By the time you are reading this in the morning, the Jeep Wrangler JL will debut at the LA Auto Show. We showed you the same teaser that FCA showed us at SEMA (which you can see HERE) but for the honor, it seemed right to go back into the past. I have never owned a Jeep product. I’ve only driven one Jeep, ever, and that was an XJ Cherokee that Randal Burns loaned me when I couch-surfed at his house some years ago. But my father was a Jeep guy, and he owned two. He had a CJ-7 that he wanted to restore shortly after I graduated high-school that boldly went nowhere and was ultimately sold, and then there was the Renegade. I was too young to tell you what specific year that thing was, but he owned it around 1986-87 and he babied that thing like none other. The Jeep CJ was his dream vehicle: everything you needed, nothing you didn’t, and as durable as an anvil. Since I had never done so before, I threw a dart at 1983, the year I was born and within the right window for Robert’s old Jeep, and went looking for a commercial.
I have one question for anybody who was living and has memory of this time period: What the…?!
Wow. You are young. In the early 80s buffalo riding was very popular.
Is that a euphemism for something I may not want to picture?
My dad too was a Jeep junkie. His first two cars were Jeeps. His first was a 1978 CJ-7 Levi Edition Renegade. He drove it once before he tore it apart and tried to rebuild it (he said it was rusty in 1987). The Jeep still sits today, after he bought fiberglass fenders and a tub and a later CJ-7 frame that wouldn’t fit (twisted and shock mounts too high). I want to restore it for him. His 2nd was an 81 (or 84) Laredo that he drove all over and learned how to repair and maintain. After that was a small break before he got a 97 TJ Sport in 1999 (year I was born) with the 4.0, 5 Speed, Dana 44 (which he said was horrendous in the first year design) and 31 inch factory BFGs. He then got a blue 2001 TJ with a 3 speed automatic after another hiatus but he drove 120 miles a day (still does).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ4T9CQA0UM
You haven’t had a Jeep! Quick, go pick up a cheap beater YJ and beat the hell out of it. Don’t worry it will beat you back. Then you’ll sell it buy and build a nice TJ and laugh at the JKU mall crawlers.