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I had been hunting
for the Jeep for several months, but not had much luck finding what I
wanted. Mainly due to be being so picky, and wanting so many specific
things. 05 or 06, White, Rubicon package, 6 Speed Manual, Hard Top, with
low mileage. I found a few, but they all either had high mileage, or were
fairly well abused offroad. Even though I intend to use this Jeep for
offroading, I wanted to start out fresh. Most were already heavily
modified, or damaged.
Finally, one day I saw a nice Rubicon pop up on Yahoo
Motors, I emailed the dealer to see if they still had it. Later that
day, I got a call from a friendly young gentleman from Papa's Dodge Inc.
saying they still had it, and that it was in excellent condition. Then it
dawned on me, where was this guy? Turns out it was a dealer 525 miles away
in Connecticut. I figured the Jeep was going to require a road trip, but I
wasn't counting on it being quite this far. The more I thought about it,
the more I figured what the heck. I wasn't finding what I really wanted
locally, and from what he described, this was exactly what I was after. I
figured that if that was actually the case, and if it was in that good of
condition, it would be worth the trip.
So I began making plans to make the trip that coming
weekend with my father. We rented a Ford Fusion from Hezts and headed out
at 4:30am Saturday morning. We arrived in CT at around 1:30pm, dropped off
the car, and met up with the dealership. The had the Jeep pulled off the
lot, and reserved in my name ahead of time. Upon seeing it, it was
immediately apparent that it was in exceptional shape. There was one tiny
scratch on one of the wheels, and one scratch on the top of the Hard Top.
Other than that, there was not a mark on it, in it, or under it. You could
tell it had never seen any offroading.
The Jeep was a 2005, with only 7,100 miles on it. It
was also a certified pre-owned vehicle, so that the remaining 3 year/36K
mile bumper to bumper, and 8 year/80K mile drive train warrantees
transferred to me. The CarFax report was also clean. It also came with
both the hard and soft tops. It all seemed too good to be true, but
it all went as planned, and there were no surprises.
We left the rental car there, and drove the jeep back
home. It was a 9 hour trip each way, and going both ways in one day was
quite tiring, we got back about 1:30am Sunday morning. I probably ended up
paying a bit more than I should have, after considering the rental car
expenses, gas, etc. But I got what I was looking for, so it was all worth
it.
On a side note, I knew that Jeep were not good on gas,
and the trip back confirmed that. It took almost 2 tanks of gas, and it
got 15.5 MPG Not bad really for a heavy Jeep doing 75 mph the entire way.
They basically have the aerodynamics of a refrigerator. This didn't bother
me though, because it was easily keeping 70+ mph on the interstate in 6th
gear. Something my 4 banger truck couldn't do in 4th gear. I told myself
long ago, gas mileage be damned, I want a response when I press on the
skinny pedal. The 4.0L I6 engine has excellent low end torque. I have
actually only used 1st gear a few times, it has no problem starting out in
2nd on level ground. |
