Sell the highlander and JK, buy a grand cherokee for cash and save for a TJ?

I owe 15k on the JK, KBB says its valued around 26 - Current monthly payment on the JK is $450
Highlander is paid off - we could sell for about $5k

Thinking it would be nice to have no car payments if/when we move, help cover unexpected stuff and furniture etc. Also covers the loss from the rental house here in Peoria

Whats our resident gun and money guy James think?

what about the rest of you? Anything wrong with grand chrokees I should know about? Looking at an 06ish 5.7l with less than 65k miles

I am a big believer in no car payments, even with dumping money in mine recently, its always been cheaper than a car payment.

I have no issues with my grand Cherokee, but it sounds like you're looking at a wk? I don't know much about those, they started changing a lot with those like ifs and adding the hemi.

When I buy a vehicle cash I always ask myself, if I had to spend $3k - $5k on a tranny or a motor in the first year, would I still feel like I got a deal? For you, you'd have to make sure an expense like that wouldn't be a major impact to your lifestyle post move

Yeah were not set on any particular model - was just thinking the bigger engine would be nice in the hills and for towing a pop up trailer

The 4.7 in mine tows really well for the moderate loads I've had behind it. The WJs can be found super cheap and are comfy in my opinion. Only thing to consider with the 4.7 is they are known to drop the valve seat when the miles get high. Mine did at 170k.

nice - ill add that to my list of ones to look at

any other major repairs youve had to do? or anything i should look at to make sure its not bad?

Just the usual stuff. Radiator, water pump, track bar bushings, rear ball joint. All easily done myself. The only 2 major things were the ac last month at 222k miles and I chose to replace the motor when the valve seat dropped at 170k+.

You're welcome to take for a test drive to see what you think whenever you want.