Originally Posted by
NH Shooter
For a daily driver you need to depend on, yes.
I had a 1996 Cherokee with the 4.0 and it was a solid engine. The extent of our "off-roading" were the soft sand ocean beaches of Long Island, where with P235/75-15 all terrain tires air downed to 15 PSI, it was amazing. I often drove in 2-WD until I buried the read tires, shifted it into 4-WD and it would crawl out with no drama. The vehicle itself was not very comfortable and handled like a truck on the road. It ended up totaled when I got rear-ended on the Long Island Expressway.
Our next Jeep was a 2000 Grand Cherokee Ltd. (also purchased used) with the 4.7 V8. It was a much more comfortable vehicle but the extra weight was evident on the beach. It too handled like a truck and at around 140,000 miles lots of things were failing: blend doors in the heating/AC system (required removal of entire dashboard to fix), blower moter failed (melted harness), pinion seal leaks on the differentials, and a bunch of other stuff that made me give it up as a daily driver.
My son has had three Grand Cherokees: a 1999 he purchased "well used" and past its prime, a 2009 which he didn't like too much either, and a current 2016 which he says so far has been the best of the bunch.
Based on this, I would steer clear of any 15 year old Jeeps as trouble-free daily drivers. For a weekend fun off road vehicle, hell yeah.