After owning my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle for over six years – replacing its engine, trying to diagnose oil pump issues, towing it from Detroit to LA — I’m finally selling it. But I’m trying to figure out how. I know I want it gone, but I don’t want to regret selling it for too low of a price, especially knowing how valuable it could be. But it doesn’t run. Should I get it to run before I sell it? Should I have a shop just fix the engine, and then I sell it for a bundle more? Or do I just let it go as-is, and move on with my life? This is my dilemma.
I think letting go of the Golden Eagle is going to be hard no matter what I do. While it is my least favorite car to drive and work on thanks to its big, gutless motor (which is attached to a slushbox that eats what little power that motor makes), it’s undoubtedly my most beautiful one. Between that, and the fact that I don’t like giving up on projects, this is just a tough call to make. But, as I mentioned in my “How I Knew It Was Time To Give Up On Some Of My Car Projects” article a few days back, in the last 18 months my life has changed in ways I couldn’t possibly have imagined. And those changes have pushed my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle out of the picture. It must go, but I want to be smart about it.
What is a Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle going for these days, anyway? Well, a mint one can go for six figures, but a normal-ish one? This one on Bring a Trailer went for $22 grand:
It looks significantly nicer than mine, though mine, with a bit of polish, a little welding, and of course some engine work, could get pretty close. I don’t have the bird on the hood, and my hood paint is fading, and it needs a few patches, but I think six or seven G’s could get mine looking similar. Add time in there, and I should probably lop 10 grand off that $22,000 asking price. Hell, maybe I’ll knock 14 off.
So I’ve got the Golden Eagle listed at $8000. I’ve received some interest already; two folks seem to want it at that price. They may restore it and turn it around for $50,000. Would I be OK with that? I think so; if it’s a thorough fix. If they just get it running and sell it for $15, would I be OK with that? Should I just get the motor running?
It’s tricky selling a car with so much potential. But I’m inclined to just take the money and run. And just stop thinking about it. It’s these lines of thought that have led me to hold onto it for too long in the first place. But I’m ears if you, dear reader, have any thoughts on the topic.
Take the money and run. If you get it running, you’ll want to keep it and you don’t even like the way it drives.
You beat me by 9 seconds…
Good advice I learned from a trader where I work at after symbol had a rally the week after another trader sold off his position for a decent but modest profit: “You don’t go broke by making a small profit off a trade, you go broke by trying to chase a large profit on a trade.”
I have no idea what these go for in perfect shape, but doing a frame-off could easily cost them $50K. I would not stress over potentially losing money on this path.
That’s more or less what I was thinking.
Money aside, the angst of someone else restoring it (or even flipping it) would need to be greater than the angst created by the inertia of not doing anything with it.
@DT – if you choose to sell it, you’ll be out of the situation and those feelings will start to fade immediately. If you choose to start putting money and time into it, you will have the anxiety and/or guilt over expending resources (esp. time) on the vehicle, and then you’ll still have to contend with the anxiety caused by selling it later.
tl;dr – in the dual interests of mental health and domestic tranquility, sell now and move on 🙂
Prof. Barth is, as usual, correct.
Move on, don’t look back. I mean, if you think you can spare the time to manage the project farmed out, and you’re confident you’ll get a return on investment, sure, go for it. But it doesn’t sound like you’ve got a ton of time, you’ve got willing buyers, just don’t think about what happens to it after.
Sell it. Once it’s gone it’s someone else’s project /problem and you can use that time you won’t be using wrenching on it to spend quality time with your lady. You already know what you have to do. Let the Golden Eagle fly away
Move it and don’t look back. I had a Honda CB750F in my garage in boxes for 25 years. It, like your Golden Eagle, was something I wanted to make pretty again. It became apparent that I wasn’t ever going to get that thing to the top of my to do list, so I priced it to move and it was gone. A huge pile of parts disappeared out of my garage and gave me both brain space and physical space to work on more deserving projects.
Just like after you buy something, you are best served by not shopping for that thing any longer, when you sell something, don’t go look around for what they might be selling for now. It’s a straight line to disappointment.
Sell it for what you can and don’t look back. Not even a glance over your shoulder.
Cannonball Rally: They tear the mirror off and proclaim “what is behind me is not important”. Same for selling old heaps we have good but unmet intentions for,.
I need something that steers easier than my Super Tenere+sidecar and cruise control. Looked into CanAm last year and you had to buy a $22K model to get cruise control. Now they’re offering cruise control, hard bags, etc. a la carte so you can farkle the cheapest Ryker to fit your needs, I’m gonna take another look at them!
sorry, wrong topic…
About halfway through your comment I was eager to see just how it was going to turn into an offer for the Jeep.
LOL you’re good, it still went to the right person. ♥
Get your motor running, head out on the buyway! Looking for the big buck$, or whatever comes your way.
Normally I’d say get it running first. Selling a non-runner is tough, and a running engine, even if it runs badly, makes it a much better starting point for someone.
But in this case, you gotta make it gone. It’s been six years. Time to bite the bullet and move on.
If you hold out for as much money as possible, you may very well end up always wondering whether you could have gotten even more had you waited longer for the “right” buyer and/or put more time/effort/money into fixing it first.
If you sell it quickly at a steep discount, you’ll always be able to remind yourself that you really just wanted it gone.
By the time I’m ready to rid myself of a car, I’m also ready for the second option.
