS pump motor needed replacing and they wanted to charge me $600 to do it. I called Chrysler and described the situation. Chrysler took care of the problem for me. I would love to go on about this incident, but this review is only supposed to be about the vehicle. This little ABS story is nothing but true facts, though.
The seats were uncomfortable- HORRIBLE thigh support (I'm a normal-sized person).
An example of how cheesy and fake this vehicle is: On the steering wheel is a circular pattern of what looks like socket head bolts. This gives the impression that these bolts are holding the steering wheel on to the steering column. These are not real bolts. This is just a plastic ring molded into the shaped of socket head bolts and glued to the steering wheel. Someone please tell me what the point of this is. Does it serve to make the interior look "rough-and-ready" or something?
I seriously started trying to figure out how I could make money by having people pay to watch me destroy this heap of junk (what's more eye-catching: blowing it up, or running it off a cliff?)
Those stickers are correct- it IS a Jeep thing, and I DON'T understand.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 20th May, 2004
22nd May 2004, 07:39
I don't think this person knew how to take care of their Jeep. Considering it had 63,000 miles on it when you bought it, the previous owner could have, and sounds like they did, beat the crap out of it. Plus, it's a Jeep, not a sports car. You can't drive it like a sports car. And you don't need ABS. Yes it's nice to have in quick situations, but other than that, it's a pain. Learn how to drive an SUV, then complain.