Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question(s) for you Jeep guys....

I have a daughter who will be turning 16 soon and I am starting to look at cars for her. She likes the Jeep Wranglers, and I know nothing about them (aside from knowing that kids and off-roaders like them).

I stumbled upon one locally that is a 1995 Wrangler S with the 4 cylinder motor in an automatic. It only has 66000 miles on it, 4WD, auto, air, new tires, hard top, excellent condition in/out.

Are these good? Problematic? Any concerns? Thoughts? He is asking $6k.

if taken care of that 4 cylinder is good for 300k.....hard to kill them if you do regular maintenance......it doesnt have enough power to get a kid in trouble but it is a short wheel base, high center of gravity vehicle so your daughter does need to understand what that means and how to drive it....

oh and dont think you can just put the 4.0L engine in it if you decide you want more power....its an absolute pain in the arse to do and much eisier to just find one that already has the 4.0....

I don't think Jeep Wranglers are a good first vehicle. They are somewhat lite and don't stop as well as most cars. That four banger doesn't have enough power to get out of it' own way.
On the other hand,the asking price isn't that bad and your daughter will probably love it.
Another thing is... When she gets tired of it,you have a cool hunting rig.

Sounds like a fun vehicle with low miles at a good price.

She'll love it.

Tell her to buckle up and not do anything stupid. She should do fine.

Tell her not to use 4 low until she is absolutely, positively stuck for her bail out plan.

The jeep has a high center of gravity and short wheel base. Its not the safest car for a young driver. See if you can score a used CRV in good condition. We've found two real clean ones the past couple years (1999 and 2001) and gave one to our daughter.

My .02 worth.

Jordan

I agree with the above. A Cherokee with the straight 6 would be a better choice, IMHO.

Funny Bart, you have precisely re-listed all of my exact thoughts/concern on one of these. I took it for a good spin, including the highway, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but was still plenty bumpy, noisy, and top heavy.

though they are small, they do not drive like a car and you cant drive them like one.....but if your daughter is the more mature type and you know she will listen to instruction than IMHO wouldnt be a huge deal for a first vehicle.....especially with the 4 cyl.........

Ditto
Jeeps are not sports cars they're not meant to corner like one, that's why they no longer make the CJ's, and now produce the Wranglers with a much wider stance.
Take that Wrangler out for a drive yourself before you show it to your daughter, I think you'll like it.
By sitting up a little higher than the low slung ground hugging cars of today you will have a good view of what's going in traffic ahead, not just the car directly in front of you.

I've owned three of them. The first was a '77 CJ7 with a factory 304 V8 with Quadratrack. The second was an '84 CJ7 Renegade with an in-line 6 and the third was a '97 TJ Wrangler with a 4-banger.
The one thing that I would caution about is the steering. With the short wheelbase, the steering is very responsive. I found that I had to pay more attention to where I was pointed than any other vehicles I've owned. Looking for wildlife (either the four-legged or two-legged variety) could get you in trouble if you took your eyes off the road for more than a quick glance.
They had a reputation for being tippy, but I put well over a quarter of a million miles on the three of them and never came close to rolling any of 'em. I did spin one out on a corner (on a paved highway), when I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have, and the shiny side stayed up.
They are a fun vehicle to drive and they will go a lot of places where other 4X4s won't.

Absolutely agree with all of the above. Not a safe car for a new driver.

That said, I love Jeeps to death and grew up in Toledo, not that far from the old Willys Overland plant. I've owned and driven several Jeeps over the past five decades. I peraonally very much like the recent Wranglers.

When my own kids were in their teens, they had two choices in cars that they both hated. One was my '87 turbo Buick Grand National, whose informal motto was "We brake for Corvettes." The fastest production cars at the time other than a limited production Porsche. Any little acceleration and the wheels would chirp and the back end would twist. Scared the hell out of them. The other was a big old Jeep Wagoneer. I figured they would survive any crash in that one.

I owned a jeep for 10 years, first a 95 black 4 banger and I absolutely regret ever trading it in. I moved to a 4 door wrangler and drove that for 4 years and then got a big boy vehicle and bought a silverado. I drove the hell out of that 95 wrangler and wish I was still driving it. I think it depends on your daughter ability to learn and how smart she is. If she is a cautious young woman then I think she will learn to drive it just as safely as any other vehicle, if she is reckless then no I don't think its a good choice. I never had an issue with mine being top heavy or tippy, but I didn't jack it up either. Hell if I didn't have 3 kids I'd probably still have one or be thinking about getting another one now.

