Rare Rides: Be a Pioneer in a Jeep Cherokee From 1985
Today’s Rare Ride is an early example of the Cherokee, built while AMC was still alive and well-ish. And it just so happens to be the same color and trim as the Comanche pickup featured here recently.
And it’s just about factory fresh.
AMC started work on its new compact SUV in the late Seventies, when a group of engineers (some from Renault) started sketching an all-new Jeep as successor to the full-size Cherokee the company already produced. The Euro-American collaboration proceeded to the mock-up stage, with clay bodies based on the extant SJ Cherokee/Wagoneer. AMC assigned Dick Teague to finish off the Cherokee’s looks, and also told him to work up a four-door version. While the project was ongoing, AMC heard about the two-door S-10 Blazer coming from GM and wanted to one-up The General.
The design was the first unibody 4×4 vehicle outside of military use and meant the XJ was much more modern than the body-on-frame SJ it replaced. The new Jeep was 31 inches shorter, six inches narrower, and weighed 1,200 fewer pounds. Though it was much smaller, the interior size was 90 percent of the SJ’s due to the packaging efficiencies of unibody construction. It was also more capable off-road with greater wheel articulation, and a newly designed Quadra-Link suspension which reduced the tendency to roll over.
Upon introduction for the model year 1984, the XJ Cherokee was an instant domestic sales success. It also found sales success in other countries and was the first Jeep officially exported to the European market. Part of its appeal abroad was down to more fuel-efficient engines than typically found in American SUVs. The base engine was a 2.5-liter inline-four from AMC, along with the 2.8-liter V6 from the S-10 early on. The largest engine on offer was the proven 4.0-liter I6 from AMC. Two different diesels were offered, a 2.1 from Renault, and a 2.5 from VM Motori, though neither found favor in the American market.
Worth a mention is the extended production of the XJ Cherokee abroad. Though Jeep wrapped up the XJ in 2001 domestically, it lived on at three brands in China, all of which produced their own version. Shuanghuan made their XJ through 1997, Beijing Jeep through 2005, and BAW kept one in production through 2014. Cherokee was also produced until the early 2000s in Argentina, Egypt, and Venezuela.
AMC produced the Cherokee until 1987 when Chrysler took the helm, and eventually, production was finished under Daimler Chrysler. The XJ’s official successor in the model year 2002 was the Liberty, which was more friendly on the road, but less friendly off it and never captured the global appeal of its older brother. The magic was sort of gone.
Today’s Rare Ride is a lower-middle Pioneer trim from 1985, with a festive tweedy interior in red and off-white. Looking almost new, it’s seen just under 48,000 miles in 35 years. Equipped with an automatic and the 2.5-liter engine, this Jeep’s yours for $12,500.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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I once owned an 88 pioneer Olympic edition. Fun vehicle and bullet proof. I have photos of it airborne flying off of a pond embankment one weekend messing around at a friends farm. I was always intrigued by the smorgasbord of parts from different manufacturers that made this vehicle. This Jeep had over the top off-road capability that way surpassed the requirements of it's target marketing demographic that purchased this type of vehicle back in the day.
"First 4x4 outside of military use." Not so. While various early Soviet 4x4 vehicles can justifiably be excluded, the GAZ-72 (based on the M20 "Victory") was actually available, if rather expensive, for civilians. With over 4600 produced between 1955 and 1958, it can't quite be called an obscure one-off, either. With two solid axles, a 2-speed transfer case, and ground clearance comparable to an unmodified Cherokee, it was a proper 4x4 as well (unlike something like a Jensen FF, which also predates the Cherokee by some decades).