You can get my car (Jeep Commander) for super-cheap nowadays. It's luxurious compared to many cars listed here, it's been extremely reliable, any of the engines you can get are powerful. It's probably one of the toughest vehicles you can get. I'm sad to admit I've gotten it into much more than my share of situations that would humble other stock trucks/SUVs and leave them with large bills at an auto shop. I've had to pay for.....an airbag sensor getting knocked out of place and a new windshield.
There was some cost cutting resulting in poor quality plastic used in a trio of parts, all easily replaced - interior door handles, side mirror clips, and rear sunroof shade retractors (all but the base models came standard with -three- sunroofs.) Total spent on those.....$400. $375 of which were those damned handle surrounds. Look to see if they've been replaced already, the damn things. When they shatter (that's a when, not if), you can still open the door lol, it's just aesthetically dreadful and annoying to use. When the side mirrors will shake to the point of uselessness, you know those clips are broken...it's in no danger of falling off for other reasons but I just dripped superglue on the clips and done. The rear sunshade retractor remains broken on my vehicle, so it remains closed. I tried with no luck to repair it.
Anyways, I'm just going on about it now. Great engines that routinely got Ward's lists all around, bulletproof transmission that is also used on the SRT Jeep. Most comfortable car I've ever driven, yet it manages to be without the stupidly dangerous full-size truck body roll in turns. Great stock sound system, though I've improved mine since.
Was made 2006-2010. My 2006 V8 RWD came with 78k and has 94k miles. Bought it at a $12,500 listed price, and was offered between $7k and $8k at a dealership about two months ago. So they're an amazing value, mainly due to the number of them for sale.
That's because of the bad part. Put together Chrysler Corp's V8 engines, the then-largest Jeep SUV designed to be unbreakable off-road, and a curb weight between 4500 and 5500lbs, and you get back
abysmal MPGs. Lowest I get is 14 when driving to have fun, highest I get is 16 when driving to save gas. Keep in mind my curb weight is very near the bottom end of that spectrum, and I've heard horror stories of ~11 from Hemi AWD folks.
Though, if you pay to get a used vehicle this good with better MPGs, you would definitely blow the gas money difference for many years out the window. It's the trade-off. For the price, it feels like a major step up in the luxury/quality/drivetrain department compared to others at the same level.
Edit: Two things I forgot to mention are (personally) the great, unique look and the rarity compared to other SUVs. Another plus is the Prime-sized, Commander-specific forum and community online. It's been an amazing resource, albeit Prime's population is definitely much more knowledgeable percentage-wise. Somebody mentioned the Escape - or a few people rather - I would opt for the second gen body style. I have two friends with them, one is early 2000s while the other is 2008. The second one is infinitely better in interior design, and comfort. Could be just his car, but in the V6 w/leather 2001-ish Escape, the seats (and just about every surface) are as hard as rocks!
Anyways, my two cents - or rather, looking back, more like two cents and a term paper!
Clark
http://i726.photobucket.com/albums/...E-AD11-48DD67A7313E-5769-000005C562E79188.jpg
