[MOB]

Had it a while now and wasn't sure how I'd get on with it, so didn't bother mentioning it on here.

Changed my 118d M Sport for a...................Jeep Grand Cherokee

Changed last September - I was fed up with the 1 series a bit, we had just got 2 (small) dogs so I started looking (as you do, any excuse).

90% of the journeys I now do are 70mph on a dual carriageway to work. No fun involved!

I had £20k to spend, I wanted;

- Something I could chuck the dogs in, with shopping or holiday gear as well
- Auto diesel (not 4-cyls)
- 4 wheel drive nice, but not essential
- potential to be fairly quick when remapped
- toys
- potential to have a great stereo (simple upgrade)
- as new and as low mileage as possible

So initially I looked at estate cars, and to be honest I couldn't see anything that interested me, so I started looking at 4x4's. I didn't particularly want an off roader, but they were more "interesting" to me.

So I looked into these;

- Volvo XC90 - I'm a big Volvo fan, love the seats and Hifi - D5 engine was underpowered, and I couldn't find anything nice under £20k that had sensible mileage or age
- BMW X5 - £20k got me a pretty old diesel, and they didn't really interest me
- Merc ML - too expensive for a nice one
- Land Rover Disco - way too slow, good value though
- Touareg - nice, but I could only see old ones with poor spec for my £20k

Then I thought about the Jeeps - I had one as a courtesy car a few years ago, and at the time I thought "quite nice, but not £30k+ nice"

Ended up buying one for £19k from a Jeep Dealer;

- 2008 3.0CRD Overland in metallic black - 18k miles
- Mygig system - satnav/music hard drive/DVD system in rear/boston acoustics hifi
- Heated front & rear seats, double glazing
- Xenons/rear camera/leccy seats/privacy glass
- no option unticked!

Mods so far - Evolve remap to 260bhp and 430lbs, front tints

Planned mods - make it handle(ish), carbon wrap the interior wood, SRT8 wheels and bumpers, Kicker hifi upgrade

This is how I want it to look;



And so far.............I really like it lol - not everyone's cup of tea, but the facelift in 2008 brought the interior materials up to acceptable.

Its awesome off road and in snow, comfortable, quick (post remap), reliable so far.

Downsides - interior quality ok, but not German/Swedish quality, 25mpg, dodgy suspension, very wallowy

For fun, the plan is to either get a £5k loony car, or a bike.

Let the flaming commence lol

[peterg1965]

Good for you, it's horses for courses isn't it. I personally would have gone for the Disco 3 TDV6 Auto. They are awesome cars and I didn't think they were that slow, I had one for three years. I have to say the black Jeep in the pic looks eye catching.

[E902717]

Sounds great, I drive past a house my way to work everyday and the bloke as got an srt-8 jeep heard it a few times and it sounds awesome!!

[MOB]

I REALLY wanted the SRT8 6.1 Hemi version - similar money to buy, but 10mpg

Even with an LPG conversion, I couldn't.....................

[creepy coupe]

With the state of our road these days, something that's not going to improve any time soon. I can see more of us changing our cars for something similar.

I drove along the A259 from Folkestone to St Mary’s Bay last night in my M3. The condition of the road was a disgrace, totally fcuking unacceptable for a UK A - road, it was like driving in a third world country and I consider the M3’s suspension to be more compliant than any other BM I’ve owned.

Good luck MOB

[MOB]

Just before Xmas, the missus and I, plus the dogs, got caught in an almighty blizzard in the Jeep, and whilst it was still scary, it was nice to feel like we were in something that would get us home safe.

I'm going to be interested to see how I feel about it come summer time though.

Meant to say above, washing the bloody thing is a pain in the arse lol

[Em135eye]

We need to just accept that our roads are deteriorating and no one can afford to fix them. Some potholes around my way even worry me in the Defender!

Not into Jeeps but they are great vfm.

[creepy coupe]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

We need to just accept that our roads are deteriorating and no one can afford to fix them. .

That's the bit that I can't accept. as motorist the Government has more than enough out of us, Road tax, Fuel tax, VAT on the fuel and we have some of the worst roads in the EU

[KadeSdad]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

We need to just accept that our roads are deteriorating and no one can afford to fix them. Some potholes around my way even worry me in the Defender!

What do you think they are doing to me in my Lotus

OP, Nice car by the way

[beemerbird]

Well this is a surprise Mob.

My other half had one of the much older ones in the nineties and it had everything as standard virtually.

Know what you mean about the handling but no way would I say it's a bad car and I'm remembering the older model. Steve's was well comfy down the motorway.

I think they're bloody good value second hand and yours will look pretty mean in black.

Oh and Volvos, I agree with you on all counts and when you start looking at older ones, by hell they've done some monster mileage.............credit to they're engineering imo.

[Mani59]

I think it looks/sounds great and very different from all the 4x4s on the road today
You're getting alot of toys init for £19k! Fab price!

[MOB]

Originally Posted by beemerbird

Well this is a surprise Mob.

Know what you mean about the handling

The odd thing is that they go round corners pretty well for their size and weight, but in a straight line, if you go over an undulating section of road, the car feels like a very slow pogo stick - really weird floaty feeling

I've been told Bilstein suspension sorts that

[Em135eye]

Originally Posted by creepy coupe

That's the bit that I can't accept. as motorist the Government has more than enough out of us, Road tax, Fuel tax, VAT on the fuel and we have some of the worst roads in the EU

We may as well accept that while our taxes rise, we will lose more and more public services and that includes road spending. You can't fight it unfortunately and it's another reason I am not into massive alloys on rubber band profile tyres - our roads just aren't suited to them any more.

[kdiz]

big pimpin

[hmi1750]

Nice! I do like the newer ones with the facelift... amazing spec for the price too!