Well folks, I'm considering selling the TJ

First, get jeep you want (assuming you can afford it)….

I haven’t researched used JL prices, but you may be able to save by buying a 2-3 yr used model. I’ve always bought a few years used for my daily drivers
 
  • Like
Reactions: JMT
Add the creature comforts to the one you have and enjoy not having a payment.

not having a payment IS the best creature comfort known to man.

at least this man

$$.jpg


saddle up to a 60k car payment with the Fed's new & improved vig & you're just contributing to more sad statistics. 'Merica

$.jpg
 
I don't know how old you are, but as a 66 year old guy, I've financed exactly TWO vehicles in my entire life, and I can tell you unequivocally that by the time they were paid for (5 year loans) I couldn't WAIT to get rid of them! My wife and I own ALL of our four vehicles right now; having said that, the newest one is a 2016. We also own our house outright. Despite all this, my wife's company (where she's been for NINETEEN YEARS), which has been by & large immune to economic downturns, is merging two divisions in January 2023 and the odds are 50-50 that she will be "packaged out" - meaning that if we don't wanna eat through (what's LEFT of) our 401K, we'll be selling two of four vehicles and downsizing to a smaller house...

When I look at the prices of new vehicles, I shake my head - "Who in the BLUE FCUK can afford these things?!" I ask myself. I would advise you to look back on your life to when you "coveted" something, and did whatever it took to make that "thing" yours. In all truth - after 6 months to a year wasn't it "just another thing" in your life that needed X amount of care & maintenance? I've got a house FULL of "things", and I can count on ONE hand (and prolly give you some "change" back) the # of things that I wouldn't sell for the right price...

And quite simply (assuming your TJ is in decent shape), you're considering selling an asset that is (at worst) prolly holding its value - at BEST it's appreciating in value - for something that will plummet in value like a stone the minute your back wheels hit the pavement out of the Stealership lot. As far as parts go, let me remind you that Jeep made close to ONE MILLION TJ's, and the secondary market for new parts & accessories MAY just be the #1 automotive secondary market - FAR larger than any other "classic" vehicle that *I* can think of!

Caffeine-induced rant off - go get yourself a dog or cat from a Rescue Shelter instead if you want something "new" in your life; you'll be doing BOTH of youse a FAR bigger "favor"...
 
Just my own new Jeep experience:

I had a CJ7 for 20 years. Loved it. It was like having a psychotic girlfriend though: Beautiful to look at, lots of fun for a weekend, but a PITA to actually live with.

I always had something else as a daily driver.

So I sold it and bought a brand new 2017 Wrangler loaded up just the way I wanted it. Great DD to go along with Jeep life, or so I thought.

Way back then in 2017 I got it at almost 10% off MSRP too.

Kept it less than 2 years. I never liked it as much as my CJ7 as ultimately it was not a very good daily and not as much fun as the CJ7 was.

It also had to make a few unscheduled visits to the dealer for random things, the most worrisome being sludge in the cooling system.

Now here I am back in a TJ that so far does rekindle that CJ7 sense of fun.

With a cloth top and upper doors it has no illusions of being a DD but that's not why I bought it.

I bought it for for a FUN vehicle and so far it looks like it will fill that space perfectly.

$60k for a new Jeep? At 7%?

If your budget is $60k, you can get a nice TJ AND a nice DD that will actually get decent MPG and be comfortable on long trips.

Not trying to be a jerk, but if you're still making payments on a 17 year old TJ, do you really need to go that much in debt for a new one? at 7% interest?

Right now is a terrible time to finance a vehicle as rates and prices are very high.
 
I don't know how old you are, but as a 66 year old guy, I've financed exactly TWO vehicles in my entire life, and I can tell you unequivocally that by the time they were paid for (5 year loans) I couldn't WAIT to get rid of them! My wife and I own ALL of our four vehicles right now; having said that, the newest one is a 2016. We also own our house outright. Despite all this, my wife's company (where she's been for NINETEEN YEARS), which has been by & large immune to economic downturns, is merging two divisions in January 2023 and the odds are 50-50 that she will be "packaged out" - meaning that if we don't wanna eat through (what's LEFT of) our 401K, we'll be selling two of four vehicles and downsizing to a smaller house...

When I look at the prices of new vehicles, I shake my head - "Who in the BLUE FCUK can afford these things?!" I ask myself. I would advise you to look back on your life to when you "coveted" something, and did whatever it took to make that "thing" yours. In all truth - after 6 months to a year wasn't it "just another thing" in your life that needed X amount of care & maintenance? I've got a house FULL of "things", and I can count on ONE hand (and prolly give you some "change" back) the # of things that I wouldn't sell for the right price...

