mudmobeeler
Caught the Bug
Well I've been around this forum for a little over a year and have posted in some threads but have never waved so guess I will do that now with the recent changes for me which I will get to in a bit.
I wanted a four door since their release in 2007 but never could afford one/find one/ready for one/had other wranglers or other 4x4 vehicles etc. I finally was ready to buy one and in April 2013. Found one that the wife and I both liked, talked to dealership, got approved through the bank, took off work to go buy it, they sold it before we got there. In fact I was checking it out while they were looking for the keys, which they couldn't find cause the new owner had them in his pocket while he was signing papers on it. They didn't have anything else so we left, made the 100+ mile drive back towards home and stopped by a dealer I use to work at and looked at the 2008 X four door I ended up buying. It was yellow (yuck), it was a standard (wanted an auto for the wife), it was manual windows and locks (not what I wanted but could live with), it was $24,000. It only had 39k miles which was a plus, they had it for four months and wanted it gone, we got it for $18k and change. Let the fun begin! Got it home, pulled the top and doors and had a blast. Put EVO front bumper and rear d ring mounts on it, shorty antenna, pulled the carpet, pulled the muffler, got high lift hood mounts and put high lift jack on the hood. Drove it. I also bought a bunch of other parts that have yet to be installed. Miles were creeping 50k and I'm assuming it was factory tires, I started having flats, get one fixed another would show up. I sold a bunch of stuff and had roughly $2500. Plan was lift and 35s, EVO skid plates, tool box for back for my stuff. I was working a lot also trying to make extra $$ to help. Then all hell broke loose. The motor blew up in my wife's car, completely out of the blue. She got to looking on the Internet and found some issues where we hoped it would be under warranty. So we hauled it to dealer, three days later they call saying it needed cam shaft actuators. We also put tires on it. Guess how much it cost for everything, $2400 and change. So she tells me to go ahead and order my parts and she will get a loan to fix her car. We kind of argue about it and she ended up getting the loan. I tell her I ordered parts but I didn't. We get her car fixed, pick it up and drive it 15 miles towards the house and it does again. So they tow it back to the dealer. Now they say it needs a motor which would be another $2100 our cost. We ended up trading it in on a new Malibu, we got a $2500 rebate from GM for a new car and they gave us $9k on hers needing a motor. It was only worth about $13k in good condition. So we didn't come out too bad. Then we started fighting and almost got divorced. I ended up having to spend the $2500 on some 285s for my jeep cause I needed tires but didn't want stock size and the 285s would work without a lift. A bunch of our problems were money/credit cards that she was hiding. We consolidated everything and now I pretty much control the money, which I didn't really want to do but if that's what needs to be done then I guess that's what we will do for a while.
Fast forward to last month, my boss finally buys a 2014 four door after me heckling him for a year. His dad has a 2011 two door and he has wanted one ever since his dad got his. Then I got my 08 and that made it worse. We are planning a trip to go with him and his dad and take the jeeps and the wife and I got to talking about things and started looking at automatic jeeps because she can't drive a standard. Teach her right? Wrong, I've tried on over 8 standard vehicles, she just doesn't get it. It's just not for her. Ok fair enough I'm done trying. I really wanted to get mine lifted with 35s before this trip but also wanted to do gears and lockers. Unbeknown to me my wife finds a 2014 Rubicon and sets up the whole deal pretty much to where all I have to do is look at it and sign papers if I want it. Holy crap, I'm blown away that she would do this let alone allow me to buy a $40k rubicon. So now I am proud to tell you that I am eating my words that I've spoke on this forum about never spending that much on a jeep because it doesn't make since for me and we now own a 2014 four door rubicon! In all the craziness going on I got some other stuff paid off, got a raise at work, plans are in the works to get another raise at work in January also. So while I now have a $550 monthly payment on the jeep we actually owe less on everything as a whole so less money is going out each month. This thing is fully loaded and a lot more than what I need/wanted in a toy it is AWESOME! No regrets! Everything got stripped from the 08 when I traded it in except the 285s and wheel spacers. So now the plan is a lift and 35s and run the 4.10s until I can upgrade axles and go to 37s once the jeep is paid for most likely.
