JK vs. JL

MBood82 · 03-13-2023, 12:46 PM

I think I'm jumping back into the actually owning a Jeep game. We just want a 2 door Wrangler with a stick. After that, minimal rust and decent reliability are the next criteria. Mostly will be used to get ice cream on the weekends/evenings and when the snow is deep enough I don't want to take my 300C out.

It would seem the best bang for my buck range on this would be a 8 to 10 year old JK as it would get me the 3.6 engine and not completely terrible high miles. However, Jeeps hold their value well, almost to the point that a 5 year newer JL isn't that much more, but at that point you could almost swing a lower model new one for not much more than that!

The manual transmission is a must, I'd read that the one on the JL is pretty terrible. Should I plan on skipping that and just finding the nicest (least rusty) JK I can find in my price range? Or is that overblown and the benefits of the JL outweigh the cost increase?

03-13-2023, 12:46 PM	#1
MBood82 Turd Ferguson Join Date: May 2004 Location: Almost Wisconsin Posts: 14,711	JK vs. JL I think I'm jumping back into the actually owning a Jeep game. We just want a 2 door Wrangler with a stick. After that, minimal rust and decent reliability are the next criteria. Mostly will be used to get ice cream on the weekends/evenings and when the snow is deep enough I don't want to take my 300C out. It would seem the best bang for my buck range on this would be a 8 to 10 year old JK as it would get me the 3.6 engine and not completely terrible high miles. However, Jeeps hold their value well, almost to the point that a 5 year newer JL isn't that much more, but at that point you could almost swing a lower model new one for not much more than that! The manual transmission is a must, I'd read that the one on the JL is pretty terrible. Should I plan on skipping that and just finding the nicest (least rusty) JK I can find in my price range? Or is that overblown and the benefits of the JL outweigh the cost increase?