The Adventure Begins

The real adventure began about six months before I graduated, when I started looking for a Jeep. At the time, I drove a 2000 Honda Civic si. It was a great car that I loved to drive and was perfect for my city lifestyle, but I knew that it just wouldn't cut it in Colorado. So, I needed something bigger and with 4 wheel drive. I considered a couple different vehicles to do the job, primarily a Jeep Wrangler TJ. I also considered Nissan Xterras, which have good 4 wheel drive, but after discovering their less than stellar reliability, I crossed those off the list. I also considered Jeep Cherokees, but it was very hard to find them with a manual transmission. So, my hunt for the perfect Jeep Wrangler began. It had to have a manual transmission, hard doors, hard top, little to no lift (I wanted to do that myself), and be in relatively good condition. Turns out those requirements were very hard to find in my price range. Wranglers hold their resale value too well. I called about a few (that sold in less than six hours, before I could go see them) and flew to Indianapolis to test drive one that turned out to be a piece of junk.

I'd been doing most of my searching on Craigslist (through Searchtempest) and one Tuesday afternoon decided to switch my search from Wranglers to Cherokees (though I had little hope that I'd find anything). Well, I did. A 1999 Cherokee had been listed since Sunday in Georgetown, OH, that looked like the perfect car for me. I called about it and left a message, hoping neverously that it hadn't already been sold. A couple hours later, the owner called me back and said it hadn't been sold, but that someone else (coincidentally from Louisville, too) had just spent the last hour combing over every detail of the Jeep. He really loved it, but when it came down to it, his wife didn't agree. Great news for me. I flew up to Brown County Airport that evening and met the owner to look at the car and go for a test drive. I may have been a little over eager, but after about 40 minutes looking at the car and test driving it, I'd fallen in love and decided to buy it. A fifteen minute local plane ride (for the seller and his girlfriend) knocked $200 off the price and I paid $6300 cash for it. It killed me, but I had to leave it at the airport over night and drive back with a friend the next morning to pick her up. Her details can be found on my build thread on Jeepforum. This basics are that she's a deep Amethyst Cherokee with a new 4.5" lift and 31" tires (about 2000 miles on those when I bought her). She had 121k miles with an almost perfect interior and exterior. After more than six months of searching, I'd finally found my Jeep. These are pictures from when I first bought her.

imgur for more

That all happened about two weeks before I was planning on leaving for Colorado. I must admit that I thought I might never find the perfect car, but lucked out at the last minute. So, the Civic went on Craigslist, but didn't sell before I left for Colorado.