And quite simply (assuming your TJ is in decent shape), you're considering selling an asset that is (at worst) prolly holding its value - at BEST it's appreciating in value - for something that will plummet in value like a stone the minute your back wheels hit the pavement out of the Stealership lot. As far as parts go, let me remind you that Jeep made close to ONE MILLION TJ's, and the secondary market for new parts & accessories MAY just be the #1 automotive secondary market - FAR larger than any other "classic" vehicle that *I* can think of!

Caffeine-induced rant off - go get yourself a dog or cat from a Rescue Shelter instead if you want something "new" in your life; you'll be doing BOTH of youse a FAR bigger "favor"...

I'm 38, 39 in February.

I can't disagree with the price of new cars - gotta love inflation and the downside of supply/demand. As for the did whatever it took, I guess you could say that for my M3. I got $25k from the Gov (T-SGLI coverage) since I had to have an operation to repair my leg when the IED got us, and spent $22.5k of it to get the M3 and ship it to my parents in Ohio while I waited to recover enough I could actually drive it back to post. That was in 2011 and I fully intend to keep the M3 until it blows up or I can't get it fixed (biggest pain is the closest shop that'll work on it is in Denver or the suburbs... a nice 4 hour drive one-way). I love that car - I just don't have that kind of connection to the TJ.

I think the TJ is in decent shape for it's age - going to get it's yearly inspection later this week and see how she's doing. Only think I know of is the heater core (I have the part, just haven't bothered to schedule getting it installed). I also think it's time for an oil change, though the sticker fell off so I'm not entirely sure. lol

The $6k figure the dealership said was just me seeing what THEY think it's worth - I certainly know it's worth more in a private sale, which is how I'd want to go if I chose to.

As for what I want to do to it, I want to get:

- LED headlights
- Power windows and locks
- New head unit, maybe new speakers
- New rotors/pads (Mr. Blaine [I think?] will be hearing from me about that)
- Upgrade the steering
- Possibly upgrade the suspension (need to decide if I want to go through with getting everything so I can run 35"s)
- Get the engine/transmission bullet proofed (I think something might be up with the transmission - acts like it has a slipping clutch with stop/start)
- New front/rear bumper
- Maybe a winch
- Maybe armor up the underside a bit more

So, looking at everything above, I could get most of that done with a new JL from the factory and have a warranty for 3 or more years and have a new vehicle that would have aftermarket support for 10+ rather than trying to keep a 140k TJ from 2006 going with dwindling support for parts.

Trust me, financing $55k with interest is an intimidating idea, I've never done anything close to it. But what the past 10 years or so show, car prices are only going up. And I figure they're never getting cheaper unless something catastrophic happens. Hell, over on the JL forums, reading the Orders thread, with the 3-4 month wait folks are getting charged thousands more than the original invoice, so it's even getting more expensive in the short-term. So, if I wait another year, the same spec will probably be $60k. Two years, it could be $70k, etc. Let alone the push to go all-electric - how many more years of ICE Wranglers are we going to get before they're all EVs?
 
Last edited:
Something that I don't see talked about much is the ownership of the jeep brand over the years. I'm no expert but I've always heard Fiat is an awful brand. Chrysler isn't great but they didn't really change the jeep as much as Fiat. I still jeep wave at all wranglers but they are not the same vehicle.

With that being said, I wouldn't want to DD my jeep if the commute was over a certain distance. I'm sorry but the TJ just doesn't compare to the creature comforts or suspension of modern day vehicles.

Ownership chronology​

 
  • Like
Reactions: sideproject
I'm 38, 39 in February.

I can't disagree with the price of new cars - gotta love inflation and the downside of supply/demand. As for the did whatever it took, I guess you could say that for my M3. I got $25k from the Gov (T-SGLI coverage) since I had to have an operation to repair my leg when the IED got us, and spent $22.5k of it to get the M3 and ship it to my parents in Ohio while I waited to recover enough I could actually drive it back to post. That was in 2011 and I fully intend to keep the M3 until it blows up or I can't get it fixed (biggest pain is the closest shop that'll work on it is in Denver or the suburbs... a nice 4 hour drive one-way). I love that car - I just don't have that kind of connection to the TJ.

I think the TJ is in decent shape for it's age - going to get it's yearly inspection later this week and see how she's doing. Only think I know of is the heater core (I have the part, just haven't bothered to schedule getting it installed). I also think it's time for an oil change, though the sticker fell off so I'm not entirely sure. lol

The $6k figure the dealership said was just me seeing what THEY think it's worth - I certainly know it's worth more in a private sale, which is how I'd want to go if I chose to.

