Husband wants to trade in his SUV for a new 2-door Jeep Wrangler. Is this odd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As in, is this a mid-life crisis thing? We're in our mid 40s, our youngest will be going to college next fall, so we don't really need two SUVs anymore. However, isn't this a bit odd for a 40-something white collar dad? To me, it looks like something a college boy would drive.

If you asked me to guess what this cost I would assume $15,000 and that it was 5 or 10 years old. I can't believe these are $50,000 to $55,000. Not to mention even brand new they look basically identical to a 10 year old one.

Which is why they are actually pretty good investments, in term of cars. About 10 years ago I sold my beat up Rubicon for 12K, I had paid ~20K for it 10 years prior to that. The dealership said that Jeeps always do well in sales around here because of there are so many former and current military around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can get it optioned with body-colored fenders and body-colored top so it all matches. It does not have to have the cheap plastic fenders. Historically the Wranglers with all of the plastic are the cheapest trims, hence it looks "cheap". If some mid-life crisis guy is going to spend 50 grand on a Rubicon trim, you might as well click two more boxes for body-colored fenders and top, so it doesn't look like a cheap 25 grand model.

I was at a dealership in Rockville yesterday doing some tire-kicking.

There ARE no “25 grand model” Jeeps. They don’t exist. Best you can do is $32k for the entry level.

Don't buy from them. Go to either Gaithersburg or Clarksburg (Columbia) store and insist on 8% off invoice and custom order it so you get exactly what you want. Rockville is a nightmare to deal with. There is also a new dealership in Bethesda but not sure if they are giving the discount.

[Anonymous]

My husband just bought a hybrid 4-door Wrangler. It uses electric batteries to go about 30 miles without gas, then gas kicks in. It's neat to run errands around town on electric power only. But they are a bit loud on the highway with the fairly un-insulated removable top, so bluetooth calls are a challenge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband just bought a hybrid 4-door Wrangler. It uses electric batteries to go about 30 miles without gas, then gas kicks in. It's neat to run errands around town on electric power only. But they are a bit loud on the highway with the fairly un-insulated removable top, so bluetooth calls are a challenge.

I demo'd a 4XE Rubicon at a Jeep off-road event last fall, and it was really neat. I'm not a fan of automatic transmissions on Jeeps, but for this one, I'd make an exception. It was surreal climbing up rock ledges and descending drop offs and hearing NO engine noise at all. I could get used to it... but it was a really strange feeling.