Jason Cammisa on the Jeep Cherokee - the legendary one, not the sequel

The XJ Jeep Cherokee was America's Favorite Hot Hatch — Full History — Revelations w/ Jason Cammisa

I've been a fan of Jason Cammisa's YouTube series "Revelations" for a while. He's made some great videos telling the stories of amazing cars. Check them out. The videos highlight the history, the outcome, and the good and/or bad regarding the car itself. His video on the Fiero was surprisingly funny. His video on the Carlton taught me a ton about a car I had no idea existed and informed me as to why it's significant. 

Then, he just released this video on the XJ Cherokee. Admittedly, a legendary SUV not only to the world but to our little corner of low-buck, high-value hotrodding. In this video, he talks about the innovations that the XJ brought us, like being the first unibody constructed SUV, and how well it performed against its contemporaries on the road. 

Posting this as I think all of you will like it. We all know the XJ is a great design. Jason does what he does best by articulating that via Top Gear level videos packed with cool information. Also, stay to the end. Every Revelations video ends with video of Jason driving the car on a gorgeous mountain road with no dialogue. Just the car being driven hard, shot from the interior, while doing what it was built to do - have fun and go fast(?). 

I'm going on a driving trip to the mountains next month in my XJ. Jason was invited. I hope he shows up!
 

Jason used the phrase "hot hatch" multiple times in reference to the XJ.  I kept expecting that he would site a reference...

I suppose he was not familiar with it but Jason himself was a Challenge Judge in years past, though not the year of this XJR.  On the other hand, its far from saying that this was the XJ's most popular use.  And, it could have taken an entire episode to have explained the use.  

John Welsh said:

Jason used the phrase "hot hatch" multiple times in reference to the XJ.  I kept expecting that he would site a reference...

I thought about that while watching the video, too.

This is a really good series, well produced, informative and funny. His last one on the Merkur/Sierra featured an interview with Bob Lutz, too.

The video is well enough produced and informative making it hard not to open FB and take a look.  

Seems that $8-$10k gets you into clean 100k examples.  Seems like a reasonably priced way to get into the neuvo-classic car show scene.

'96 w/101k @ $9k

'88 w/126k @ $9.8k Comanchee

'01 w/142k @ $9.5k

What a load of crap.....everyone knows Cherokees don't handle......I actually went to my first Challenge to see this car. It had no right to be that fast.

The XJ is the Miata of its world.  It just does everything right and is the right size.

What's neat is back when I had my Subaru GL (later called a Loyale), I parked next to an XJ and noted that they were the same dimensions except for the ground clearance.

I loved them when they came out, and wanted one badly. But, they were out of my reach $-wise back then.

I've been half-looking at them now as a possible replacement for a pickup I have and don't need, but anything that isn't a beat-to-death example with 200,000+ miles on it commands a significant price. I think I missed the boat on these when they were still plentiful and affordable. Bummer.