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The review is written considering the fact that a 20 year old car is being driven in the year 2018 with its current main purpose being for offroading Pros - Old School Driving - Bullet proof Inline 4.0 Engine - Light Weight Unibody Construction - Extremely Capable Offroader - Easy to Modify Cons - Basic Features - Famous for Death Wobble - Reliability is a concern - Tends to overheat unless modification is done A car that was initially launched in 1984 as a compact utility vehicle, the Cherokee XJ has grown to be one of the originators and the precursor to the current day SUVs. Its design has been noted as one of the greatest of all time. Popular Mechanics listed the XJ as one of "the 25 greatest boxy cars of all time". It is built on a unibody construction which offers it a light weight body Vehicle Specs - 6 cylinder inline 4.0 engine - Power 190 hp @ 4300 rpm - Torque 305 N.m @ 3000 rpm - Gross Weight of approx 1400 kg - Transmissions are 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic. In the UAE market, the XJ is available in GCC, American (most common) and Japanese specs. One should be careful while buying the American Spec or rather the American import cars as many of them have been in some sort of accident with some of them having serious damage. Traditionally Cherokee XJs do run hot due to their limited size of the radiator, and hence the GCC Spec is the most preferred version. Cherokee XJs come with solid front and rear axles. Though an outdated technology in comparison to Independent Suspension, it follows the principal of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Hence a very rugged design which is useful when one takes this car offroad. Further, modifications in terms of lift kit and installation of bigger tyres is relatively easier compared to an Independent Suspension vehicle. However, saying that, the vehicle in stock condition runs a finely balanced suspension, and any alteration such as a lift can trigger the famous death wobble especially with worn out busing and joints. In current times, most buyers of this vehicle are mainly offroad enthusiasts, who appreciate the the high power to weight ratio (135 hp per ton). However, in offroad the manual version does overshine the automatic version purely because in the automatic version the lowest possible gear that can be selected is a 1-2, and the vehicle does tend to upshift after reaching a speed of 40 km/h which kills the entire torque which is the most critical aspect of steep uphill climbs. While this issue can be overcome by selecting 4 low in the transfer case it does put a lot of strain on the engine as its revving at 5000+ rpms. I strongly recommend to go for a GCC spec manual transmission as that gives one the liberty to choose the right gear for the moment which is especially useful in long steep hill climbs as shown in the below videos: Location : Sweihan Location : Faya (from the right side) Reliability is a definite concern with the Cherokee XJ, and hence I advise those who are interested in this vehicle to get the vehicle properly inspected before doing a purchase. Further, it is advisable to get all the wearable parts replaced with original MOPAR parts instead of cheap after market parts before venturing into the desert. I have been driving this vehicle for the past year both as a daily driver as well as my weekend drives and have thoroughly enjoyed every moment. The vehicle I drive is almost stock except for the following modifications: 1. Replaced the existing radiator with a 4 core aluminium radiator 2. Added extra fans infront of the radiator to improve the cooling under offroad driving conditions 3. 3" inch lift by installing harder suspensions Major expenses in terms of maintenance has been replacement of clutch and flywheel, along with replacements of the track bar and some bushings. Conclusion : Would I recommend this vehicle to others? Would definitely recommend a manual transmission Cherokee XJ if you are able to get a good clean vehicle (which can be quite rare and difficult to find) as its a lot of fun to drive this vehicle. It would also help to have a good mechanic as your friend to help you with the fixes from time to time. I bought the vehicle for AED 11,000 (slightly above the market price), plus I spent an additional AED 5000 to get it to current condition, but I have not yet regretted my decision. P.S. If you like this review, don't forget to hit the 'Like' Button

Thats a new one! Looks like a chinese job since all their English print work are like this. Seems like they just took a google image and printed that. Since English is so poor no one realized that reference only shouldn't be included. This point will make sense to anyone who has ever come across those pirated 10dhs 4 movies per disc DVDs and tired to read the back cover only to realise its just a lot of words in English put together which make no sense at all. The pirates are just happy there is a lot of English back there and in China pretty much most of the population can't read English anyway so it doesnt matte to them anyways.

People considering buying the best car battery in UAE, should read my latest post on to how to avoid fake car battery in UAE?

In my Pajero last year I got the battery changed from one of the trusted shop in Satwa and to my surprise battery has died last night. It must be just over a month after the one year warranty over. Usually, this behavior happens in the cheapest car battery like Solite and AC Delco and to avoid this annual headache I opted for Yuasa - Made in Japan and paid 350+ instead of 200-250 dhs. Just a few days back I have been to Abu Dhabi to put some kms on this new engine, so battery must be fully charged. Then I used the car for office for a day and the next day when I picked up the car, the battery died completely that I'm unable to jump start with Range Rover and Trailblazer. I even left Trailblazer jump start for 45 mins thinking it will boost the battery but nothing happened. Took the picture last night to find a replacement and while searching just now to find this battery dimensions, I got surprised that none of the Yuasa batteries looks like this one at all. I searched for almost all the regions and they have different branding, color scheme but never made such a bland printed battery. Then I spotted the term "Reference only" means (and I assume) that this must be fake Yuasa battery that did the offset single color printing and used all specs of Yuasa and its logo and wrote "Reference only" in a very clever spot. Yuasa does use white color printing but that has MF written on a huge font and not minuscule like this one and also they write the battery number like YT-12B-S and along with the website address. None of the Yuasa batteries images I have seen in google carrying this "Reference only" term. And even the recycle icon should not have a lead symbol (Pb) underneath it. Yes, it does sound like spot the difference contest...! I am sure majority of the buyers when distress with a died battery will not give time to check these brand colors, logo, graphics, website address, battery number etc. and will definitely never understand what does "Reference only" means (its fake). So next time you buy any car battery in UAE, just google search same brand, type, and spec to see if the exact identical image appears or not.

If you have the bill, it should have a warranty card with a matching serial no. I'm sure you can take it to the consumer forum and the shop selling the spurious battery would be fined heavily. Atleast 20,000 aed, from my knowledge.

Indeed its good to buy for offroading, but everyone reading this review should not miss the point that owner made to find a clean one means finding a needle in the haystack. Chances are 1 in 1000 available here in UAE is a clean one. Sri got really lucky to find an owner who owns this for last 17 years and used it almost on road.

Im with you man, hell for the last 10 years or so I dont even wear a watch no more. No matter how expensive a watch it, it has just one function to tell the time, and thats it. A watch cannot tell time well or badly. It can just tell time. Which my mobile also does hence I don't even wear a watch no more. Watches now are more wealth and status symbols or at best fashion accessories.

Tbh this is the first review which was written very close to what an actual review is supposed to be like. Good Job SK

Wow excellent review @skumar83 I will surely consider buying a jeep the next time I change my vehicle.