The odometer on today’s Nice Price or No Dice Wagoneer reads 56,000, but the seller warns that it may have rolled over, so that number might offer a false sense of security. Let’s see how secure we feel about this classic 4X4’s asking price.
They say that a good friend is someone who will bail you out of jail, while a great friend is someone who can’t do so because they’re sitting there in jail with you, exclaiming, “That was great!”
Lee Iacocca and Carroll Shelby were great friends for years, and that friendship resulted in a bunch of arguably great cars and trucks born out of their shared love of going fast and looking cool.
The 1986 Dodge Omni GLH-T (Goes Like Hell-Turbo) we looked at yesterday is one of those cars, built at a time when both Iacocca and Shelby were working for/with Chrysler. While not as classic as Shelby’s iconic Cobra or the GT350 Mustang he and Iacocca came up with while the latter was at Ford, it still warrants a page or two in the history books. At $8,500, too few of you found our candidate to be of historical value, sending it packing in an 85% No Dice loss. Hopefully, it left on friendly terms.
Four by fours
As we’re all no doubt aware, the market for classic four-by-fours has been pretty hot the past decade or so and currently shows no sign of letting up any time soon. It really feels like the mantra of less being more is in effect as basic rides such as old Ford Broncos, International Scouts, and Toyota J40 Land Cruisers are demanding bonkers bucks. Upscale editions like the Range Rover, Jeep Grand Wagoneer, and Land Cruiser J80s are currently almost as sought after, commanding equally high prices.
This 1977 Jeep Wagoneer falls somewhere in the middle of those extremes, and in Mama Bear fashion, it’s not as basic as an old CJ or Bronco. Nor is it as fancy-pants as its Grand Wagoneer brother or an upscale J80 Land Cruiser. Fairly parsimonious in style, it has the goods where it counts. Those include a 360 Cubic-Inch Displacement AMC V8, a three-speed TH400 automatic transmission, and Jeep’s full-time 4-wheel drive. In addition to all that, this one also has a few tricks up its sleeve and an odometer that may or may not be telling the truth.
Quadra-Trac
That 4WD system is Jeep’s Quadra-Trac, which is based on a Borg Warner 1339 transfer case with two speeds and a limited-slip torque-vectoring differential between front and rear axles. That’s switched between 2WD and 4WD by a switch that Jeep strangely squirreled away in the glove box. Per the ad, that switch shares space with a modern 12-volt relay box for powering modern devices on the go and the control module for the Holly Sniper EFI that feeds the 360 V8.
Other mods include a winch (with synthetic rope!) mounted on an aftermarket front bumper and “curb lights” on each corner. It also has new tires on handsome white-painted and chrome-capped steelies and both a new radiator and a heater core. Everything is said to work with a few exceptions. It also looks very tidy with decent brightwork, those cool wheels, and arrest-me red paint. The interior appears to have had its upholstery redone at some point and comes across as clean and no-nonsense in the ad’s pictures. Add-ons in here include an old-school AM/FM/cassette radio and an armrest/cup holder combo on the front bench.
Good and Bad
That’s a lot of good stuff going on with this Jeep. But it’s not all rainbows and rubicons, though. The seller notes the Jeep’s strong points—that paint, the solid transfer case, and the new bits—but also calls out some problems. Those include an engine that burns oil, which they pass off as something they may have heard all AMC V8s do. The seller says it could also benefit from new ball joints and tie rod ends up front, although that doesn’t seem to be a pressing issue. Other problems include non-working temp and fuel gauges, although another gauge has bypassed the latter.
Aesthetic issues seem to be far fewer, with the main one being that there are a number of dents on the roof, which the seller attributes to hail damage from when the Jeep was in Colorado. Not to be a total downer, we should note that the title is clean, and the Jeep appears to be wearing current tags. That means there shouldn’t be any shenanigans at the DMV when the time comes to transfer that title.
Classic cash
The asking price for that transfer is $15,000. That’s low for a classic 4X4, but perhaps is high for the problems this old Jeep manifests. We’ll just have to see what we think about whether its pros outweigh its cons and add up to that asking. We also need to consider that this is the more hair-shirted basic edition of Jeep’s long-running SJ platform and not the more upscale country club Grand Wagoneer of the late 1980s.
What do you say, then? Is $15,000 a fair price for this Wagoneer as it’s presented in its ad? Or is that too much for even this classic?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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