Soon to be owner (again)

I'm a former YJ owner, I bought my 1995 Wrangler Sport brand new in March of '95 and put (I think) 170k miles on it until I traded it in January 2002. Second most fun vehicle I've owned. It was my second car and now I'm soon to be in the market for another daily driver, now seems like the right time to look for another Wrangler. I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to a JK with the 3.6L V6, and have found several in my area within my price range (max $18k). My must-haves are: hard top, power windows, automatic (I hate automatics, but my wife needs to be able to drive it). Nice-to-haves are: larger wheels/tires and/or lift, leather seats (these seem to be extremely rare). I suppose if there was a JL available I'd consider it, but I haven't found many under $20k.

Here's my YJ the day I brought it home.

 

Welcome @Vater i started down the Jeep path with an ‘89 YJ

 

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My 12 year experiment with a 3.6 JKUR for a daily driver/trail rig was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Electrical issues aside (and there were a WHOLE lot of those), the 3.6 is absolutely a gutless wonder at low rpm with no really usable torque below about 2000rpms. Sort of made a mockery of that flouted 76:1 crawl ratio. You also need a clear highway for a half a mile if you plan to pass anything at, say, 70 mph. In the end, the JK didn't shine well on or off road. All of that can be easily rectified with an engine/transmission/suspension/axle swap. And maybe a completely new wiring harness.

 

As much as I'd like, an engine swap is out of the question, I'm not buying a daily that needs major work right away. Interesting that the 3.6L is gutless, I've been narrowing my searches to 2012 and newer specifically to avoid the even-more-gutless-on-paper 3.8L found in the 2007-2011. Frankly, I don't think I'll have too much of an issue with the 3.6L considering I drove a YJ with the 2.5L I4 for 7 years, and even (somehow) hauled my band's equipment trailer with it. Talk about underpowered.

 

Similar experience with my ‘89 YJ 2.5 which could never win off the line but it was only $8995 new and my first Jeep for 5 years. Compared to the 4.0 inline six the 3.6 lacks some balls down low in comparison but when geared & driven within the power band things can get done.

 

Wow, my '95 was almost twice that 6 years later, $16,500 (was $15,000 but AC was a $1500 add-on).