Tuesday, July 3, 2012

My old junk clunker

I got a Jeep Cherokee my senior year of college. It started out a beautiful hunter green with tiny sparkly gold flecks. It was already 8 years old, but was in great shape and it was everything I wanted in a vehicle. Not a thing about it was power anything. Manual shift, manual locks, manual mirrors. Why, you ask, did I want something so simple? My previous car was a 1986 Chrysler Lebaron convertible with a black top, turbo engine and power everything. The gas gauge, the windows, automatic shift, automatic seat gears, the works. And every time I turned it on there was something wrong going on. The roof leaked, the gauges went wacky, the heavy door decided it didn't want to shut one day, the windows refused to roll down, it decided to overheat regularly, just about anything you could imagine had that car in the shop nearly once a month.
So I wanted something that would last a long time and so when I went to buy a new vehicle and I heard Jeeps were good I found the perfect one. It was cheap and looked pretty great.
The doors weren't heavy like the Lebaron and there were no electronic gauges to blink and go out. It was just your basic vehicle with a good sized back seat and storage space behind it. In the almost 10 years I have had my Jeep, it has really taken a beating. I delivered food for awhile so there are soda stains on the seats. I have a 5 year old so there is always a spare Cheerio or fruit snack wedged somewhere. Since I started doing craft shows I have banged and shoved and loaded all kinds of things in it.
The headliner is mostly gone, the handle to the passenger side door is gone, the paint looks like camouflage and the hatch on the back now has a trunk stick. But through it all this Jeep has just kept going. It's had some repairs. A new radiator, a new belt something or other (I forget) some fluids here and there and the usual filters and things replaced, but it just keeps going! I've nearly hit 200,000 miles on it. (It had 100,000 miles when I got it). And I want to repaint it but I am afraid my luck will run out and my jeep will finally kick the big one. I keep telling myself I need a new vehicle, but I am so attached! I don't want a huge SUV, but I have to have a utility vehicle for my craft show setups. What's a girl to do?