Monday, August 27, 2012

New Car… maybe…



The Escape… my baby… possibly the best car I have ever owned is getting old, about 11 years, I special ordered her, with a small engine, and a 5 speed manual transmission…  taking delivery on the last day of 2001…  her accumulated mileage is high, nearly 230,000 miles when I last checked the odometer.  We have traveled to Yellowstone together, twice… to Arizona 20 sometimes… to the Grand Canyon, to Navajo National Monument… to Mesa Verde in Colorado…   She has crossed above the Great Salt Lake, on dirt roads… following the old, 1869 railroad grade… 

She has been a loyal beast… only stuck badly once, in quick sand in the Owens Valley after a snow storm… towed once (and that was when being driven by the girls… Had I been there, I would likely have driven her into the shop… yellow truck be dammed… )  

For the last several months, she has mostly been sitting idle… unused, but not unloved…  I drove her to Nevada, to Ft Churchill for a camping trip last May… since, I drove her to work a couple of times…  but have mostly used Dad’s truck…  Her battery is going, so I need the jump box to start her sometimes, but she sits mostly ready out front…

Her upholstery is showing wear… seams failing… her battery isn’t holding a charge…  but, overall, she is a good solid car… just tired… and future travels, to all the places we have traveled together before, to places beyond pavement, and beyond cell towers, and if needed the dreaded tow truck,  lead me to think about a nice pasture somewhere for the Escape…

I inherited Dad’s truck just over a year ago…  At first she sat in Florida… then, my son used her while in dive school… then drove her on a fast cannon ball run west with a load of stuff…   Once in California, she sat for a month before I tried driving her to work…   She is a Toyota Tacoma… a 2007, a big cab… a big truck, with a bed too small for a sheet of plywood, and an automatic transmission…  I don’t like automatic transmissions…  I find her too big for comfort… I have given her a fair trial, and she will never be my special truck…

So, I am looking for a new ride…  I have thought about it… I am torn between two, very opposite ideas… Idea 1)  A four wheel drive vehicle with standard transmission… idea 2) A Fiat 500 Abarth… maybe a Miata… something small, quick (not fast, quick) and likely cheap…

So, yesterday found us out, looking at new cars…  I was ready to buy… if, if, I could find a vehicle  to fall in love with… I didn’t…   

The search was not without prior research…  via the internet, and even the phone…  and I was seeing a problem…  I like standard transmissions, aka a stick shift… and those, are no longer being offered by most manufacturers, and when offered, only offered with limited other options.   The Ford Escape still offers a 5 speed manual, but not with FWD… I tried several Ford dealers, hoping for a left over 2011, but no luck… no hope…

Jeep offers a manual transmission in a couple of models… one, the Patriot, a bit like my Escape… the other the more traditional “Wrangler”… an old school jeep, descended from the WWII Jeep… although now far evolved…

We (Tina, Steph, and I) visited the local Jeep dealer…  They had no Patriots, with a 5 speed in stock, and could only locate one within 500 miles (and in their defense, I spent some time and couldn’t locate any nearby… nearby being 200 miles…)  I have tried to order one, to be  delivered in 8 weeks or so , but found that with the 5 speed manual transmission, you can’t get the “Freedom Drive II Off-Road Group” (skid plates and a full size spare tire) with a standard transmission… with an automatic yes, with a standard, No… If, it (a standard transmission with skid plates) could be had, I would have purchased or ordered one… but it doesn’t, and that became a line in the sand that I wasn’t able to cross…  The ladies think I should choose the Patriot… in red… without skid plates… but I am pushing back… They are unlikely to be with me when I try to ford creeks in Utah, along Comb ridge… I want a standard transmission, I want skid plates if appropriate… 

The, we looked at the Wranglers… years ago, they would have been a CJ series jeep… old school, a real Jeep, maybe even a Willies… but they (Jeep, Chrysler) have moved on… bigger (like a large coke at a fast food joint… they grow, and grow,  and grow…) particularly the Wrangler “unlimited” a 4 door Jeep… longer, like the 2 door wider… with an interior designed to be hosed out… The short 2 door won’t work… no room for anything and poor space for equipment… shovels, tow ropes and a the stuff I carry in the American outback… but the 4 door, the too big 4 door looks promising… 

The problem with the 4 door, is that it is more expensive… it is too big… it gets crappy milage… but, it would do, comes in a standard transmission (6 speed) and is starting to grow on me… The ladies are not following me on my journey…  Whatever I choose, I will live with said choice for 10 or more years… daily… I don’t think I am doing the Patriot… If they would put on skid plates, probably… but without, No… They have made a statement about how they expect me to use the vehicle, and I am not there… (like Ford and the new, the current  Escape… not manual with 4 wheel drive, and no, not me…)

If I am thinking of the 4 door jeep wrangler, then I need to look at the Toyota CJ… or maybe try to get small and look at the Subaru… or the Land Rover… no, Land Rover doesn’t like manual transmissions… I like manual transmissions, so we are not exploring Rover’s offerings…

Subaru has a couple of offerings… maybe… maybe tomorrow’s research and explorations…  

Toyota has the FJ Cruiser… a friend has one… the son respects them… but they may be more statement than I can except…  again, maybe tomorrow…

There is one other factor to be considered… Jeep is a cult… and has stores dedicated to the cult… and as a result has options for those, like me, who have strong feelings about how their vehicle should be configured… a nearby neighbor is the regional manager of 4 wheel parts… and they do trailer hitches and gear bags and wenches and such for vehicles like the Wrangler…  including the Unlimited… I need to talk to Carlos… Carlos the pusher… who lives down the street…  the pusher of parts and accessories  for Jeep Wranglers… 

More, later… soon...

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