This is one of the most over-engineered, reliable, practical SUV's for the money. I have owned mine for 5 1/2 years and in that time I have replaced the rear brake pads, the battery, the headliner and well, that is about it. Only upgrades that I have made are Hella headlights (waaaayyy better than stock) a K&N air filter, a trailer wiring harness and I applied a Rhino-liner style truck bedliner to the roof after she got smacked in a hail storm two years ago. By putting down the rear seats you have a hauling capacity that rivals a small pickup, not to mention the roof racks and with the appropriate hitch, towing capability. The vehicle is easy to work on with relatively inexpensive replacement parts. In the winter time, the 4WD system works like a charm and I have yet to get stuck. I'd buy another one with lower mileage if I had the money but my Cherokee Sport is currently up to 176,000 miles and she runs just fine.



Cons: Your headliner will at some point begin to sack and while it is a pain to repair, there are plenty of tutorials online that can show you how to do this. I believe the fabric and two cans of Permatex headliner spray ran me around $65 and a weekend's worth of time invested in it, but it is worth it. Being it is a MOPAR product, expect leaky seals. My rear main seal has a tendency to leak in the spring and in the fall when we have some temperature extremes over a typical Nebraska year.



The stock headlights are barely usable at night. In fact, before I upgraded my headlights to a an aftermarket (but street legal) Hella replacement set that I purchased on Amazon, my wife refused to drive the Jeep at night. After the swap, the difference and performance increase was quite noticeable.



If you are looking into purchasing a used Cherokee, be sure to check the oil pressure gauge after the vehicle has reached regular operating temperature (195-210 degrees on your instrument cluster). Apparently, there were a few 4.0 engines that had bad bearings in the engine which leads to low oil pressure that can cause a warning light and chime to come one. My oil pressure starts at 60lbs and drops to (but stays steady at) 20lbs and has no issues.



Other cons include the lack of knee room up front and the spartan rear bench seat. They are safe but very, very basic. I am just a hair under 6ft tall and I have just enough front leg room to drive comfortably. You may also experience a problem with either one or both front speakers not working due to short speaker wires installed from the factory that break over time. Expect to replace the power window switch cluster on the driver side as the lockout button will fail at some point rendering your passenger window switches and power windows un-operational. ABS is a bit hard to find on these Cherokees and you have a minimum of safety features, no stability control, hill descent, etc. but man, driving a rear wheel drive vehicle is, in my opinion, a visceral automotive experience as it is all that I have known.



If you look at the total cost to fix all of the cons that this vehicle may have when you purchase it, you are looking at $200-$300 in repairs which in all honesty, is not that bad.



Expect 18-20 mpg on the highway and around 15 mpg in town regardless of weather, temperature, load in the vehicle, etc.



We do tow a pop up camper that weights around 1800 lbs on our weekend camping trips and have no issues maintaining highway speed and regular vehicle operating temperature.



Last thing to remember, you are getting a really good vehicle for a very fair price (bought mine for $7,000 five years ago, but it had a window sticker price of $26,000) but it is also a vehicle that is 15 or more years old so expect some minor repairs. I do my own oil changes and I have found my 2001 Cherokee Sport to be a very reliable vehicle with few faults. Like I said, if I had the funds I would purchase another low mileage example as they are getting harder to find and the prices are starting to go up.