UPDATE: Re-live your misspent youth

Ever since I was a kid watching Mork and Mindy, I've wanted a Jeep Wrangler. Mindy always looked so slick driving hers against the backdrop of the Rockies.

I used to sell television advertising and one of my clients was a Jeep-Eagle dealer. I showed up with my crew to shoot his commercial on a sunny morning only to find that the lady who was supposed to drive the Jeep in the shoot couldn't make it. So I jumped in the driver's seat and took it for a spin for the cameras. Suddenly I was Mindy! I HAD to have that car!

So I made a deal, drove it off and 8 years later, the Jeep is still going strong. It's easily the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned and the only one I've kept for more than a couple of years. You know how a basic sedan or van starts looking seedy when it gets older and has a few dings on it? The Jeep still looks cool - even the flaked paint on the brushguard adds to the "Jeep image". My son learned to drive in this car and it STILL runs like a champ with no clutch problems whatsoever! The four-wheel drive turned me into THE WOMAN when I passed a burly guy in a large pickup truck who was stuck on a remote road in a snowbank - I pulled up, chained him to my hitch and, much to his surprise, yanked him right out. I only have 4 cylinders and his truck was easily twice the size of mine.

I am not a person who should drive a finely tuned machine - I beat the heck out of my vehicles. The Jeep has made 3 trips from Maryland to Nebraska and back with no problems. I have about 163,000 miles on it and have done nothing more than change the oil regularly, replace the brake pads and I replaced the exhaust pipes recently. Oh yeah, and I replaced the soft top last Christmas. The only problem I have with it is the dashboard leaks when it rains and makes puddles on the floorboard. I'm going to be really sorry when the Jeep finally dies.

Let me explain my score on "quality - no one who has ever driven a soft top Jeep would describe it as "quiet", however the Jeep doesn't squeak or rattle. But warm weather more than makes up for the noisy ride when you strip the top off and cruise with your shades on. Crank up the ZZ Top and you're stylin', man!

Jeep Wranglers aren't meant to carry home tons of groceries or carpool with your co-workers. They're too small to seat more than 4 people and the back seat isn't made for adults. But there's a certain aura that a Jeep has that no other vehicle can match. When I jump out of this cute little red Jeep wearing my business suit and high heels, it makes quite a statement about who I am.

Oh yeah - Jeep drivers are like a little club. They wave at each other on the road. Not a big flailing wave - you just lift your hand off the steering wheel and give a little acknowledgement. You don't see mini-van soccer moms doing that, now do you?

Added Oct. 26, 2005 - The Jeep is still going, just for someone else now. :( As my kids and their friends got older and bigger, it was time to get rid of my baby and get something more practical. The teen who bought my Jeep is tickled pink with it. Last winter he had the only car in his family that could make it over icy snow-crusted roads for emergency grocery store trips.