Santa's Gotta New Sled?

Correction, Grenville's got a nearly new sleigh SUV ride.

Newer 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee

While Santa didn't bring it, Grenville has a Jeep Grand Cherokee (above) in the perfect seasonal color. The manufacturer lists the color as red, to us it's more like burgundy. 

While we'd considered getting a vehicle to replace one of our older Jeeps (14 and 17 years old respectively), we weren't planning to do so before year end. As you can tell by the age of our cars, we keep them longer than most and perform regular maintenance to do that. Aside from being broken in older, both had both passed 2021 state inspections with no mechanical issues. 

The downside, of course, is that as older vehicles, both lacked newer safety features which was  a concern to some younger family members. It's no surprise that we enjoy road trips and longer ones are coming up this month and in early 2022 having a newer and safer vehicle is admittedly more reassuring now.

Older 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee

So what happened to hurry up buy now decision ?

Last week, the driver's side window on the 2004 Grand Cherokee (above) wouldn't go up. After opening and closing slamming the door and uttering a few appropriate words (insert your own choices) the window went up, but wouldn't go down again. We use an electronic pass to access  underground parking at the mill apts, so not being able to lower the window was somewhat inconvenient a real pain. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time this failure has happened, previous repairs had corrected similar issues. It seems that while the car's engine was still functioning, some of its parts were aging faster than others.

As we planned to postpone buying a car, Grenville booked a service appointment at the local Jeep dealership. The bad news was no available spots for well over a week, so he decided to search their online used vehicles inventory, found one, and booked a test drive for last Friday. As anyone looking to purchase a car knows firsthand, it's a process of finding one, then negotiating haggling for the best price. Earlier, we'd decided that a replacement would not be new, but a newer model with low mileage. Despite media reports of shortages, they can be found.

This one ticked off all our decision boxes perfectly. Grenville's newer ride 2019 Grand Cherokee was in great condition with under 21,000 miles. The downside of a newer vehicle is so many bells and whistles compared to the previous model. Even Santa would have quite a time mastering all the available options. 

This SUV will get a long test drive soon as we are heading out on a pre-Christmas road trip to visit family  in 3 states (PA, NJ, RI). If repairs to the 2004 Jeep could not be completed, the backup plan was to use my 2007 Jeep Liberty for the trip. The downside is that it's smaller and we are transporting luggage and packages. Now, we have more than enough room.

Yes, we donned holiday colors and hats when picking up the car this weekend.

The older Jeep was traded in "as is" and the window was still non-functioning when it was dropped off. It was a trade-in and the dealership was made aware of its issues.