Joe Handley

Saw these last night at an EV Charging Station getting topped off.

Got my deductible check from my insurance company for the repairs to the 200, all $500 worth! Got brake parts for the big brake conversion on my 200 to pick up from the dealership then go get a new impact gun at Harbor Freight in the morning, so guess how I'll be paying for those

I'd just be happy to see more late model muscle for those of us who are still on the younger side.

Your kids are what you raise...................

I'd love to hear this on that system

Just got some semi metallic brake pads from R1 Concepts for the 200 in today, the little guys up front are the stock sized replacements for the back while those enormous ones behind them are fronts for when I get the LX car hoses and 2 piston calipers in so we can upgrade the front brakes to what is basicly the SRT4 Caliber front brakes. I already have the Euro only front caliper brackets and new front rotors from R1 that are 13.39" dia vs the factory 11.57". The calipers are the stock replacements on my Sister's Challenger R/T Classic and compared to the stock single piston Avenger/Sebring/200 calipers, are huge!

That's not a suicide door Pete, that's a van style slider on the passenger side! Weird part thought, the driver side door is a conventional swing out door

Exactly, the Jeep seems to be at the "nickle and dime" stage and is rotting away and to really fix everything needs to be torn down and restored at bare minimum, not something I have room to do, since money wise, it would have to be as funds permit and I would again need to buy a winter driver, which would end up being some sort of ?UV that could also move parts better than the 200 or a 300 could.

I know, I've looked out of curiosity in a 100mi radius of West Chicago (60185) and there was one that was at an auction house for $1300 that I'm not sure if it was as solid as mine is and what appeared to be a clean, lifted '01 Sport that has a price of nearly $13k.......I didn't pay much more for mine in '03! We put over $1000 into it last year with the only paid labor being for the guy who put the new tires on it.....and he earned that money! Brake parts are looking to be over $150 IN parts for the master cylinder and maybe booster, probably need to do pads, rotors, and calipers up front too, that could be at least $500 combined, if not more, not including the $101 to register it for 2019 and nearly $300 for the 6 months of insurance as of mid summer. If we had to pay labor on top of it, it could be enough to match the cost of some of these ones that are for sale and in not much better shape than mine is. As far as my Sister, She has used it to transport her friends' son when he was a toddler, just couldn't put anybody normal sized in the passenger seat, so we know it can be done, plus her Husband has a Mazda 3 sedan that may be the primary babymobile until those two are paid off and she can get something roomier to "Baby" with.

They're nice looking, bought those to stick on the MPC G-Body Elco SS kit for a late 80's-early 90's style build........just not sure if I want it to be painted in a Bright and NEON or Pastel color.

Nice looking XJ!

These came in today.

The '06 my Sister was silver and looked like it could have been "Retired", but she seemed to get targeted and pulled over more than somebody who works in a library kids department should. The cops that have seemed to be surprised to find her driving vs a younger male. I have seen where Avenger owners have been confused for cops too. Don't have either with the 200

He's still talking about fixing it, seeing if the brake failure had something to do with the master cylinder.......

I thought about the Charger, but it still looks a little too hot rod-ish for a sedate big cruiser like I've been thinking of and may attract the kind of attention I don't want while cruising around, like guys wanting to race and police wanting to write tickets.My Sister was pulled over a few times in her '06 3.5l Charger before she traded it in for her Challenger and we knew a woman with a similar year R/T (looked like the one used for the Testors' box art, come to think of it) and when she got stopped, cop asked her "Does your husband know you're driving his car?", knowing her, I would not want to have been that cop, he deseved anything she may have said to him for that comment! My 200 with that engine is several hundred pounds lighter and would me more of the fun car of the pair. Oh, I didn't think to ask above, does your Charger have the yellow or black gas cap?

I figure with these things going up un value, it's worth trying to find it a new owner that might actually fix and drive it. It's sitting in the back yard for free, but the city has bugged us on it before when I had forgot to put the current sticker on it and the old tires had trouble holding air (they had been on it 7 or 8 years at that point), so that would be one less concern too.

Luckily, the rockers can be replaced (about $400 new for all the stampings), and these things are starting to see an uptick in resale value now, with beat down trucks now selling for more than nice, clean, "low mile" ZJ and WJ Grand Cherokees are in some areas. I also fear that it might become one of those "I'm going to fix it one day" situations where it sits and decays for the rest of my natural life instead of being put back on the road it it needs to be.......and to some extent, feels like it wants to be......as weird as that sounds. With all that said, it just makes sense to me to move onto someone else at this point.

