In general the car has been very reliable, however in the last 8 years things have gone wrong besides the general maintenance.
When the car was new a sunroof was installed and this roof has been leaking a lot from the very first day, only last year “Webasto” in the Netherlands repaired the source of the problem, before that time the car had been to the dealer for repairs and this would last only a couple of months before water entered the car again.
The aircon has also been a pain and has been broken several times with very expensive costs to repair as the dashboard had to be taken out. But when working the climate-control works very well especially with the heated front seats.
All suspension bits and peaces have all been renewed in due time, as well as new sets of tires every 35,000km.
A couple of car batteries had to be changed as they would be broken from one day to another, very strange!
Last year the car had trouble running smooth with a cold engine, and would stop running when I tried to drive off or give more gas. After taking the jeep to service the problem was solved with no clear explanation to the course of the problem.
I must say it has been one of the most reliable cars I had and very comfortable to drive, however not such a good highway drive when fully loaded as the Citroen XM turbo CT exclusive break.
In Portugal it is very wise to drive a strong car with good all around vision as the Portuguese roads and drivers are not known as the best in the world. This is probably on of the reasons why I really like driving this car.
I must admit this car does not drive cheap, especially in the city it is very thirsty so I tend to use this car only for longer distances and keep it in the garage when not used, in this way the car stay in good condition and very reliable.
I and very pleased about the performance of the engine, especially the power is wonderful, it does not go fast, but can seed up and outperform many cars due to pure power.
The car is not as specious as you would expect, nevertheless a good car and I tend to keep it for the coming years.
I too own a 1997 Grand Cherokee limited, and I have had very little trouble with it for the past two years I have owned it. The only major problem was when the boots of the front axles had to be replaced after doing a little four wheel driving. It does not get great gas mileage either. Overall I am very satisfied with this car and would buy another Jeep.
Are you sure you are from Portugal? cause you said that you repaired the car in Holland??!!These cars have a very bad reputation in Portugal and you can often see them in second hand sale for 1/5 of the original price and not with many years on them, comparing with other second hand car prices they come very cheap cause their just a big bunch of trouble (oil leaks, gearbox problems) and usually, serious problems.