My Beautiful Jeep

No, that's not it up there, but it captures the spririt of this post.  I've owned in for five years and I've only put 15,000 miles on it in that time.  It is basically my dedicated hiking rig that I sometime use to haul manure.   I also used it a few times to get to class in  Oly when there was no way that my escort wagon could have gotten me there.   I paid $1,400 for my Jeep in  December of 2006.   My spouse who is a 1/2 owner was supposed to pay for half of it but instead he bought me a GPS for Christmas.  He drives the Jeep to work when there is too much snow on the road for his POS police car.

A lot of stuff on the Jeep is broken but the only repairs it has actually NEEDED is a new radiator hose, a small brake job, a new oil cap, a re-seating of the back window, a new wiper motor (I installed it myself!)  and most recently a new battery.  I guess that's not too bad over five years time.  But  it is a lot for so few miles.  Anyway it always starts and that's what I like best about my Jeep.  It always starts and it gets me to the trail head.  In 2007 I added studded snow tires and I love those tires, they make all the difference in the world. 

 Most of the electric stuff  like the windows and heater and cruise control was broken when I bought it.  The only lock that works is on the passenger side so I have to get in on the passenger side and then reach over to unlock the driver's door.  The lock on the drivers side worked OK until I let a locksmith look at it, now it does not work at all.  I want to get all new locks for my Jeep but locksmiths are such a rip off.  I'm going to see if my mechanic can do it instead.

The reverse lights only work sometimes, so I most of the time I can't back up in the dark and that can be a real problem.  Sometimes the turn signals are slow to comeone.  No point in trying to get mysterious electrical problems fixed, I know they can't be fixed, so I live with them.  A local welfare fraud is offended that I own a Jeep, but I'm not sure why.  Some sort of projection I guess.   If he had not committed fraud, he would still have his farm on the Duckabush and he could own a Jeep too.

The heater blows a fuse if I touch any of the heat controls, so I don't touch them.  I just leave the heat on full blast all of the time and roll a window down (when I can get one to work) when I get too warm.  I've pulled the heater fan out and done every thing I know to do and I've had a mechanic look at the heater issue but with no luck.  The cruise control worked just one time.  If the drivers side window is rolled all the way down pliers are needed to pull it back up. 

The back window almost fell out before I realized it was the reason why my Jeep was always getting wet inside.  I sometimes think I would get less harassment from law enforcement like Ranger Ken Davis, if I drove a nice new vehicle, but at least I don't have to worry too much about my old beater Jeep getting broken into at the trail head.
It's got 190K miles on it and I know that one day it will leave me stranded out in the woods.  But I have a Spot messenger and have friends on the list who own 4 wheel drives so I'll get home OK.

When the tranny goes out my Jeep is going to the junk yard.  That's how I have learned to deal with all cars.  Any expensive repairs are out of the question.  I can buy a new used car for the price of a new tranny or a head gasket.  So a blown head gasket or a blow tranny mean it's time for a new used car.
I think I've changed the oil on it twice.  I own all high mileage cars and I don't believe that oil needs to be changed nearly as often as the oil change places say.  I've never had an engine blow on a car that I've owned for any length of time, it's always the tranny or the head gasket that finished off my cars.   I do my own oil changes about half the time.  Of course my Jeep burns and geysers lots of oil so I have to add new oil all the time.

My 1981 Chevy Malibu station wagon threw a rod in the drive way with only 124,000 miles on it when my ex husband over revved it to try to figure out why it was making noise.  The Malibu had 120,000 miles on it when I bought it. My VW Sirocco threw a rod after I had only driven it 100 miles.  I was lied to, it had 278K miles on it when I bought it not 178K like I had been told.  So those are both cars I owned that had engine blow ups, but neigher of them were owned by me for long.  They did not blow up due to lack of oil changes on my part.
I drove my last $1,500 station wagon about 75,000 miles with no troubles until the head gasket blew.  It was probably my fault for letting it get too low on oil a few times, but not for not changing the oil.  It had close to 200K miles on it when the gasket blew.  Wal-mart was too dumb to figure out how to unscrew the oil drain plug so they lied and told me it had a "nonstandard" drain plug.  They told me I had to go to a mechanic to get a standard drain plug before they could change my oil.  I said "screw that" right to their faces and bought some oil and a container for the old oil to go in and told them I would change the oil myself.  The drain plug was standard but it was on tight, I had to really crank on it to get it off.  I think Wal-mart was afraid of stripping the oil pan so made up the story about my drain plug.  The next time I took the car to Wal-mart to get the oil changed they had no problems even though it was the same drain plug.  Hmmmmm
I took my Jeep to Oil Can Henry to get the oil changed and they charged me the rip off price of $40.00, so I've never been back.  Wal-mart will do the Jeep for $20.00 but they do have some trouble with it because they can not figure out how to scan the VIN off the worn out door sticker and they need the VIN to know how much oil to put in it.  Very silly!
I'm teaching my youngest daughter about cars now.  Very few little girls are given the chance to learn about cars or home repair.  My dad raised me like a boy so I got to learn how to do all the outdoor work like splitting fire wood, hauling manure, changing the oil, mowing the lawn and changing the brakes and sprockets on my motorcycle.