In December of 1990, I walked into this small, old-school Jeep-Eagle dealership and bought a new, 1991 Jeep Cherokee, a car that I owned for 325K miles and twenty-five years. But that’s not today’s subject, what caught my attention that day was a new 1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer which was occupying one of the four available display areas for featuring new cars – yes a very small and well-worn dealership, replete with knotty-pine paneling! I knew nothing about Grand Wagoneers other than they looked like a 1963 vintage GM station wagon of some sort. I also didn’t know that ’91 would be its swan song so I was likely viewing one of the last GWs produced. If we back that up by a year, we’d have today’s 1990 Grand Wagoneer discovery to consider and it appears to be in pretty nice condition in spite of 91K miles of use and 33 years on this earth.  Let’s look more closely, this Jeep is located in Seattle, Washington and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $11,500 with the reserve not yet met.

Another thing that I later learned about Grand Wagoneers is that they haven’t all disappeared, they’ve just migrated to Nantucket, Massachusetts – the last time that I was up there, they were everywhere! And that’s not surprising, they possess certain chic for a particular demographic. Now – some clarity around the name. The Grand Wagoneer was originally just the “Wagoneer” at its 1963 introduction. Known as an “SJ” for its platform designation, it was rechristened as the “Grand Wagoneer” in 1984 when the new, down-sized XJ Cherokee came along with a trim level known as the “Wagoneer”. The Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer lasted through three overlords, Kaiser-Jeep at first, then American Motors (1970-1987), and finally Chrysler Corporation (1987-1991). By the time our subject wagon was assembled, the production numbers were down with only 6,400 rolling off of the Toledo, Ohio line.

There are no details, or engine images (well, there’s a sorta one of the underside), included in the listing – a really poor approach to marketing a car. That leaves us with only images to assist in making an initial assessment – of course, I guess you could contact the seller and he invites that action. The only power plant available in ’90 was a 144 net HP, 360 CI V8 engine connected to an automatic transmission/transfer case arrangement to facilitate four-wheel drive. As stated earlier, this is a 91K mile example so if it has been maintained, and not abused, it should be good to go for some time still.

Externally, no worries, the fake wood veneer is not showing signs of fading or peeling, just a minor, small bubble here or there – normal wear The white finish is still true and there are no observed signs of rust or crash damage though the included images are just awful – there’s only one of the entire vehicle and the rest are snippets – hard to make any determination as to this SUV’s true exterior condition.

The interior images aren’t much better. The upholstery is a burgundy leather and cloth arrangement and what can be seen looks OK, just normal leather creasing. The dash, with its fake wood trim, presents well too – the pad doesn’t appear to be split. The HVAC control head is the same one that my Cherokee possessed and the radio/CD player is a DIN aftermarket replacement.

Final assessment? There’s not enough presented here to make an objective assessment. But any way you cut it, this vintage of the Grand Wagoneer has its fans, in spite of its aged design and fuel-consuming propensity. Of course, if this isn’t the Jeep for you, you could always consider a new, hugely outsized Grand Wagoneer at $100K plus, right?