At $6,000, Is This Plow-Pushing 1998 Jeep Wrangler Totally The Business?
Halloween may be over, but you can still cosplay as Homer Simpson’s Mr. Plow in today’s Nice Price or No Dice Wrangler. Let’s decide if its price could be considered just as cartoonish.
In the late 1960s, Lee Iacocca, then Executive VP of Ford’s Car and Truck line, issued a directive to the company’s designers. The edict was to create a new Lincoln halo car by, in his words, “putting a Rolls Royce grille on a Thunderbird.” That design became the Lincoln Mark III, which successfully (and more profitably) outsold the competing Cadillac Eldorado right out of the gate. The following Mark IV model, introduced in 1974 sold in even greater numbers and at a better margin. When the Mark V arrived in 1977, buyers went nuts, grabbing them up in almost twice the number of the preceding model. It makes you kind of wonder, where are they all today?
Well, we found one yesterday, a 1979 Lincoln Mark V that had been hiding in storage for a decade, at least according to the ad. It had been refreshed to the point of driveability and looked to be in extremely nice shape despite the long slumber. Unfortunately for the seller, a $15,500 asking price didn’t prove equally as nice. That seemed just as out of step with the times as did the car, and both conspired to earn the Lincoln an 83 percent No Dice loss.
One of the more daunting tasks yesterday’s Lincoln might embody is driving in snowy or slick situations. Being rear-wheel drive only and something of a plodder, taking a car like that out in the weather is just asking for trouble. Fortunately, today we have this 1998 Jeep Wrangler that’s been fitted with a snow plow to both alleviate the stress of driving in inclement weather and, perhaps, make a buck or two with it by clearing private drives and roads, and maybe moving the occasional nasty-ass roadkill carcass out of lanes.
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The main attraction here is, of course, the seven-foot SnowDogg plow. To buy one of these new would set you back nearly the cost of this combo. And that still would require having something existing to hook the plow to.
Here we have the Wrangler, which per the ad, comes with both hard and soft tops. Naturally, you’d want to use the better insulated hard top when out plowing since we’re not animals.
The drivetrain is comprised of Jeep’s stalwart 4.0 straight six and a five-speed manual transmission. Those feed the Jeep’s Command-Trac part-time 4WD system. The seller claims that the 190 horsepower six was replaced by a prior owner at 90K. The odometer now shows a sizable 171,136 miles, according to the ad.
Overall, this TJ looks pretty good for those miles and all the years. The Chili Pepper Red paint appears solid and there doesn’t seem to be any rust visible under that. In addition to the plow, the truck is fitted with LED lights front and rear, as well as what the seller says are nearly new tires. Those are mounted on handsome factory alloys.
It’s not all business here though. The seller suspiciously neglects to provide any shots of the Jeep’s interior and, more annoyingly, says that the homey “Life is Better at the Campsite” spare tire cover is NOT included in the sale. Why bother teasing us with its awesomeness then?
There’s also the issue of what the seller describes in the ad as a “slow electric drain.” That could be related to the plow and lighting additions and might make for a solid hour or so of YouTube wrenching to suss out and fix. Notably, the title is clean. However, much like yesterday’s Lincoln, the Jeep is not shown wearing plates so it’s to be seen what its current registration situation might be.
To roll those dice, an interested party will need to have $6,000 for the ante as that’s this Jeep’s asking price. As I noted, the plow alone, new, will set you back almost that much.
What’s your take on this Jeep/plow combo at that $6,000 asking? Does that seem like a deal to go damn near anyplace anytime? Or, at that price, is this Wrangler not going anywhere soon?
You decide!
Utica, New York, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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