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I am thinking of buying a Jeep Cherokee or Mitsubishi Challenger at auction. Either will be a 2.5 Turbo Diesel and both represent better value, and hopefully reliablility, than rivals such as the Freelander. I drove the Challenger in the USA (V6) and thought it was a solid car. Has anyone any experience of either?
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A friend of mine had the Cherokee with the diesel engine. He had lots of problems with head gaskets blowing and I think on these engines they are 4 individual headgaskets, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Everyone went with a few weeks apart.
He also had many other small problems but overall it was very unreliable and costly for parts. This was about four years old.
Another guy at work had the grand cherokee from new and that had some pretty unusual failures such as inlet manafolds cracking plus numerous other faults in the first two years. Only used it on the road and it was the 4 litre engine.
I think Japanese may be more reliable but costs may be still as high.
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I have a lot of experience of the Cherokee.
As you live in the UK, this may not matter, however where I live it does. It is totally pathetic off-road. Its ground clearance is insufficient and the comprimise tyres they fit (at least to mine) are woefully inadequate. It gets stuck easily and any level of sinking it will maroon it.
Its load space with the sits down looks big, but it isn't. The hatch itself restricts the size of anything you want to put in. The ties are badly placed, there is no where to put a cd changer without affecting the load space unless you put it on the floor under the passenger seat.
I found it noisy and the inside badly organised.
Hated it. Replaced it with a Toyota 4-Runner which is theoretically a "lesser" vehicle which outperformed it off-road, carried more and was a much quieter and more pleasant ride on tarmac.
Don't know anything at all about the Challenger.
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I'm struggling to work out whether the Challenger is actually the same vehicle as the Montero Sport that I drove in the US earlier this year. It looks the same shape and size. But then a Shogun doesn't look too different either. How many different designs of 4wd vehicle does Mitsubishi think the market needs?
If Challenger is the Montero Sport for the UK market, it's a very pleasant and refined vehicle, but not very good in snow. So bad in fact that the next time I was in New York in snowy weather, I rented a big saloon car with traction control instead. It coped much better with snow covered roads.... The Mitsubishi looked and felt like a quality product, and I would expect it to be much more reliable than the Jeep Cherokee.
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Thanks Richard, the Montero Sport and the Challenger are the same vehicle.
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The VM 2.5 diesel fitted to the Cherokee diesel is basically a modular marine engine with four separate cylinder heads. The first few years of these in Cherokees gave trouble.
HJ
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A Mitsubishi was my last vehicle and I still regret selling it. An excellent diesel, quiet and smooth when under way and a real stonker for pulling when the turbo wakes up. Its 4WD performance is excellent, I have taken it through everything from rivers to volcanic dust and jungle tracks, and always pedal to metal on expressways. Not to mention hours of idling at virtual standstill in Manila traffic. Never let me down once from new and only things I spent on were one a/c hose which sprang a leak, one battery plus regular servicing and tires over a 4 year period. I should say servicing was done religiously every 5,000 km by the Mits dealer in Manila where I live. Also I followed the makers' instructions carefully about letting the motor idle for a while after a good thrash for the benefit of the turbo.
Ride was rather lumpy but I guess that's a trade off for the ruggedness. It is built like the proverbial brick facility. But always felt very safe and trustworthy.
Have not driven a Cherokee but my first observation would be it looks nowhere near as muscly as the Mitsubishi. Would I buy another? Absolutely.
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If you decide on the Challenger, and it's RHD, just make certain it hasn't been stolen in Japan. There's a lot of stolen Japanese off-roaders about.
Andy
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I have just sold my 3.5 GDI auto Challenger,owned it for 7 months and about 14,000 miles,98R,Japanese Spec and a very good car with no probs at all.Also there are in fact, very few stolen Japanese cars in the UK.Probably got more chance of buying a stolen/cloned Mondeo/Vectra/Focus etc.Mitso,good car,Jeep,junk.
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Look at the sales figures world wide of Jeep vs Mitsubishi. No contest the Mitsubishi is way ahead. Toyota outsells Mitsubishi and Nissan. In Australia the Jeep is for the city and shopping. TOyotas, Nissans and Mitsubishi are all over the place City, Urban and Outback. Jeep may be more of a pose factor though.
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Thanks for all the input. I have driven the Challenger in Montero Sports guise and enjoyed it. On the plus side it is a more modern design, bags more room all round and less problematic than the Cherokee. On the down side it is more thirsty, less powerful and needs more regular servicing. All in all I think the Challenger is a safer bet and they are now turning up more and more at auction.
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Mike Rutherford TV tested the New Cherokee on Pulling Power last night. He was a Jeep fan. Used to get a new one each year. But he wasn't too keen on the groovy retro new 3.7 Cherokee. Usful information from Mikke is that it's due to get a Merceded diesel. I gues it will be the 5 cylinder 2.7 CDI as the 2.2 wouldn't be enough to pull its huge weight.
HJ
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Hes being kind,he really means agricultural.
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