It’s a Jeep thing…you wouldn’t understand

Back in 2000 when Melissa and I lived in the bay area I fell into a fair bit of money from some stock options in the days of the .com boom.  Instead of doing the responsible thing and saving for a down payment on a house, I went to a Jeep dealer and purchased a factory custom Jeep Wrangler, Chili pepper red.  Oh I loved that Jeep.  Probably the best times I’ve ever spent with Melissa was in that Jeep…or going somewhere in that Jeep.

In an emotionally compromised state, I let Melissa convince me to do the responsible thing and we traded that Jeep for a Mini-Van and started having kids.  Worst decision I ever made in my life (the trade-in, not the kids). For 6+ years I’ve been complaining and bemoaning the fact of my horrible decision.  As it got closer and closer to my 40th birthday, I told Melissa I was pre-scheduling my mid-life crisis and that whenever my then car died I was going to purchase  a Jeep again (a real Jeep, not the Hummer wannabes they sell now).

Well it happened.  In January of 2010 my Subaru Outback rolled over 130,000 miles and I knew I was nursing some engine leaks. The local mechanic had been keeping a list of fixes that I needed to make on the car and they were always about $1000.  Every time I went in for an oil change we  would tick something off the list for another $500-800.  The car was only worth about $5000 if it was in good condition..which it wasn’t. (dents, scratches and DIY mods were lowering the value).  While driving to work one day the ABS light went on. Thinking ABS is a good thing for my safety, I took it into the shop again.  $500 of diagnostics later and I’m told it’s a $2000 job, not including the $2000-3000 in engine leaks/gaskets that should be replaced at the same time while they are in there.  That put the nail in the coffin.

A quick trip to cars.com and I had a list of 3 or 4 acceptable Jeeps in the area.  We had nothing to do the next Saturday (car still in the shop being made drivable) so we jumped in the Mini-Van and headed up to the first dealer on my list.  On the way to that dealer, I saw two Jeeps in another dealer’s lot.  Melissa pulled in and I jumped out to take a look. I remembered having seen the one Jeep on cars.com but it had looked in very bad condition. In person it was in wonderful shape for a 2005 and I knew the price was good (thank you cars.com).

One thing lead to another, a test drive here, a walk-around there, and we’re sitting in the sales room talking to the guy about prices.  The sales guy mentions he’ll give me $3000 for my Subaru, site unseen. !!SOLD!!  Where do I sign?

And that’s how I got my Jeep back.