As for what I want to do to it, I want to get:

- LED headlights
- Power windows and locks
- New head unit, maybe new speakers
- New rotors/pads (Mr. Blaine [I think?] will be hearing from me about that)
- Upgrade the steering
- Possibly upgrade the suspension (need to decide if I want to go through with getting everything so I can run 35"s)
- Get the engine/transmission bullet proofed (I think something might be up with the transmission - acts like it has a slipping clutch with stop/start)
- New front/rear bumper
- Maybe a winch
- Maybe armor up the underside a bit more

So, looking at everything above, I could get most of that done with a new JL from the factory and have a warranty for 3 or more years and have a new vehicle that would have aftermarket support for 10+ rather than trying to keep a 140k TJ from 2006 going with dwindling support for parts.

Trust me, financing $55k with interest is an intimidating idea, I've never done anything close to it. But what the past 10 years or so show, car prices are only going up. And I figure they're never getting cheaper unless something catastrophic happens. Hell, over on the JL forums, reading the Orders thread, with the 3-4 month wait folks are getting charged thousands more than the original invoice, so it's even getting more expensive in the short-term. So, if I wait another year, the same spec will probably be $60k. Two years, it could be $70k, etc. Let alone the push to go all-electric - how many more years of ICE Wranglers are we going to get before they're all EVs?

Nothing wrong with buying a $60,000 car.

If you can afford a $60,000 car.

If you are putting down $5,000 on a $60,000 car, you can’t afford a $60,000 car.

Listen to the advice you are getting here over and over. Look for a more reasonable path to what you need.

It’s sounds like you have already made up your mind, and are just looking for affirmation rather than actually looking for advice. But as others have said - you are making a bad decision.
 
Nothing wrong with buying a $60,000 car.

If you can afford a $60,000 car.

If you are putting down $5,000 on a $60,000 car, you can’t afford a $60,000 car.

Listen to the advice you are getting here over and over. Look for a more reasonable path to what you need.

It’s sounds like you have already made up your mind, and are just looking for affirmation rather then actually looking for advice. But as others have said - you are making a bad decision.

You forgot

Add electric locks, heated seats, V8

Tons and fodeeez!!!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: DrDmoney
It’s sounds like you have already made up your mind, and are just looking for affirmation rather then actually looking for advice.

It sounds like your reading comprehension is lacking.

I've not made a decision - I'm exploring the possibilities. Trust me, I'd much rather keep the $360/mo and not have another car payment. But I'm also looking at this long-term. At some point, it's not going to make sense to keep an old TJ running. I'm trying to figure out when that is.

If I'd already made up my mind, I would have walked out of that dealership yesterday with an order placed.
 
It sounds like your reading comprehension is lacking.

I've not made a decision - I'm exploring the possibilities. Trust me, I'd much rather keep the $360/mo and not have another car payment. But I'm also looking at this long-term. At some point, it's not going to make sense to keep an old TJ running. I'm trying to figure out when that is.

If I'd already made up my mind, I would have walked out of that dealership yesterday with an order placed.

It’s rather easy to keep TJ’s running. Aftermarket parts support is good. “At some point” can’t be disputed, but that’s not the point. The point is we’re not “at that point,” and we won’t be for at least another 10 years. If you want something more budget friendly buy a nice 2018 JL. I’ve bought new, once. Never again. Now I won’t finance a car for any reason. I certainly won’t buy from a stealership. My .02c.
 
^^^ - Yeah, that too! I'd rather drink gasoline and piss on a brush fire than deal with those cheesedicks at ANY Car Stealership! I can't even deal with the Service Departments, so I change my own oil, rotate my own tires, and do my own brake jobs just so's I don't have to deal with THOSE retarts any more than I absolutely HAVE to!

And if you "do the math" objectively and w/o emotion, with VERY few exceptions, keeping your "used" vehicle going is FAR cheaper than buying a new one! In fact, buying a "brand new" vehicle can NEVER be cost-justified unless you really, really, REALLY do keep it for TEN years. Yeah, I bought my 2016 Mazda CX-5 new, but I WILL be keeping it for ten years...
 
I interpreted your posts exactly the same way he did.

If everyone is going to reply with reasons why not to do something, for a discussion to take place, someone has to reply with reasons why they want to do something.

Like I said, if I'd made a decision, I'd have walked out of the dealership with an order placed yesterday.