And I need a new car. Yesterday. The old one is done-done-done. Bled out on the driveway, antifreeze and oil, transmission and wiper fluid stain the parking spot. Covered in 6 inches of snow, no sounds as I enter to raid the chocolates, the battery's dead, no Chinook will revive this corpse, the tires are flat, it's done.
I've set my heart on a jeep. 1988-1992, max. $2,000.
Lots of them out of town. Like Lacombe, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Edmonton...
The Catch-22 of you need a car to buy a car, and you need time, and I'm short on both...
I find others, an Isuzu Trooper, and as good as it looks I resist, foreign cars are a premium to fix. I don't need the expense.
Not so many Jeeps for sale in Calgary.
And in Calgary they command a premium, everyone in Bankview has one, they need them to climb the hill, 4X4 down 17th Ave to the Ship, everyone has a jeep. And there are surprisingly few for sale...or few, I should say, in my price range. I'm trying to keep it under a couple of G.
Most of the vendors on Kijiji, surprisingly, take days to respond to emails, if they do at all. Not to say that it's been sold, but they'll get back to you later...Jeep People are busy people. And phones/texts go unresponded to, and time passes, the necessity of a vehicle grows. Not a good position to make rational decisions from. Work, doubles, straight through, there's no time really to deal with this, but I have to, in the end I luck out (I think), before work on NY Eve I acquire a silver '97 Jeep Laredo. It's only fault is the automatic transmission, otherwise, mileage, body, motor, everything else is in good condition, my new vehicle for the next 2 or 3 years, to 500K at least...
The daughter, the son approves, me, it's more than I've spent on a vehicle in 30 years, it's cleanliness, order, maintenance was sabotaged the moment I bought it, but with the roof rack, the 4WD, if it can survive me it will do...