I fell in love with a car last night.
Really: on my way to my car after work last night there was a vehicle parked next to mine that immediately awakened my quite irrational machine lust. It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a four-door, and it was by no means a late model car. It didn't have that stupid rounded-corners look that all the cars, trucks, and SUVs have sported for the last few years. I can't explain it -- I just love square, boxy little car-truck things. Sure, the rounded look is aerodynamic and all that and saves gas and keeps us from smothering the whales with ozone or something. I still prefer the square look. Also, it had those handicapped-unfriendly push-button door handles. It looked (as far as I could tell in the sodium lights of the parking lot) to be in pretty good shape. I've been sitting here wondering if I should trade my little expensive rice-burner in for a used Jeep Cherokee. These almost-three-hundred-dollar-a-month payments are killing me. (I also like Land Rovers, but they cost the earth.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at May 18, 2003 12:25 PMNot too used, I hope. My mother-in-law rather liked the not-Grand Cherokee that I'm now driving, but it's convinced me never to drive another Jeep. Ever.
Mother-in-law now has and rather likes a Grand Cherokee.
Just sayin', is all.
Posted by: McGehee at May 18, 2003 at 04:50 PMI like the new curvy cars but I do miss the push-button door handles.
Posted by: Lynn S at May 18, 2003 at 05:10 PMI love that Jeep! What I like even more is that old Toyota SUV (4 Runner?) It's not as square and boxy, but it has those nickels just the right shape and in the right spots...
The Land Rover is not worth all that money, BTW.
Posted by: Alisa at May 18, 2003 at 10:45 PMThe new SUVs look like running shoes. I have a '95 Nissan Pathfinder that I am going to try to keep forever.
Posted by: Fred Boness at May 19, 2003 at 04:19 AMBeen around a BUNCH of the older Jeep Cherokees.
Only problem that I hear about with any regularity is their propensity for broken
transmissions (as often on the highway as off-road). Been told they've got some hardworking
parts in there which ought to have been made of
something stronger than the plastic that was used.
(Fun little critter to drive, though)
Since I also love Toyotas, maybe I'll look into getting an old 4Runner instead.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 19, 2003 at 10:01 AMI've posted in bits and pieces on my own blog about all the stuff we've had to deal with on our Cherokee, so I won't do it here. Suffice it to say if the transmission goes, it'll be something new on the list.
Posted by: McGehee at May 19, 2003 at 10:47 AMYou "fell in love with a car", eh? Sounds like autoeroticism to me. (Sorry, I just can't resist a pun when someone leaves an obvious opening like that.)
Posted by: Dr. Weevil at May 19, 2003 at 11:53 AMEh? Sounds to me like you're looking at a Cherokee (completely square) not a Grand Cherokee (a little bigger and rounded at the corners). Never had any serious mechanical problems (some small electrical issues, though) with my Grand Cherokee until I rolled it off the highway one snowy night. On the plus side, I walked away from that one with a few tiny cut from broken glass, so if you need something that'll survive a rollover,there's your huckleberry.
Posted by: Steve at May 19, 2003 at 03:05 PMWhat you really need to be lusting after, Andrea, is the Gelaendewagen.
Sure, one costs a bit more than the Jeep, but... wow.
Posted by: Sigivald at May 19, 2003 at 06:20 PMEh. I refuse to buy Mercedes-Benzes. For one thing, I need something I can afford. (I would say I refuse to buy German cars on general principles, but I realize that Jeep and Chrysler and Daimler have all merged into one of those global conglomerate things.)
Steve: yeah, I think that it was a plain Cherokee I saw. Hey, it was dark in the parking lot and I was tired... But on the road I saw another one, a Cherokee sport. It was green. It was the two-door model. It had those push-button door handles but it didn't look that old. Yes, I'm still in love. (Dr. Weevil: :P)
I probably won't be getting one any time soon, though. I just got a nice set of new tires on my Echo, and I think I'm still upside down on the financing end of it since I've only been paying the thing off for about two years. I think I'm on a 60-month payment plan. (My mind just went blank on that matter, how sad is that.) Even though I did put twenty percent (about $3000) down on it. Hm...
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 19, 2003 at 07:24 PM