I am now the happy (to say the least) “owner” of a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara… outside of the 3 years of payments at 0% interest. The Jeep Liberty was traded in as part of the purchase. If I had purchased the Jeep yesterday it would have cost $800 more than it did today. For anyone out there in the market for a new car, pay to get a Costco membership! I filled out some info online Thursday and today got in touch with the contact at a local dealer with a relationship with Costco. The deal… $1,000 BELOW invoice! It’s the most hassle free way to purchase a new car. I didn’t actually get the full $1,000 of the purchase off my Jeep as I wanted a black Sahara, of which there were no more available in the general vicinity of where I live (within 100 miles), and I didn’t get it from the dealer with a relationship with Costco. Either way, it’s a good starting point for anyone buying a car. In the end I was able to get the dealer to go from $300 over invoice to $500 below, so I can’t complain considering I got the car I wanted with all the options I wanted, and a decent trade-in on the old Jeep. One of those sweet options is a media center with a 6.5″ touch screen display, 30GB hard drive, UConnect phone with voice command, and 1 year of Sirius radio. It also has the trailer tow package and leather seats (an oddity for a Jeep Wrangler). Pictures to come later in the week.
Here’s to many happy trails ahead!
Ok, this isn’t as big a decision as Lebron going to Miami, which, by the way, made me sick. The King died that night when he made that decision, leaving the reigns to Kobe as the best player in the league. Any player that decides he can’t win/lead on his own and needs to join other superstars at a lesser salary is not considered a great player in my book. What a wimp!
Alright, that’s not what I really wanted to write about. Today I heard back from the mechanic after they did some tests to figure out the problem causing the Jeep to overheat. At first they thought it was either the water pump or fan causing the problem. It turned out to be neither. The problem is inside the engine, probably the head gasket, but they can’t find out for sure until they open up the engine. I’m not sure what the head gasket is, but it sure takes a long time (5-7 days) and is expensive to fix, somewhere in the range of $2k with labor costs. I asked if they could hold onto the Jeep for a few days in order for me to decide whether it’s worth it.
So here we are, deciding between a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited or fixing the old Jeep Liberty hoping to get a few more years out of it. I’m not sure who I was kidding, but the other SUV options listed earlier in the week are really far behind the 1st option, the Wrangler. Yeah, I know, it’s not the most practical car, but it sure would be fun to own! On top of that, an idea has been running through my head today, sell one luxury in order to buy another… just in no particular order. The other luxury being the Keystone condo. Selling it now would net me enough to pay for the Jeep and have cash leftover, in addition to getting rid of the monthly payments. I’ve lived in California for 2 years now and have used the condo once, so I’m not sure it’s worth the monthly mortgage expense to keep it long term. The budget spreadsheets are working overtime… and we’ll know the “decision” (hopefully) by the end of the weekend.
After all the analysis and stress of looking into buying a new car during the past week I’ve decided to wimp out and bring my current Jeep to a mechanic, specifically a mechanic not associated to a Jeep dealership because they don’t seem to know what they’re doing. Although this doesn’t totally rid myself of the idea of buying a new car, it at least puts me in the position of not HAVING to buy a new car, which sort of limits my options for negotiating the best possible deal.
Well, it happened again. The heat gauge in the Jeep made it to 3/4 today while driving back from San Diego. Turning off the A/C and dropping the gear down to 4th seemed to do the trick getting the heat down to just under 50% (normal) the rest of the trip. Each and every day I’m thinking more about trading in for a new car. To get things started I researched a few different SUV’s tonight:
> Practical – Ford Escape
> Impractical – Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
> Out of Nowhere – Subaru Forester
> Spoiler Alert – BMW X3
Without a doubt I’ll stick to an SUV as I prefer stepping into my ride rather than slouching down into it. Any other SUV’s I should take a look at?
It’s nice to have the sun back after June Gloom lasted well into July. Today was highlighted by a lunch time bike ride to Temescal Canyon, then grilling some burgers and dogs for dinner.
A plastic piece of the sunroof on my Jeep broke yesterday. As a result I’m unable to fully close the sunroof. Not a big deal in the whole scheme of things as it doesn’t rain much in California, but I am starting to get that feeling it’s time to purchase a new car, problems are started to pop up left and right. The Liberty is almost 7 years old, I really wanted get to 100,000 miles, but am only at (just under) 80,000 miles right now. I’ve really had my eyes set on the Wrangler Unliminited for a few years now. And this would be a good opportunity to get an automatic, allowing my parents to have transportation when they come to visit. Hmmmmmm. Thoughts?
