The XJ Jeep Cherokee has been in production for nearly 35 years (if you count the BAW Knight S12, which I do) and remains very popular as a daily driver in Colorado, so I see many discarded examples in Denver-area wrecking yards.
It takes a special XJ to inspire me to shoot photographs for this series — a pink camouflage paint job, for example, or a tape-stripey Sport Cherokee with manual transmission. A right-hand drive, Japanese-market Cherokee qualifies, so let’s take a look at this one in a Denver self-service yard.
Just the thing for doing rural mail delivery, which is almost certainly the reason this truck was brought back from Japan.
Japanese-built four-wheel-drive trucks weren’t hard to find in Japan in the middle 1990s, but built-for-export RHD Cherokees went there.
This truck’s Japanese owner had it serviced at Autobacs.
Then US Drive Right, an importer of right-hand-drive vehicles intended for postal-carrier use, brought it back to the United States.
Eventually, disaster struck. The problems with driving a RHD vehicle in a LHD country come when you need to turn left or pass on a two-lane rural highway, and it looks like this truck’s driver wasn’t able to see that oncoming vehicle in time.
156,722 kilometers is only 97,383 miles. I’m betting the running gear in this truck was almost certainly grabbed soon after I shot these photos by a savvy junkyard customer who figured it drove to the accident.
Japan wasn’t the only right-hand drive place to get Cherokees.
This importer is charging some serious cash for a 20 year old Jeep Cherokee. Rural postal carriers are better off buying a RHD van from Japanese Classics for like $8k.
Holy crap you’re right! For that money I’m heading straight to a Pajero with the ubiquitous 3.0L gas V6. As much sense as an economical diesel makes for a mail carrier, I’d worry about parts availability in a timely fashion.
The other common RHD mail carrier I recall seeing around is 2nd gen Legacy wagons.
And Saturn wagons.
I think Subaru built and sold a run of right drive Legacy wagons specifically for sale to postal carriers.
So the instrument cluster was Japanese then? Fascinating. Reminds me of the short lived Toyota Cavalier where the Japanese tried their best to make the most of polishing up a turd in terms of fit and finish. I wonder what the mechanics though of servicing the 4.0L under the hood, old school OHV cast iron I6 compared to all the multi-cam motors they were used to seeing by then. At least the Aisin AW-4 should have been familiar to them.
It would be a blast from the past, as the OHV inline sixes used in Toyotas like the FJ40 were based on the Chevy six.
“I wonder what the mechanics though of servicing the 4.0L under the hood, old school OHV cast iron I6 compared to all the multi-cam motors they were used to seeing by then. At least the Aisin AW-4 should have been familiar to them.”
My guess would be a breath of fresh air. Most mechanics appreciate the simplicity of an uncomplicated reliable design.
Also, compared to the underwhelming, gas slurping, dirty emissions of the licensed 1950’s Chevrolet Turbo-Thrift I6 in the Land Cruiser the AMC HO I6 was a masterpiece.
By ’95 the old school 3F was history, in its place was a slightly less thirsty and very much a technical tour de force 1FZ-FE (ignoring diesels for the moment).
the old 4.0L is uncomplicated yes, but the quality of many ancillary components left a lot to be desired IMO. And in addition to leaking oil and weak cooling systems, their propensity to develop low oil pressure issues even at not-so-high of miles is a bit dismaying as well. I think the old 4.0L I6 is a neat setup and a very good match for a lightweight XJ, but I don’t quite understand their worship in car guy circles. No better than a 4.3L Vortec Chevy in longevity or power, but probably easier to wrench on and inherently smoother. Comparing to Japanese engines circa ’95, I’d argue something like a then-new 5VZFE 3.4L V6 is no harder to work on (and needs less working on) except maybe starter access. Maybe it was Chrysler dumping the I6 4.0L in favor of the troublesome 3.7L OHC (Liberty) and the 3.8L OHV V6 (JK Wrangler).
Our rural mail carrier is using a Cherokee of this very vintage to deliver our mail today. She has broken down once or twice in the past year; but it is still going. I have seen another Cherokee making the rounds as well; I don’t know if they are one of these JDM re-imports or not; never even knew about these. But I am guessing it is.
The side marker over the front wheel well would be the best giveaway, I think.
You could order right hand drive Cherokees in the US market for at least a few years for mail carrier purposes. Most of the RHD Cherokees you see in the US were bought that way new. I thought I’d seen a 2nd gen ‘97-up Cherokee in RHD too.
Found a few on Drive:
http://www.thedrive.com/the-hammer/12626/2000-jeep-cherokee-right-hand-drive-the-drives-repo-of-the-week
Please post something about the S-10 beside it.
What interesting is there to post about a generic 1990s S10 in a junkyard? There’s probably a dozen in most good sized yards in most of the US at the moment. And I don’t say that in a disparaging way in regard to their longevity.
Considering their longevity, there should be something said about it. Everywhere I’ve gone in this country over the last several years, I continue to see them despite the argument that, “there is no market for them.”
I’m guessing that US Drive Right swapped the km speedo for an MPH speedo? Or did they really export these with an MPH speedo?
the left hand drive models where sold in canada with a KM/H speedo, So they could of used the canadian market speedo.
It almost looks like US Drive Right refinished the face of the speedometer to read in mph. The color is different, but the odometer is still in km.
Is the blue bag in the photos your tool bag? I see it making cameo appearances in some of these photo shoots.
The base engine in these was the venerable (terrible) AMC 2.5, 4 cylinders and all of ~120 HP or so. But, this was also around the time when a Volvo 240 (similar weight to a RWD XJ) had a 2.3 liter of around 115 HP.
The Grumman LLVs (which are the ubiquitous mail carriers around here) utilize the similarly-sized Iron Duke for propulsion. I can hear my mail truck coming from down the street by the unique drone of that powerplant.
The neighbor has an Iron Duke-equipped S-10 pickup, and I do sometimes think the mail is coming when he’s pulling out of his driveway.
Tbe speedo is mph and the oddometer is in km’s?
One of these (though green in color) delivers my mail out here on US RT 36 every day and has for the last several years.
Interesting story. Which reminds me, a couple a months ago I was in the parking lot of a McDonalds waiting to meet someone when I noticed a new model Jeep Wrangler in the drive-through lane that was RHD. The lady behind the wheel obviously was having issues with picking up her order that was delivered to her left window. I wanted so badly to go ask her how did she get a US spec RHD Jeep but I didn’t. The car was registered in South Carolina. Still a mystery to this day :)
This isn’t much of a mystery at all. They sell RHD Wranglers here in the USA.
Here’s one of many examples for sale today.
https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/1C4BJWKG2DL668194
I don’t see anything extreme that couldn’t have been repaired. I guess the RHD put it in the yard.