Topic: How long would you keep your jeep?

[SDWE61988]

I think I might be coming to a crossroad here.  I have had my jeep for 5.5 years now and done a ton of work to it.  Now I have the early stages of body rust on the fenders and a few other spots.  I got this jeep with 162XXX miles, and in pretty poor shape with the exception of the body and frame.  I replaced most of the interior, fixed most of the instruments, replaced the tranmission, engine, and recently suspension, and tons of other parts and add ons.  I bought a soft top, doors etc.  I spent more hours then I can count doing most of the work.  I guess my question is to you guys, do you ever get to a point where it is no longer worth working on it, upgrading it, or restoring it?  Overall the jeep is in pretty good shape.  The body, frame, axles etc have 258XXX miles on them now.  I unfortunatly have only gone four wheeling with it twice since I have owned it, and spend most of the time in it, driving 80+ miles a day commuting.  As much as I love to drive it, and work on it, I am re-evaluating if it is really the right vehicle right now for this point in my life.  I know if I do sell it tomorrow I will never get what I have sank into it moneywise, but at some point I got to say enough is enough with it.  I cannot really justify a new or newer jeep (or afford one) even with my current commuting schedule.  My location, ( near DC) offers very few opportunities to four wheel, (unless you travel 2-4 hours to a park) Has anyone else here been at a similar crossroads?  At what point would you move on from your rig?

[neale_rs]

For a long drive commute and almost no off-roading, I would go ahead and sell it for the fuel cost savings.  In my case, with a short commute and occasional off-roading, I plan to keep it as long as possible and not build up any other Jeep, the cost is just too high to do it again.

[Jeffy]

Well, I've had my Jeep for 19, going on 20 years now.  I hated it when I was commuting 80 miles a day 6 days a week.  Gas mileage was OK when there wasn't traffic of some kind.  I was getting 18MPG with all the stuff on my Jeep.  In recent years though, I've changed changed direction a bit and made the Jeep a bit more street friendly.  Skinny 33's instead of 35's really helped with the mileage/range.  Like you said, you're going to take a big hit if you sell the Jeep.  Any fuel saving are going to be lost on the cost difference between your Jeep and if you plan on getting a new car.  Insurance and registration are going to be much higher.

Have you thought about public transportation or getting a dedicated commuter car?  How about a bike?  How about driving the Charger?  If you have the room, I'd just keep the Jeep.  They're cheap to own and it's nice having a second car even if you're not wheeling it.

[neale_rs]

Assuming you will not be doing any more off-roading, the big hit is not relevant, except psychologically.  Its what is called a sunk cost, the objective is to spend less from now and into the future.  The relevant cash flows are:

Inflow from selling Jeep, Outflow from buying another car, new fuel savings as inflows, new insurance and registration extra expenses as outflows.  You might also include the change in maintenance expenses as either a savings (inflow) or as an extra cost (outflow), depending on whether or not these cost will be less or more with the new car.  You can then add up all these cash flows over a planning horizon (maybe the next five or ten years) to see if it comes out positive (sell the Jeep) or negative (keep the Jeep).  Resale value (or even multiple sales and purchases) of the new car might also be considered it's within you planning horizon.


However, if you plan to do any off-roading in the future, then the analysis would be different since it might involve buying another Jeep in the future.  This would have to be included as another outflow.

[grumpygy]

Got mine in early 95 no thoughts of selling.  But then my rust is really small and that part is easy to change.  The front window.

[chardrc]

as was said if your not doing offroading selling the jeep is unfortunately probably the best solution.

if you could manage to keep the jeep as a second vehicle for weekend driving and the occasional off road trip and your budget affords a commuter vehicle thats would be what i would suggest.  body rust sucks and its something that has come up on my jeep to an extent which is part of the reason mine doesn't see the light of day in the winter so that it doesn't get salted which has stopped new growth of new cancer....

In an ideal world i will never sell my jeep( but a tj Rubicon is temping), with what i do and what ive grown up doing i couldn't see myself without a jeep for an extended period of time.

[Utwrangler25]

   How long would you keep your JEEP?  I guess it depends on how much you love it.  For me and my Mrs. our jeep will never see another owner or the likes of a junk yard.  I bought mine about a year before I met my Wife took her out on our first date in it. It's a part of our family.  Even when the motor blew and I was out of work and had to sell everything including my house.   I never once thought of selling my JEEP.  You never would get rid of your parents cause they're getting old and rusty and have issues.     And always remember "JEEPS WON WARS hondas mow lawns"

[grumpygy]

JEEPS WON WARS hondas mow lawns"

I'm going to use that have aHonda Lover at work and his is a big piece of junk.

