OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Well, we ran into a little issue with the Expedition. Got the new keys all made and put it on the hoist to get at the balljoints and the brakes were FUBAR from it sitting so long. At that point, with this looming additional expense, in addition to all the impending front end work and cooler lines I decided to pull the plug. I took it down to a buddy of mine's shop that used to work at Ford and figure he'll have a mechanic friend who doesn't mind pouring some hours into fixing it and the body to have a reliable winter driver that he can pick up for cheap. The powertrain is bulletproof, but it was at the point where it wanted more money than I was willing to part with to keep it on the road. Having it up and running with the new keys definitely made this much easier and guarantees I'll get more for it from an interested party.
So that left me in a bind. Find a new beater that I drive for the winter and end up in the same boat next year? I'm travelling too much for work to deal with that nonsense.
After seeing how nice the Durango was as a replacement for the Expedition and the wife's Charger, I was drawn in the same direction. The local dealer had a Grand Cherokee SRT that the VP had been driving for the summer and would still qualify as "new", despite having a few Km's on it. After some waffling, I traded the car, which I did well on, since I had such a discount on it from the original purchase, and picked this up to drive year round.
I'm sure some are scratching their heads at this point but it seemed having two vehicles that we can drive year-round was the reasonable decision to make, and this one can at least do double-duty as the fun toy when desired.
A few stock pics from the dealer:
Am picking it up tomorrow morning. Will be ordering 4x X-ice2's for it and some steelies for the winter. Should be a hoot in the snow.
Initial impressions:
- Interior is nary identical to the Durango. A few nicer bits here and there but not a big difference. Not surprising given they are the same platform
- Exhaust note is surprisingly loud. It is throaty as all heck, significantly louder than the car, but not obnoxious
- The 8spd is glorious with brisk firm shifts. The programming is quite aggressive compared to the Durango, which is expected.
- The gauge setup isn't quite as nice as the Charger, but not bad
- The shifter is the traditional type, which I prefer over the knob-style in the Durango
All-in-all, I'm excited to have a DD I can drive year round and will post up some better pics when I have a chance
So that left me in a bind. Find a new beater that I drive for the winter and end up in the same boat next year? I'm travelling too much for work to deal with that nonsense.
After seeing how nice the Durango was as a replacement for the Expedition and the wife's Charger, I was drawn in the same direction. The local dealer had a Grand Cherokee SRT that the VP had been driving for the summer and would still qualify as "new", despite having a few Km's on it. After some waffling, I traded the car, which I did well on, since I had such a discount on it from the original purchase, and picked this up to drive year round.
I'm sure some are scratching their heads at this point but it seemed having two vehicles that we can drive year-round was the reasonable decision to make, and this one can at least do double-duty as the fun toy when desired.
A few stock pics from the dealer:
Am picking it up tomorrow morning. Will be ordering 4x X-ice2's for it and some steelies for the winter. Should be a hoot in the snow.
Initial impressions:
- Interior is nary identical to the Durango. A few nicer bits here and there but not a big difference. Not surprising given they are the same platform
- Exhaust note is surprisingly loud. It is throaty as all heck, significantly louder than the car, but not obnoxious
- The 8spd is glorious with brisk firm shifts. The programming is quite aggressive compared to the Durango, which is expected.
- The gauge setup isn't quite as nice as the Charger, but not bad
- The shifter is the traditional type, which I prefer over the knob-style in the Durango
All-in-all, I'm excited to have a DD I can drive year round and will post up some better pics when I have a chance