Looking at a few KJ's and need some advice

[conman]

I am in the Springfield MO area and am looking at a few KJ's. I am new to KJ's, but not to jeeps, having owned a recently sold XJ for many years and many trails.

I am looking at a 2004 Sport, 2 owner with 150,000. for $5,000 (would definitely be talking him down some) Haven't seen it yet in person, but pictures look very nice and I have spoken with the owner and he says that its in excellent condition. (which I take to mean pretty good).

I am also looking at a 2004 Renegade that has had 5 owners and 130,000 for $6,700. It also looks to be in pretty darn good shape, but have not seen it in person yet.

Everything else being equal, which one should get my $$?

I know there is alot of data that I left out that would influence a decision, but some of that data is still unknown to me right now.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

That 5 owner thing scares me a bit. I remember when I got my LR3 back in 2010, I looked at an 06 that I would've been the 5th or 6th owner.

If nothing looks obviously wrong, it might be ok. I'd see which one has less rust. 150k vs 130k isn't a difference. I would take both to a trans shop and have them scanned for transmission codes and have the clutch value indexes run. 150k is when my trans started throwing codes on long highway runs (2hrs+), but you could have disconnected the battery and it wouldn't have acted up or thrown codes around town or on short highway jaunts (like a test drive). So that scares me. But the CVIs can't lie. If the owner won't let you do that, I'd fully expect it has transmission issues.

 

[rjkj2005]

Wow. I fee lucky I got my 05 off a dealer lot 2 years ago for $3000

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave]

Yeah, with the info provided, ditto on what HJ said.

Dave

 

[conman]

Thanks for the advice, will certainly do that. Didn't have that to worry about with the trusty old AW4.

So are transmissions something to be scared of in these things?

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Pretty much. Mainly the torque converters but once you get codes from that, it's already messed up the rest of the trans.

The engines are fine as long as the oil gets changed often enough and it hasn't been overheated.

 

[RENEGADE Concept]

I think you can do a little better. For perspective I bought my 06 "OscarMike" renegade two years ago for $6,700 with 80,000 miles. No scratches, no dents, no rust - except on the rock rails which I took off. Of course the market changes a bit geographically but I'd keep looking.