[N8whitie]

I think if you use your rig as a commuter it's going to be more of a reliablilty issue and that can end up either saving you or costing you a fortune depending how you look at it because if you end up being consistently late to work because of car trouble you might not have a job for very much longer resulting in a significant cost to you. This is what was going to start happening to me so we leased my wife a new Mini Cooper for ($200/mo), I took her old car (free)and the Jeep is now just a weekend/camping rig as soon as I get the time to finish building it up so it is in fact trail worthy( a million billion dollars). I have never been late to work due to car trouble.... or ever for that matter. So in my opinion it is well worth it to get a commuter car and if you don't want to get rid of the Jeep then just keep it for Camping, hunting, crwaling etc....

 I also noticed that you lived near DC and there were no 4X4 areas near you... or within a few hours anyways. What did you do with it before?? Some people just like having a Jeep because it feels great to ride in it with the top off jamming some good tunes on a nice day... its a very liberating and free feeling, like any other car that people have just to have... but this is a Jeep and much cooler. People love Jeeps I always get looks when we're driving the Jeep.. like from the guy in his mini van with his wife that prays to god every night that she would let him buy one.. jealousy. Or the dipshit "bro" in his 20" lifted Chevy 1500 and $2,000 a piece rims with stars and bullet designs on them that can't go on any trails or really do anything for that matters except sit there.. and sometimes thats even hard because he can't park that giant eye sore anywhere. If you do love it for that reason and not neccesarily 4 wheeling then keep it and just work on it/upgrade it when you have the time or some extra scratch to spend. I've only had my Jeep for almost 3 years and I couldn't imagine selling it and letting somebody else have fun in it. Especially with all of the blood and sweat I've put into it so far... besides my wife would be heart broken if I did too.

[Higgs]

I'm telling you from experience, if you are on here asking if you should sell it then DO NOT do it. Well, as long as you don't have to.

My parents bought me a cheap little car when I was 16 so I could drive myself to school. About 2 years later I got a job and bought myself my first Jeep. LOVED IT. Didn't even do any serious off-roading but I took all the dirt roads cars couldn't make, but it was mainly just for driving. At that time we lived about 20 minutes to the nearest town and I was commuting 45 minutes to college every day. One day I got rear ended big time and my cheap little car was toast! So after that my Jeep became my daily driver. I had to fill up the Jeep every 2 days! I had to work my Taco Bell job full time and put my paycheck into my gas tank. Couldn't keep that up so I reluctantly sold my Jeep and bought a car. At the time I was content because of the financial relief I was feeling, but very soon after I realized I was heart broken. I hated seeing people driving by in their Jeeps and I new I would eventually buy one again.

So about 7 years later (about a year ago) I found a Jeep for sale and bought it and let me tell you what a relief it was to have a Jeep sitting in the driveway again.
For me, the feeling of selling my Jeep never went away. 7 years and I felt the same as when I did it. If you love your Jeep then you will be happier having it sit waiting for those times you just need to drive a Jeep.
While I'm in school, my Jeep sits there waiting for me. I commute in my little MR2 and drive my Jeep whenever I'm in town (and the occasion mountain at 1 or 2 in the morning when I have the itch).

If you've put that time into your Jeep then it's a part of you and you will feel when it's gone.

[Utwrangler25]

               You live in D.C. their snow storms last year made national headlines. You may not have wheelings areas but you sure get snow.  Sell your Jeep and get more of those storms and you will regret your decision.

[andpgud]

Didnt know that Wrangler had so many issues that you have to worry that it brakes down. I have not had any problems with mine.
I have thought about selling it, but truly I will not

[Jeffy]

Didnt know that Wrangler had so many issues that you have to worry that it brakes down. I have not had any problems with mine.
I have thought about selling it, but truly I will not

If you stay on top of the basic maintenance then it's not really a big deal.  Get behind or buy someone elses mess and it can get expensive.

[SDWE61988]

Thanks for all the replies.  Some very valid points were brought up.  Right now I already have a second vehicle, however it is not any better for commuting because of the gas and insurance on it.  The charger is a Daytona addition (limited production) , and is very fun to drive on it own merits.  One of the reason I have driven the jeep so much is to not put so much wear and tear on the charger.  The freedom factor of the jeep is a huge sticking point.   I will have to sit down and really look a what  the true cost will be on it.  I do have to look at the reality of always sinking money into a vehicle with 258xxx miles on it, and will have to draw a line somewhere.  The thing with most vehicles is once you encounter something major on them, or in a major accident they cannot be repaired.  With Jeeps you could conceivably keep rebuilding it forever or build one from the ground from a catalog(An expensive way to do it).  I guess I will have to do some soul searching on this one.  Thanks again for all the advice 

[Torch_Ind]

Take the money and do the TDI up grade for mpg`s