Those that know me know I love my Jeep, whichever it may be. It started with a former roomie of mine having one. A year after I moved in, I had one of my own, a ’95 Cherokee Sport. Several years later I traded that in for a ’00 model. I held on to that for 9 years, but when Jeep introduced the 4 door Wrangler, I knew it was only a matter of time and an ’09 was acquired.
I had always had plans to build up “a” Jeep. The 2nd cherokee had all sorts of grand plans for it but got nothing more than a 2″ lift (Thanks for the help on that Matt!) and slightly larger tires. Funds and discipline were in short supply so it never materialized.
When I got the Wrangler plans started anew. Lots of research (surprise!) went into making the “must have” list. Earlier this year I started stalking the online boards to see if I could score the specific parts I wanted for a bit less than retail, and I’ve had pretty good success with it.
About a month ago I was getting ready to pull the final trigger on the build. I had acquired the wheels I wanted at steep discount and my tires had nearly 50k miles on them and had to be changed. So do I buy the same size tires again, or do I do the upgrade like I planned? Well to do the larger tires I planned meant that I had to have the lift to fit them, was I ready to put down the money and time to do that?
As I was pondering this, another thought hit me: the 2012 Wranglers had some major changes, most noticeably a new engine and transmission that offered a 40% increase in horsepower, yet had better fuel economy. Plus stylistic changes that were pretty damn nice. As the 2012 model year was coming to a close I decided to poke around on line to see what was available and the prices they were going for….oops.
Some of you know that I went through this a year ago. When the 2012 was introduced I was very tempted. I found one that I mostly liked and was days into negotiations with the dealer, but ultimately decided against buying at that time for a number of reasons. But then went on my way, quite content with my ’09.
Well, my ‘net searching found a Jeep that had every option I wish I could have had on my ’09, so I decided to take a look. As it happened it was in Provo, where I’m currently working, so it was easy. Too easy in fact, as they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and didn’t.
Waiting a year turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. While the exterior color I ended up with was #2 on the list (the one last year was my preference), the interior color and options were everything I wanted and the money saved was SO worth it. The short version is I paid significantly less than I would have last year, and got a significantly better equipped Jeep.
As I mentioned yesterday, the weekend was spent on a project with Angy: installing the lift on the new Jeep. It was by no means easy, but I learned a lot, which was the whole reason I wanted to do it. Near the end I was beginning to regret taking on the challenge ourselves, but a few days removed I’m so glad we did, there’s a certain personal satisfaction hat comes from doing something like that.
So…pictures:
Before… (not my actual Jeep but one just like it.)

…and after.