1989 Jeep Cherokee Sport review from North America

Auto shop drove engine without oil and blew it, then refused to replace it, so I did that at about 180,000 miles.

I replaced/upgraded the transmission from the weak Peugeot that was used for a few years in the '80s to one of the AX-15 transmission that are used in the newer ones. Huge improvement.

Grenaded a rear differential when one of the carrier bearings went bad at about 200,000 miles, but this gave me a good excuse to re-gear.

Outside support on the bottom of the driver's seat broke, so I had to replace the seat. Also lever for seats to rotate forward to allow access to the rear seats (2 door) stopped working. After opening the bottom of the seat-back, a zip-tie was all that was required to solve the problem.

As a unibody, body damage can be expensive to repair.

My jeep has over 200,000 miles on it and it still holds up great. I routinely beat this thing up on the trails and off-road rally-ing, and so far have had no major problems to speak of.

I have 3 inches of soft suspension lift on it without any sway-bars, and it still corners better than a lot of stock trucks out there and even better than many cars. The suspension lift is fairly cheap (no IFS) and creates one capable off-roader that still maintains great on-road characteristics as a daily driver.

The motor still pulls great through rocks in 4Lo at 250 rpm without my foot on the gas or the threat of dieing (loads of torque).

Everything on this vehicle is pretty straight-forward and easy to work on (mechanically). This is a great vehicle if you would like to learn to work on your on stuff, but are a little timid about getting started. It is even better because they did not add the computers until '91.

Very stable off-road and on.

Very capable and relatively cheap off-road machine that is still comfortable on-road with enough room to take four people camping or to sleep two in the back.