Mrt,
89 Cherokee Limited sits at 145K. Motor strong (had to redo the injectors 3 times) with some minor leaks (easier to add oil and coolant than repair), and have nothing but praise for the tranny/transfer case. 4WD Low is incredible, and got me around with no problems during our ice storm in 99.
Now if the body and ABS were as reliable as the tranny, the truck would go into the books as one of the best. Unfortunately, I was bitten by the safety bug when I bought it, and ordered the ABS system. Wellllllllllll Little did I know then that if the ABS went out, the brakes went South! Mine went out right after the warranty ended, and $3500 later I started the battle with Chrysler. They agreed to pick up the parts cost, so I was only OOP $700. 2 years later same thing....this time though it went just as chrysler was announcing its voluntary recall. Done free, and also got my original $700 refunded. Bogey on the recall, was that it would be in force only for 10 years, 120K kms.
2 years later just b4 the 10 years time limit a different problem....ABS light comes on, but still have brakes. Dealer tells me that it could be a wheel sensor, or the geared spindle. $700 later after the sensor was replaced and the problem was still there, it was another $800 for the replacement spindle. I was lucky that 2 months later when the light came on again, the dealer saved me $300 by doing both the sensor and spindle on the other side at the same time. it was only $1200. Add to this the fact that this is the only vehicle that I have ever had that eats rear brake shoes (less than 20K km's per set, while the front discs get me about 40K), you can see that the engineering of the braking system was left to intern students.
As far as the body, I guess it was really my fault because I listened to the dealer when he told me that there was no need to rustproof since all the panels, and undercarriage were made with galvanized steel. Yeah.....I just spent the weekend cutting out the passenger seat, lifting off the carpet, and putting down some temporary sheet metal to replace the entire right side floor board.
You are right though I should not think too negatively towards the jeep. It was a great truck that took me into the deepest Quebec woods loaded down like mule, and never let me down mechanically.
