Farewell Jeep

It finally happened. The long lived life of the Jeep is over.

Well with me driving it, that is.

In 1997, when I was just 6 years old, my parents bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I still remember it in its brand new car state, which my dad and I quickly destroyed by taking it off-roading in a developing neighborhood......with the windows down. Yeah, guess how happy my mom was about that. I spent the next 10 years riding in the backseat of that car: to school, various stores, friends houses, family events, vacations, and everything else that required motor transportation.

When I turned 16 my parents decided it was time to get a new car for my mom, and therefore the Jeep became my first car. Well not technically mine per say. My parents names were still on the title, I just had the privilege of being able to use it. I was pretty darn excited about this. So excited that I drove to school my junior and senior year of high school. I lived really close to my high school, as in I could see people walking the halls through the windows from my bedroom window close. I was also excited because 4 WHEEL DRIVE! I could now drive on ice with my friends on a spare tire behind my car just like my dad used to do with us! I could go off-roading!! Yeaaaaahhh....not so much. As I mentioned before, we got this car when I was 6, it was already 10 years old at this point, it was not the brand spankin' new car that it used to be. The very first job I had was at a local put-put/arcade/go-kart place. One of the guys I worked with had a car just like mine! And he went off-roading all the time!! He decided we should take our cars out into the wild of absentee roads and concrete. I was super pumped about this, so of course I told my dad. Big mistake. "That car is way too old to be doing things like that anymore. You're probably going to break something, and if that happens, YOU pay for it." Oh snap, I can't afford car parts to replace ones I damaged on stupid outings! Sadly I could not do the things I was quite as excited about, but hey, I had a car! That's pretty sweet.

Oh the stories I could share about adventures in that car. However, as awesome as this car was, it began to be not so awesome. As I got into college it started to have issues....a lot of issues. One winter when the roads were completely iced over my power steering went out. Have you ever tried steering a car with no power steering....in ice?? I needed Hulk strength. It was also SUPER cold. Yeah, that wasn't the first time my power steering went out in the middle of the road, it was just the worst one. In the last year or two my car had gotten in the habit of shutting down entirely. No steering, no brakes, no battery, nada. Oh we would take it to a mechanic, but it never acted up for them. Just me. My car was trolling me guys.... You would think that we would have gotten a new car at this point, right? Well we are not Mr. Moneybags, and so we were hoping this car would last me all the way through college (4 more months for those of you counting....I can't believe I just typed that semi-calmly). Plus, I wanted to buy my next car all by myself and have MY name on the title. I'm a stubborn, wannabe independent person like that. I even crunched the numbers and put a savings plan in motion so I could afford a down payment when I graduated. Well, things took a turn for the worse last week.

A few weeks ago my car died while I was on my way to visit my parents, but luckily I was able to limp it home. Then last Monday night it decided to cut out on me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY. That was fun. Thankfully it started up again before I had to pull over. Flash forward to the next day when I'm on my way to work. It sputters on me in the middle of the highway again, I hope and pray it lasts just a little longer. No such luck.... It completely died on me about 10 minutes from my work. My power steering stopped working, my brakes stopped working, everything. My parents were gracious enough to come rescue me and let me borrow a car for the rest of the day. So the tow truck drags my car to the repair shop and sure enough, it doesn't repeat the problem. According to the mechanics everything is peachy keen. What. Time to make some major decisions.

The idea of buying a new (used) car now gets thrown into the mix. Oh that could work, except I don't have the down payment ready! No mom and dad, I am not taking extra money from you. I'm a stubborn and wannabe independent person like that. Long story short I was able to scrape up the money for a down payment and rework my budget to afford monthly car payments. I went from no current plans of getting a new car to driving off the CarMax lot with a new (used) car in less than 72 hours. I am now the proud owner of a car with MY name on the title and not needing to owe anyone (besides the loan company of course) money. Success.

Although I miss my Jeep, I am thankful for a reliable car with GREAT gas mileage that I can call all my own.

Allons-y!