Thanks for reading my novel, hope to see some people around sometime. There aren't too many JKs around me that actually wheel, I'm hoping to start doing some more.
I wanted a four door since their release in 2007 but never could afford one/find one/ready for one/had other wranglers or other 4x4 vehicles etc. I finally was ready to buy one and in April 2013. Found one that the wife and I both liked, talked to dealership, got approved through the bank, took off work to go buy it, they sold it before we got there. In fact I was checking it out while they were looking for the keys, which they couldn't find cause the new owner had them in his pocket while he was signing papers on it. They didn't have anything else so we left, made the 100+ mile drive back towards home and stopped by a dealer I use to work at and looked at the 2008 X four door I ended up buying. It was yellow (yuck), it was a standard (wanted an auto for the wife), it was manual windows and locks (not what I wanted but could live with), it was $24,000. It only had 39k miles which was a plus, they had it for four months and wanted it gone, we got it for $18k and change. Let the fun begin! Got it home, pulled the top and doors and had a blast. Put EVO front bumper and rear d ring mounts on it, shorty antenna, pulled the carpet, pulled the muffler, got high lift hood mounts and put high lift jack on the hood. Drove it. I also bought a bunch of other parts that have yet to be installed. Miles were creeping 50k and I'm assuming it was factory tires, I started having flats, get one fixed another would show up. I sold a bunch of stuff and had roughly $2500. Plan was lift and 35s, EVO skid plates, tool box for back for my stuff. I was working a lot also trying to make extra $$ to help. Then all hell broke loose. The motor blew up in my wife's car, completely out of the blue. She got to looking on the Internet and found some issues where we hoped it would be under warranty. So we hauled it to dealer, three days later they call saying it needed cam shaft actuators. We also put tires on it. Guess how much it cost for everything, $2400 and change. So she tells me to go ahead and order my parts and she will get a loan to fix her car. We kind of argue about it and she ended up getting the loan. I tell her I ordered parts but I didn't. We get her car fixed, pick it up and drive it 15 miles towards the house and it does again. So they tow it back to the dealer. Now they say it needs a motor which would be another $2100 our cost. We ended up trading it in on a new Malibu, we got a $2500 rebate from GM for a new car and they gave us $9k on hers needing a motor. It was only worth about $13k in good condition. So we didn't come out too bad. Then we started fighting and almost got divorced. I ended up having to spend the $2500 on some 285s for my jeep cause I needed tires but didn't want stock size and the 285s would work without a lift. A bunch of our problems were money/credit cards that she was hiding. We consolidated everything and now I pretty much control the money, which I didn't really want to do but if that's what needs to be done then I guess that's what we will do for a while.
Fast forward to last month, my boss finally buys a 2014 four door after me heckling him for a year. His dad has a 2011 two door and he has wanted one ever since his dad got his. Then I got my 08 and that made it worse. We are planning a trip to go with him and his dad and take the jeeps and the wife and I got to talking about things and started looking at automatic jeeps because she can't drive a standard. Teach her right? Wrong, I've tried on over 8 standard vehicles, she just doesn't get it. It's just not for her. Ok fair enough I'm done trying. I really wanted to get mine lifted with 35s before this trip but also wanted to do gears and lockers. Unbeknown to me my wife finds a 2014 Rubicon and sets up the whole deal pretty much to where all I have to do is look at it and sign papers if I want it. Holy crap, I'm blown away that she would do this let alone allow me to buy a $40k rubicon. So now I am proud to tell you that I am eating my words that I've spoke on this forum about never spending that much on a jeep because it doesn't make since for me and we now own a 2014 four door rubicon! In all the craziness going on I got some other stuff paid off, got a raise at work, plans are in the works to get another raise at work in January also. So while I now have a $550 monthly payment on the jeep we actually owe less on everything as a whole so less money is going out each month. This thing is fully loaded and a lot more than what I need/wanted in a toy it is AWESOME! No regrets! Everything got stripped from the 08 when I traded it in except the 285s and wheel spacers. So now the plan is a lift and 35s and run the 4.10s until I can upgrade axles and go to 37s once the jeep is paid for most likely.
Thanks for reading my novel, hope to see some people around sometime. There aren't too many JKs around me that actually wheel, I'm hoping to start doing some more.
