It’s here!

I picked up the new Jeep Wednesday, right after school.  51 days after I ordered it, a long 51 days even though it was within their 6 weeks to 2 months window.

I picked it up with 1 mile on the odometer, and the dealer pointed out what was printed at the top of the window sticker:

Yup, built just for me.   And although I don’t generally liken to “signs”, I couldn’t help but feel like I got the right vehicle when “Life is a Highway” was the song on the radio as I drove out of the dealer lot.

Anyway, I’m headed up to Logan for a math workshop this weekend, but wanted to leave a few pictures I took yesterday when I went up Lambs Canyon.

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It's a beautiful sight.

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Carmen Sandiego.

Waldo and Carmen could be anywhere in the world for all I care, but I did just come back from the dealer and found out where my Jeep is.  (It’s been 5 days since I last checked, that means officially I’m not obsessed, right?)

It’s on the rail car in Green River, Wyoming.  The original delivery date was the 24th, but now they have it in my hands on the 20th of this month.  Wheeeee!

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It’s on it’s way!

The new Jeep is completed, inspected and on the train for delivery.  Yea!

I went to my insurance agent today to see how high my rates are going to skyrocket with the new Jeep.  A whopping $100.  Every 6 months that is.  That works out to less than $17 a month extra.  Score!

Then I went down to the dealership to see if they had an estimated date of arrival.  They looked it up and printed out this status.

2 weeks.  I still have to wait 2 weeks.

Oy, it’s gonna be a long 2 weeks…

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Finally, some progression.

On Thursday, February 13th I got the notification that my new Jeep was scheduled for production.

Yesterday (Mar 6) finally showed me some progression.  In one day the car went from “scheduled” to having the frame done,

and the painting started.

From what I’ve heard, this is the short end of the process.  the vehicle takes just a couple days to finish, and then they just have to get it here.  That could take a week or two still, but that still will be a lot less than just getting it started.

View progression HERE.

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It’s Official.

“Your new vehicle is scheduled for production. Track it on the VOTS!”

That was the title of the email I got today.  I clicked on the link which led me to this page:

Yup, somewhere out there are the parts in stock that will become my Jeep.  Yeah, I’m not the slightest bit excited, eh?

Yeah, right.  I did find out that my new Jeep is being built in the same plant in Toledo that produced the Jeeps during WWII.

I also got some comparison data between the Jeep I have and the new one.  The new one has a longer wheelbase even though it’s shorter than the old one.  It’s also a little bit wider but shorter than the old one.

	2000	2014	Difference
Wheelbase	93.4”	95.4”	+2”
Length	155.4”	152.8”	-2.6”
Width	68.3”	73.7”	+5.4”
Height	71.1”	70.9”	-0.2”

 

The waiting is killing me, I’ve never been particularly patient when it comes to vehicles.

 

Dream come true.

I bought a 2014 Jeep Wrangler today.  Well, actually I bought the idea of a 2014 Wrangler today.

I’ve always thought it would be cool to go into a dealership and order a custom-made vehicle.  Have it built specifically for me.

Last Saturday I went to go test drive a new Wrangler, to see if I wanted to get a new one, and I fell in love with the 6-speed manual transmission and the 3-piece hard top that lets you pull off just the part over the front seats, much like the T-tops of the 70’s.

The one we test drove went for $32,000, which ended being out of my payment range.  Without pushing me to go for the vehicle out of my price range, Trevor said he’s look into low mileage used ones, and even see if he could price a build my own that fit into my range,  I told him my requirements (6-speed manual, 3-piece hardtop, 2-door, air conditioning and posi-traction rear end) and he went to work.

He called today and told me that he priced one that would fit my budget, only problem was that it doesn’t have posi-traction.  To get that I’d have to go up a trim level and add a few thousand dollars. 

I went down, talked to him and decided that I could live without the posi-traction.  4 out of 5 ain’t bad.  So all I had to do was pick the color (you guess which color I picked) and sign a ton of papers.

In 6 weeks to 2 months, I’ll be driving a brand new 2014 Jeep Wrangler.  But right now my Jeep is just a bunch of parts hanging out somewhere in Detroit (or wherever they build them) and it doesn’t even have a color.