There aren't really any "Good" XJs left around here either though, they all have been either chopped up into trail trucks (not sure where the trails are, they're probably mall crawlers) or have the rust issues as mine does.....and that doesn't fix the altitude issue without lowering one. I had a Journey in December when a new heater core and HVAC control box were being installed in the 200 and liked it, but that would also need to be lowered for the step in height issues, never mind the leg bending ones that he and I both have. The little Chevy Bolt would really work well there, if it were cheaper and AWD but trust me, FWD and 260lbs/ft and 3600lbs curb weight in snow is not fun...adding right now torque would make it worse!

I'd love to keep the XJ and there are plenty of issue parts that are still available and affordable, but it's the time to fix even moreso at the money that can be at a premium. If I suddenly hit the lotto big, I would find someplace to start tearing it apart to fix and restify it as I have time and find something to drive in the winter in it's place anyway. I'm trying to avoid any ?UVs since those won't fix the altitude issues, even being AWD, plus don''t handle as well as a car would, not sure if they'd handle as well as a well maintained XJ would to be honest. Not interested in Subarus either, especially since they have a bit of a reputation as an oilburner, even though they're gas fueled. The 3.6l and LX platforms are know quantities for me as well, my 3.6l powered 200 rolled 91k in the last hour and it has been dead reliable and if it's an '11-'17, it should be flex fuel as well, which is a plus as well.

My 200 has the same drivetrain as that van, and the 300 w/AWD would use that engine too, the 200 is a bit of a surprise when you get on it I'd be keeping my 200, but I would prefer something with AWD for snow use, which Chryser hasn't offered in a Minivan since the early-mid 00's, as well as a sedan profile and handling vs that of a minivan or SUV/CUV, but common enough to be fairly "dime a dozen" compared to my XJ, 200 (the 3.6l 200 and Avenger aren't that common as is the second gen 200 w/the 3.6l and AWD) or especially my Sister's Plum Crazy Challenger R/T Classic. I also want it to be a decent communal car for the family when I'm not using it, so that Dad can take it to the store, post office, get lunch for him and Mom, the hospital if Mom may end up spending time there again (really hoping not, had more than enough in 2015 and 2017!) Or even if my Sister and her husband may need something bigger than his Mazda 3 or her "baby capable" Challenger at a moments notice, since she just told us last week that she is expecting their first child (first grandchild both his and our parents too!) If anybody is wondering, the Challenger is almost paid off, not sure about the 3 since it is a retired rental, and they want to wait until those are paid off to look at something more family friendly yet be able to keep her car too. Neither one of them really wants a minivan, she has thought about a ?UV or even another V-6 Charger for the family cruiser though.

I've been debating about getting rid of my XJ past few days, we don't have time to work on it with Mom being ill and it needing more and more work, seems like we get one thing fixed and something new pops up that keeps it undriveable, not to mentioned the nearly nonexistent driver side rocker and not much better passenger side. I'm seriously thinking about it, but having a hard time convincing Dad of this. He's having issues getting into my 200 and something like that is harder for him to climb into if he wants to use it. Now that the 200 is paid for, I've thought about looking for a used, post 2011 300 with the 3.6l, 8 speed, and AWD as a replacement for the XJ that he can drive and is in better shape than his Town and Country as well.

When I started in sales with the lawn service I'm now a customer service rep (person on phone that helps w/scheduling, bills, putting out fires of various origins, ect), the sales manager always warned to hold off on selling services to take take care of landscape plants (trees included) since some may not take to getting placed into their new environments all that well, especially if the soil is questionable or worse, the landscapers are as well. I'm begining to think that if I were to add anything to my parent's house, I'd excavate a large area of what can loosely be called soil here and put a ton of black soil down in those areas as I planted them. One thing he also warned of in particular is making sure the root system are free to grow and spread and not contained in any sort of sack or container thar won't degrade quick enough and starve the plants of nutrients. Another that he warned of is "girddling" which something is left tied around the base of a large bush or a large enough tree when pulling it into the hole dug to plant it in, since those can constrict the growth of the tree trunk and also kill off a tree. He has found that some landscapers will do that since the plants would live just beyond any warranty period they might offer before dying off.....then if you've been treating them yourself or hiring a company like my employer, blame it on the care given after they planted it while charging more to replace them.......shampoo, rinse, repeat.

Snake is right Jonathan, you need to get to a doctor, even if it is UC quickly! I ended up with bronchitis and have had it so bad I've nearly been hospitalized (Jan 2018, it was BAD), I still have the inhalers from last couple times I had it (thought I had thrown one out) and keep one on my nightstand and one in the filing cabinet at work, just in case.

I haven't been in a Target in years, so I don't know how those are anymore. Last time I was in a Meijer was months before my Sister got married, let alone pregnant. Oddly enough, the doctor estimated that the Baby should be due right after their first anniversary!