Sounds like a familiar scenario but Im sure your outcome will be much better than mine.
Anyway I see youre a Jeep owner. I must admit it's one vehicle I've not driven. In my opinion they will replace the corner of the market where Land Rover Defenders will leave a hole. I love mine to bits
Hi Keith, thanks very much for the lovely note. Today went well.
I love my jeep to bits too but I am saddened that there are fewer and fewer models of jeep-like vehicles being made. Concerns about fuel economy, at least here in the U.S. is driving(no pun intended!
)/forcing some manufacturers to make more fuel efficient, lower-to-the-ground, less offroad-worthy vehicles. Internationally, the FJ Cruiser, Land Rover Defender and Nissan Xterra all ceased production within the last few years. Ford is supposed to be re-introducing the Bronco as it sees an opportunity to compete with the Jeep Wrangler. I would have loved to have bought a Land Rover Defender but here in the USA, they are mightily expensive and rare as they were only imported for four years, in 93, 95, 96 and 97. I think that the reason for its import demise here was a lack of
airbags.
Many years ago, whilst I was still living in Ireland, I worked as a gamekeeper on a country estate for a couple of summers and got a chance to drive an old ex-army defender. It would go anywhere and was very offroad capable. Internally, you could really load it up with cargo too and it could take a beating. I loved it!
Sadly though, Ireland is a very expensive country to live in and owning a large-engined car is
heavily taxed. That is why I could only ever afford to drive sub-one liter engined vehicles, that is until I arrived here in the U.S. If I owned my Jeep Wrangler with its 3.6 Liter engine in heavily-taxed Ireland, I would have to annually pay about 1800 euros (equivalent to 1930 US Dollars or 1500 British Pounds) in road tax alone, which does not include expensive car insurance or petrol costs.