By Antti Kautonen
Here are two quick shots of a wood-vinyled XJ Cherokee I saw in Amsterdam, for Truck Thursday’s sake. Like the majority of my Dutch sightings, it looked surprisingly clean and well-kept. With forest green paint and plastic wood, it looks very good indeed down to the wheels.
The plates tell me it’s a 1994 Cherokee, and the badges proudly display a mention of the venerable 4.0-litre straight-six engine. It looks exquisitely trimmed, with light leather. It’s probably my favorite Cherokee, I haven’t seen one this nice in ages.
[Images: Copyright 2013 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski 
Mercedes Lilienthal
Replete with amber turn signals. Were these sold in Europe?
Yeah, they were actually. Too much Renault content to keep them away. 🙂
FIgured as much. Is this one a European model?
Probably. It's got the mandatory side indicator and it's labeled 4.0 litre and not liter. The taillights look European too, but I have to admit I have no idea how they looked in the US.
"Litre" is how Jeep spelled it for the US market. Ford did something similar:
<img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4006/4295727447_6d8d7ba7e5.jpg" width="400">
I didn't know. I though Litre was UK-English and Liter US-English. But what do I know, I'm not a native speaker anyway.
You're correct about the convention but it wasn't followed in either of these cases.
I didn't get a picture, but I was able to confirm this today on an XJ with exactly this paint scheme and wheels. It definitely said 4.0 Litre on the back.
That's actually how the badges were in the states IIRC. A little bit of Euro-centric affectation if you ask me, but you are correct regarding the taillights. No amber in 'Murica.
Uh, what? All US-spec Cherokees (not Wagoneers) had amber rear turn signals, however they used different tail lights than the ones shown above for some reason.
Aw, hell. I don't know what I thinking.
I've even owned one.
It looks like the main difference is that the lights shown above appear to have rear fog lights below the turn signals. The Dodge Caravan below has em too.
Oh yeah. I always dig seeing the European taillights on American cars. Several year ago, I saw an early '90s Chrysler minivan here, with Euro taillights and NL license plates. And yes, it was turbo diesel powered.
Europeans have all the fun. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Like this one?
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Chrysler_Turbo_Diesel_Voyager_in_Kazimierz_Dolny.jpg" width="600">
Yep, like that one.
Where did you see that van? I saw one matching that exact description first at the Hoover Dam near Vegas, and then several months later in Long Beach near the Queen Mary.
If you look closely at the picture of the rear end, you'll notice there is no CHMSL (it shoud be at the bottom of the rear window, next to the wiper blade), so safe to say it's European spec.
I think the wheels are later 16" Grand Cherokee.
Or even later XJ Cherokee – the later Limiteds used these wheels too.
I suspect the wood panelling is aftermarket though, or a Euro option.
Not bad. The few "wood paneled" XJs we have in the US aren't in nearly this good a condition.
The woodie look was an option, up 'till the very end, I believe.
Also, I've seen Wranglers, though 15 years ago, doing high-elevation testing in the mountains west of Denver, when I lived out that way, with regular size/shape add-on rear lights they used to have, but with one part of it amber.
I wish the US would follow this lead. It's genius.
Then again, I want rear running/brake lights to have a second bulb and it would change visual 'signature' when the brakes were applied with running lights on.
I did this on both my W126 and W124…used the unused rear fog lamp as a second brake light.
It was obvious this setup got a faster reaction time than the single bulb per side did.