P.S. If ever you think about leasing a wrangler DONT. I had my last jeep for 4 years and sold it for exactly 4 grand less than I paid for it new, not traded in sold it.

MM

I had an early wrangler with the 6 cylinder in it, It had good points Like good in a foot of snow or less, and topless summer evening rides. It was by far the cheapest made vehicle i've ever owned. I would not put my 16 yr old in one.

I bought a 91 for my daughters. For several reasons (my daughter has a medical condition and injures very easily - I decided a recently made vehicle with all the airbags), I ended up with the Jeep. I did lots of upgrades - it is now my go to hunting vessel. It is my favorite vehicle. It now goes about anywhere a UTV will go.

Being short wheel base, they are can be wicked on ice. Things happen fast. I have the 4 cylinder. Not fast at freeway speeds. But still, not very fuel efficient. Easy to find parts for. Easy to work on. Not a lot of interior room. Good in deep snow. Inexpensive to operate. Not very complex. Higher center of gravity than a sedan. I would say not the safest vehicle for a teenager as they are beginners at driving and can get in trouble and therefore get in accidents.

My best friend and I both had Jeep CJ5's in high school..

I like to think we were both the 'mature type,' though our parents would probably dispute that fact, and neither of us ever had any problems.

The CJ5 didn't have a much longer wheelbase than today's side-by-side UTV's. Additionally, both of them were lifted up four inches or so, and stood on 33" tires; his ran a AMC 304 V8, and mine had the 258 inline 6. Both were ridiculously OVERpowered. We ran those things off road more than we did on the road, and neither of us had any issues. Since then, I have owned three more.. a YJ, similar to the one you are considering, and two TJ's [round headlamps,] one with the 2.5L four and the other with the 4.0L, all with handshakers. By far, the best engine put into a Jeep was the 4.0L. The 2.5L, which is what you are looking at I believe, is probably a little underpowered, but good on gas, and it lacks the torque to get her into trouble on slippery roads. The 2.5L, and those older automatics are relatively trouble-free.

Remfak, I don't think your daughter will have any problems with that Wrangler.

The biggest issues to keep an eye out for, at least on the Jeeps here in the rust belt, is body and frame rust. Some are rotted to the gunnels, some still have a black frame.. it seems hit or miss. They like to rust under the doors, the front fenders start rusting up under the flares, and around the rear corners of the cab, and on the body seams under the rear door. On the frame, check the rails above the rear wheels, and the leaf spring shackles.

If you are the type of guy who performs his own maintenance and repairs, you wont find an easier vehicle to work on. Parts are cheap and available through 4wd Hardware and a few other 'Jeep' specialty catalogs. There are several good online forums to ask questions and gain knowledge.

If you end up getting her a Jeep, and have any questions, give me a hollar, I have been working on them for years.

This can definitely be a BIG problem for an inexperienced driver; I'd not get it for a kid of mine as there are many better choices.

I've had several Jeeps & have a 4dr Wrangler now; the short ones can be treacherous on slippery conditions, period.

Jeeps are fantastic for certain things but can be tricky to learn how to handle on the road.

MM

During the hiatus from '95 to '97, Jeep re-engineered the Wranglers. Besides going back to round headlights, the biggest changes were in the suspension. 1997 and newer Wranglers are much more controllable, especially on washboard and other sub-par road surfaces. My wife had a '97 with the four-banger and she absolutely loved it.

We were living on a very large ranch and spent a lot of time in it during our leisure hours. She finally traded it, primarily because she couldn't run the A/C at highway speeds in the summertime on the . If there were hills involved, the engine would overheat and she had to turn off the A/C. This made trips to Tucson and El Paso pretty uncomfortable.

That might not be a problem in Montana, though. FWIW, comparing notes with other Wrangler owners, we found that the four and the six got about the same gas mileage in real life useage.

Any idea what they did to the suspension to improve the ride/handling? As I understand it, Wranglers are still beam/solid axles front and rear, but I'm not sure if they are coil or leaf sprung?