If I had ever owned a car that I had regretted selling it is this one. This Jeep was my first four wheel drive vehicle. apart from an old one I part owned in the NT (No13).

It had done just a few km when I brought it and it was in as new condition. Back then Jeeps had a reputation of being excellent off roaders straight out of the box, they had a powerful engine (4L petrol) good ground clearance, good approach and departure angles and an excellent four wheel drive system, including a centre differential.

It was about this time that Chrysler changed the marketing persona for Jeeps, prior to that one of the companies motto's was that a Jeep, straight off the showroom floor, could go anywhere..."It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand' was their ad.

Sadly the Jeep range from then included 2 wheel drive SUV's, great for shopping, not so good for bush tracks.

Now, in 2025, the Jeep brand has a very poor reputation for quality and few are sold in Australia any more.

We drove this vehicle all over Queensland including Fraser Island a well as a couple of interstate trips, we took it along some pretty ordinary roads and never once did we get stuck, we did pull out a few other stuck 4x4's along the way even.

It did have one drawback, well two actually, firstly it was no fuel miser, it loved the stuff!, and secondly the cost of servicing and parts was astronomical.

The high fuel consumption was just one reason I decided to sell petrol was nudging $2 a litre about then, the other reason was that I had been told the the rear diff (LSD) needed to be replaced, these diffs have clutches internally and the cost to repair was quoted at $2800.

Even so I intended to keep it and have it converted to run on Autogas, I contacted the Jeep dealership and I was told that they had not seen one successful LPG conversion, I decided to trade it on something that could be converted.

At that time the fed govt was offering a rebate of $2000 on all gas conversions as part of a 'green scheme'.

Interesting to note here that after I sold the Jeep I noticed many around that been converted to gas!!…easy to tell as the law requires vehicles that have had LPG conversions to indicate this with a LPG icon on the number plates, I saw many such Jeeps and I kicked myself often.