Dave it is worth what you can get for it. So a project you ignore for years that doesn’t run and is rusty and a piece of crap is not anywhere close to a vehicle in prime condition. I would be a gazillion dollars nothing you own is worth close to average condition. If anything you own sells for more than salvage it’s because the buyer is an idiot. And if it sells big time it’s because more money was spent fixing it than it increased the value. Really your projects are so damaged they require more to fix than they are worth. No way you lose money selling rust.
Nobody in California will buy a rusty heap. It ain’t the midwest and nobody out here knows what “rust converter” or POR15 is. The car dealerships don’t even try to sell you rustproofing.
That’s a good point. Rust isn’t a thing here. There’s no cottage industry of fabricators and welders and body shops and refurbishers catering to rusty vehicles the way there may be elsewhere. People don’t build up those skills. The market for this thing in California is approximately 0 people.
Let me ask you this, David- If it was running with a less gutless engine, would you enjoy it?
I ask because I feel like of everything in your fleet (Save maybe the ZJ), this would be the best ‘roadtrip/overlander/enjoy the desert’ car. But not with the 360.
Again I bring the feels into it, and your love of junkyards- an LS swap. a 4.8 isnt expensive, and will drop right in with the same (or more!) power. Plus easy swap A/C, since that engine bay isnt small.
But wait, what about california emissions? Well, this fixes that too. You can swap in any newer engine into an older vehicle. No need for vacuum hoses and all that. Just need the original equipment for that particular engine (EGR, PCV, and cats).
If you dont want to let it go, consider this option- but youll need something to go in its place.
And as for time, well: my then-girlfriend-now-wife helped me swap front axles in my MJ, do multiple brake jobs, and (she wont let me forget this one) changed out of an adorable sundress to go to the yard and yank a T-5 with me on a hot july day. Make it couples time!
A Chevy motor isn’t a drop in replacement for a AMC 360. If it has a TH400, the bellhousing pattern is different. If it has a Torqueflite, then the bellhousing pattern is different.
What will wake them up is a 4bbl carb. I put a factory Motorcraft 4350 and intake on my 82 Cherokee and it really woke it up. Similarly, I put a 4bbl Edlebrok carb, intake and Crower cam in my 76 304 CJ7 and it really woke it up as well.
I just saw it’s a 79, so that would be a TH400. You can also adjust the full throttle shift point so it doens’t shift right before it hit the peak of the powerband.
To be honest, I’m more interested in fixing the ZJ. It’s such a great machine, and has sooo much potential!
If somebody is willing to pay $8k for a non running rusty old jeep, sell it to them as quickly as possible.
Change your name, sell the business, grow a beard, and move out of the country.
Sell it as it is and let someone else enjoy it! Don’t doom it to another 6 years in the parking lot
Here’s how I view these things: I ask myself how long and for how much money would it take to make a car “right” before either keeping it or selling it.
If the expenditure of time and/or money is a lot, I then ask myself if that time and money would be better spent having fun with my wife. If that answer is yes, then I just let it go.
You have the Holy Grail of girlfriends now, so it might be worth asking the same question!
Listen to Mercedes, DT!
Very wise advice. And if/when kids come along, it makes that decision even easier.
Go on, take the money and run
Go on, take the money and run
Hoo-hoo-hoo
Go on, take the money and run
Ooh lord, go on, take the money and run
Hoo-hoo-hoo
Yeah, yeah, go on, take the money and run, yeah (yeah)
Hoo-hoo-hoo
Go on, take the money and run
Ooh lord, go on, take the money and run, yeah (yeah)
Hoo-hoo-hoo
Go on, take the money and run
Ooh lord
A song from Frozen would be appropriate here too.
The cold never bothered David anyway.
I was thinking more along the lines of:
You got to know when to hold’em.
You go to know when to fold’em.
You go to know when to walk away and
know when to run.
That’s the question David was asking: Do I fold, or do I hold.
People willing to pay your fair price, yeah just let it go and let your brain do other stuff.
Sunk cost fallacy is strong with this one. Let it go David. If you were going to get the engine running, fix it up, etc.it would have been done in the past six years. It’s super cool, but let someone else carry that burden of fixing it up. Include the stipulation that when you sell it, you get updates for the website periodically.
Like I said back when you left Michigan, good things were on the horizon. Now you have them, and guess what? Wrenching on the Golden Eagle to get a few grand more isn’t one of those things. You are on a roll, don’t let this project suck you back in.
Time to let it go.
David knows what he’s got. No low-ballers or tire kickers!
I’m inclined to say just let it go as is. How much is your time worth vs the return on time and money spent getting it running? It’s been inop for years, now probably isn’t the time to make it happen.*
*Unless you give yourself a deadline and write an article “I have 24 hours to get this Jeep running before the new owner picks it up and the radiator exploded.”
“But I’m inclined to just take the money and run.”
Do it.
I’d say get it running before selling. Should be way easier to sell and you should more than recoup your investment.
Sell as-is and don’t look back. It IS a lovely looking machine, but this is all the Life you get.
Succinctly—and with wisdom—put
Ran when parked? Of course posting this article any lookey loos are gonna be like “you said you’d take $15!”. The body is solid, mechanicals are mostly there, I’d say the $8k sounds a little low for what it is, maybe low 10s? Especially if someone can do a little sweat equity and double their money.
If you were still in Detroit we’d be discussing the deal, sadly I can’t justify traveling cross country for it!
I think it comes down to either you wait for the right buyer at a higher price, or drop the price to hopefully unload it quicker.