We Bought a Jeep!

Like the picture and the title of the post would indicate, we bought a Jeep! Now, before you ask, yes, this is our third vehicle. Corey still drives his truck, and I still drive my car. This whole sequence of events (from deciding we sort of wanted one to actually finding and purchasing one) unfolded pretty quickly, so I’ll unpack it piece by piece. 

Jeeps are an interesting line of cars. Almost niche, in a way. Corey’s dad has had a Jeep for a while now, so we’ve been around them before. They’re fun to ride in, especially in nice weather with the doors off! We’d been down visiting one weekend, and Corey and I decided we might enjoy having a Jeep, just for fun. Nothing too definitive, just a “someday” type of thing. 

Well. 

Turns out that life gets a bit irritating sometimes. Particularly when you have two working adults in the family and BOTH cars need to be in the shop. I had been in a minor fender bender a few weeks before, so my car needed some cosmetic work done. We got the appointment scheduled for a week where I was gone on a week-long work trip. Perfect, right? I would be out of town, so I wouldn’t be using the car anyway. Great time for repairs! Well, Corey’s truck had other ideas. The day before I left, the power steering pump decided to die. On his truck, the power steering pump also provides power braking, so it was a big deal. We shuffled plans around, and Corey drove my car while his truck was in the shop. I got back from the work trip and had to drive a rental for more than a week while the body shop cleaned up my car. 

A third car could have alleviated some of the logistical struggles! 

While I was out of town, Corey started perusing Facebook market to see if he could find a Jeep. After both cars needing repair at the same time, our “someday” attitude turned into “this could be a good idea and we should go for it.” Corey actually found a 1980 CJ7 on Facebook market that seemed to be in good shape, it was a good price, and the sale would be local. He checked it out while I was gone, and then we looked again when I came home. We liked it well enough to make the purchase! 

The primary reason we pulled the trigger is the backup vehicle idea. That way, we don’t have to rent a car when one of ours needs to have work done. We work almost an hour apart, so carpooling isn’t a viable option. It’s nice to know we don’t have to worry about that scenario now.

We also had a few other reasons for making the purchase. I had also been wanting to learn how to drive a manual transmission anyway, so it seemed like having our own vehicle on which to learn was a good idea too. When it isn’t being used as a replacement car for one of us, it’s a fun little errand car. We also now have a spare vehicle to let friends borrow, if they find themselves in the same situation as us (and they can drive stick!). Thankfully, we had the money on hand to pay in cash, so we didn’t have to take on any extra debt to buy the Jeep.   

Getting it insured after the purchase was a bit of an adventure. I logged on to the app for our insurance company and tried to add it there. However, the Jeep is old enough that the VIN shorter than the 17 character standard, so the app was throwing errors. I had to call – who does that anymore?? Other than that, finishing the process and getting it titled and registered wasn’t a huge deal. 

Like with Corey’s truck, we have some things we want to do to the Jeep, so it’ll be a nice project vehicle. It had carpet installed when we bought it, and we’ve already ripped that out (it was kind of gross). We plan to do a DIY RhinoLine type treatment to the floor pans. We also want to put in radio/speakers and fix the horn. Corey has already been cleaning up the wiring. Since neither of us depend on it daily, it’ll be easier to get projects going and finished – hopefully! 

But enough of that. I’ll let you see pictures now 🙂