$5K can be an acceptable price based on condition, if it has the 6 cyl in it, I would walk away if itÆs the 4 cyl. I paid $5200 for my æ99 about 2 years ago with 93K miles on it. I am not sure what exactly you are looking at or looking for, but 115K miles in central Texas I would be pretty sure has no rust so from that stand point you would be fine, if the body looks clean, and it looks like it has spent most of its life on road, then you are even better off, if it does look a little rough, or like its spent a lot of time off road give the drive train a thorough inspection. Personally I would look for one with a 5 speed and part time 4wd (NP 231J) in it too, but thatÆs just because I like to keep things simple, and have fewer things to go wrong. I would also look for one with a Chrysler 8.25 rear end too, itÆs stronger than the Dana 35.
Like Bob said if you get it I would go through and change all the fluids just so you can baseline it and get an idea how things are doing. If the cooling system hasnÆt been touched yet I would take a close look at the hoses. On mine I had just flushed the cooling system after I got it (the coolant was a little brown) and then about a year later the upper radiator hose got a pin hole in it, so I replaced it, then about 2 months later, one of the radiator seals on the plastic tanks started leaking, so I replaced the radiator, and flushed the cooling system again. When doing this I looked a little closer at the rest of the hoses, and all of the hoses were still the originals. The lower was a little gummy, and since this was my daily driver, I decided it was prudent to just change everything in the cooling system, so now I know the cooling system wont let me down.
The front wheel bearings usually get noisy around 100K miles, these werenÆt tough to replace either, but you do have to replace the whole wheel hub.
All in all I have put about 30K miles on my Cherokee in the ~2 years I have had it, and I have probably spent ~$600.00 in maintenance, but the majority of that was for the cooling system and wheel bearings. And if I had it to do over again, I would. I love my Jeep. My biggest worry with it where I am (northeast) is rust, but I have been putting POR 15 on it bit by bit, and I plan to keep it until at least 200K miles.
Sean
