Need your advice...
 

... If you've ever bought am a car with a bad carfax.

I'm looking to buy a SUV for my wife for the winter and came across a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland that is listed about 10 grand lower than the KBB value. The reason is because the carfax came up with an accident where the airbags deployed. Since i'm Dutch and love a good deal it's hard for me to pass this car up. If I can let go of the steering wheel at 65 mph and the thing stays straight am i good to go? Please weigh in if you have any ideas and if theres anything else I should look for that may be wrong with the car. From the outside it looks fine... I just still have gotten under it and really looked it over yet.


And don't knock me down too bad about the Mopar. It's what my old lady wants and you know what they say; "happy wife, happy life."

It's not so much what your buying it for, it's the next person that buys it and sees it, will the return value be worth the price you pay today? structurally wise, if it drives right, awesome, but anything with heavy accident or salvage titles are hard to sell privately when it comes time to trade in or sell of the street without takign a heavy hit on the price.

if you're ok buying a know wreck, it's ok. value is cut as you've seen, so relase will be low later as well as now. better make sure the air bags were reinstalled and the SRS checks out ok.

Re-sale value is of low importance. I usually drive cars til they're dead and then some. Besides re-sale value would you take it if everything else checked out?

Find out who repaired it and either go talk to them or ask around and find out their rep. You could always bust out the tape measure....

I work in the auto industry and I would NEVER buy a car that has been flagged in carfax for an accident - a car is never the same after a significant accident (one that required airbags to be deployed)

Are yours constantly deployed? Or do you repack them after each use, like a drag chute? :rofl:

My 2004 Ram was hit twice before I bought it and once rite after I bought it. A normal person wouldn't have been able to tell. Looked great and drove perfectly straight. None of the accidents deployed air bags. The history of the truck definitely hurt the resale value when i sold it. I never would have sold the truck but my financial situation changed and it needed to go.

You can't really tell how bad an accident was just
by carfax. If your serious about that car I would take it to a mechanic/body shop you trust and have them look it over.

I had a customer who flew to Florida to pick up a Cadillac he bought on EBay. I can't even begin to describe how bad the repair job was. The entire time he kept saying what a great deal he got on the car.

I would take into consideration how long ago the accident was, think about it, if the accident happened in lets say 2008 and they continued to drive it for 3/4 years I would not be worried, if the accident happened in 2010/11 I might take a second look at it. That will show you why THEY decided to get rid of it.

It really depends who fixes it. I have seen some pretty messed up cars look better after the repair than before the accident. This one auto body place I frequent has a frame machine that uses lasers and magnetic sensors to pull the car back into spec and most times its better than factory tolerances. Sometimes they just check cars to see how bad they were FROM the factory. Its pretty amazing....

Thanks for the input. I'll post back after I look it over and possibly test drive it.

carfax will show accidents that were anything from rolled over (my sisters old 02 camaro, had a new roof welded on!) to a mear scratch in the bumper! some cars take really light hits and the air bags will go off, some times u can get hammmmmered and they wont deploy!

Have it inspected by a reputable body shop in your area to make sure the repairs were done correctly if you are that serious about buying it. With that 10k you saved, you can drop a little coin to make sure that the savings are in fact worth it.

GC is a good car, Overland model should have the 5.7 Hemi IIRC.

That's my reason for wanting it :)

:rofl:

Overlands are really nice, and the Hemi sounds good and it does get up and boogie when you step on the gas, but unless you are really planning on lots of hauling with it, I would look for one with the 4.7. Plenty of power for daily use, and even though there is little MPG difference on the window sticker, real world use proves time and again that the 4.7 pulls down WAY better mileage.

My wife has an '04 (generation prior) with the non-HO 4.7, and it is great. Easy to average 20+ on the highway, and I can get mid-upper teens out of it in mixed driving. Her cousin with an '05 Limited with the Hemi is lucky to average mid teens on the highway.

- Justin

I have absolutely no experience with hemi motors but I was told they run strong and run for a long time. I'm not adverse to the 4.7 but it just so happens that this particular GC had the hemi. If this one doesn't work out I saw a few that had the 4.7 v8 that I might check out.

On another note I thought the 5.7 hemi had the feature where half the cylinders shut off at cruising speed essentially making it a 4 banger at lower rpms? (I think it's called MDS)

Yeah, they do it through the use of 16 spark plugs and 8 ignition wires going to 8 coils with boots. Enjoy that tune up!

Way to stick it to me haha

Yea, Hemi tuneups are fun.....lol

Check this site out for info on the WKs: http://www.wkjeeps.com/kmenu.htm

- Justin

Yeah, and they are copper plugs, so that means 12-18k miles.

hemi's do have there down falls.....i used to own one, sure they have great power....but thats it...they all get a tick due to poor lifter bore design, they all get terrible gas mileage, and they are known to break valve springs....especially exhaust.....theres a reason chrysler has one of the poorest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry