Junkyard Find: 1993 Jeep Cherokee, Pink Camouflage Edition

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Examples of the XJ Jeep Cherokee are everywhere in Denver junkyards (nearly as numerous as late-1990s Subaru Outbacks, these days), and it takes a special one to make me deploy my camera. I thought the factory-installed orange tape stripes on this ’91 Cherokee Sport were interesting, and now today’s ’93 with innovative tree-branches-and-rattlecans camo job has made the cut.

It appears that someone laid fir branches all over the truck and then hosed it down with pink and white spray paint. Why? Some junkyard questions have no answers.

It makes sense that Cadillac would use the British “Litre” spelling on their 500-cubic-inch engine badges, for general faux-classy reasons, but why couldn’t Chrysler spell it the American way on a good ol’ Jeep?

It will always be the 242 to me.

Is this the logo of an elite paramilitary organization?

“Brings you air that lets you breathe a little easier” turns out to refer to the driver’s side airbag in the ’93 Cherokee.

The debut of the 242 engine was bigger news than Chrysler buying American Motors!






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Honda_lawn_art Honda_lawn_art on Apr 11, 2016

    How do you know it's fir and not spruce?

  • Kelsims95 Kelsims95 on Feb 20, 2018

    Nothing "kooky" about this at all, unless you drive your average silver/black/white car(boring). Maybe I like this paint so much because it looks very similar to the paint job we did on my jeep, which is also very clean, despite my "kookiness" for painting my jeep pink-purple camo, as well. (instagram @ Bigbae_XJ) There's nothing wrong with being different and standing out. I would love to find out who the original owner of this jeep is, it reminds me so much of my own XJ.

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