The secret to keeping a Jeep Cherokee on the road is to get one with minimum accessories added. The inline 6 cyclinder 4.0 liter engine was one of the best things Chrysler ever built, they will run forever with proper maintenance. The problems come when you get the power seats and windows and all the other stuff that people wanted their SUV's to come with. I had a 2wd Cherokee that I bought at auction that just ran and ran and ran, basic model, 4 doors, automatic transmission. I bought a newer 4wd model with all the cool stuff on it from someone who was moving out of the country, had nothing but problems with it, not with the engine, with all the extra stuff that unfortunately killed the resale value of it. Got rid of it much faster then I did the 2wd model.

This is true for most vehicles. The vehicles I've had that are basically stripped work vehicles (i.e. crank windows, manual door locks, manual transmission, RWD, maybe no A/C) are always the ones that have the least amount of problems, or are at least reasonably easy to fix. When they start making things complicated is when things start to fall apart.