I was on my way home from work after working from 5am to 3pm and also having not slept in the last 36 hours and I was at the time driving my 2002 Cavalier. I was less than five minutes from my house and I was driving down a dirt road with the cruise control set to 45 mph. I could feel my eyelids slowly beginning to feel heavier. In my mind I thought I was so close that I could make it and I would be fine. The next thing I know I woke up in mid-air after driving down a ditch and up over a driveway. Not the way I imagined my first jump in a car. I landed driver’s side down in a ditch on the other end of the driveway with the airbags deployed. My car was totaled.
That was my first car and to be expected I was devastated. But, as I always do (and all of those out there that have ever been in a rough patch with their Jeep) I picked myself up, climbed up out the passenger door, and started fixing the mess. With the condition of the car the cost of recovery would have been the same price I paid for it. So I decided that instead of spending that money to get a used car with over 200,000 miles on it I would put that cash towards my dream car; a Jeep Wrangler. Ever since I could drive I wanted a Jeep. They are one of the hottest cars out there. It was my dream to have one. So I shot for the stars.
I started out by looking at used Jeeps. My basic goal was to get one that had less than 50 thousand miles on it and was made after 2005. This was all purely for long term dependability. But as I would check websites for prices I found that the Wranglers really retain their value over time and that a new one was only a couple grand more. This was December 2010 so I had the advantage of looking at 2010 Jeeps that they were trying to get rid of. But once I decided to spend the money on a new Jeep I got my mind set on the color I wanted. Top of the list of my favorite colors for a car was bright yellow. This stands out like a sore thumb and while it’s not the classic red or sleek silver it was what I wanted.
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| First day at my house. |
I compared prices of several different dealers trying to get them to compete in prices (which I will talk about in a later blog) but anywhere I went I could not find a new yellow one. Finally I found a 2011 Sport in Lake Orion, 45 minutes away from my place. I talked the dealer down six thousand dollars below the MSRP and bought the car of my dreams. Detonator yellow, electric group, hard top, two-door, Sport Wrangler. Hello beautiful. And that’s where it all began.
