Can I rant for a few minutes? Yes? Thank you. Forgive me. Time for you to move on now if a concentrated dose of light-hearted negativity bothers you.
I’m not ashamed to say that my 392 is the most expensive vehicle I’ve ever owned. I love it and drive it daily. I’m so proud of it, and love showing it off to anyone who will listen. However, what I don’t love is the fact that I live in a touristy Florida town full of snowbirds half the year (not slamming snowbirds personally because I moved down from up north myself. So please don’t take this personally.)
But traffic right now is insanely heavy. The license plates turned colors four months ago (meaning the snowbirds arrived) and they won’t leave until the end of April. Normally this is just a seasonal annoyance to me, no huge deal. But now with my $80k+ Wrangler 392, and it being only a few months old, I absolutely dread driving in heavy traffic for fear of a fender bender or worse. I’m constantly in fear of someone crashing into me. Do you experience this feeling?
Yes, you sit up higher in this Jeep. You can see things around you better. Things like idiots hugging your rear bumper, and cutting in front of you becuase God forbid you have any space between you and the car in front of you. Nope, can’t have that. Then the parking lots. Our town has one of the highest concentrations of elderly retirees in Florida. My local grocery store parking lot is one of the most dangerous in the county. People frequently drive the wrong way up the one-way parking aisle. I try to park my 392 way out in the outer fringes of the lot, away from folks, but no. Some geezer in a 20 year old scratched up Honda found me in the boonies and has to park right slap next to me. I waited until he went in the store and I moved.
People in our neighborhood are constantly watering their lawns. Most have in-ground sprinkler systems. So what’s the issue with this? They use well water to do it. Our south Florida well water is very brackish and full of iron. It’s very, very “hard” water. Anything it touches turns orange over time. You can drive anywhere, look at house, and see the spots where the sprinklers hit repeatedly because of the orange stains. My last car, a Honda Pilot, sat in my driveway and got sprayed with sprinkler water frequently. It almost permanently damaged the paint and wheels.
Now my nice clean $80k white Jeep stays in the garage. But I play a game called “avoid the toxic sprinklers” every day coming home from work. Because retiree “Frank” doesn’t care that his sprinklers are watering the street as much as his lawn. A few times I lost the game and had to rinse off my Jeep when I got home becuase it got covered in well water.
Anyway, bottom line is that I love my 392, drive it every day, but I have a heightened sense of fear of people bonking into me in heavy traffic like I’ve never had with any previous car I owned. This model Jeep will become irreplaceable sooner than we think as well. A couple years from now I won’t be able to just go out and buy another one if mine gets damaged since they’ll probably discontinue the 392.
Rant over, no harm intended and I’m just curious if others feel a heightened sense of getting bonked in your 392.
I’m not ashamed to say that my 392 is the most expensive vehicle I’ve ever owned. I love it and drive it daily. I’m so proud of it, and love showing it off to anyone who will listen. However, what I don’t love is the fact that I live in a touristy Florida town full of snowbirds half the year (not slamming snowbirds personally because I moved down from up north myself. So please don’t take this personally.)
But traffic right now is insanely heavy. The license plates turned colors four months ago (meaning the snowbirds arrived) and they won’t leave until the end of April. Normally this is just a seasonal annoyance to me, no huge deal. But now with my $80k+ Wrangler 392, and it being only a few months old, I absolutely dread driving in heavy traffic for fear of a fender bender or worse. I’m constantly in fear of someone crashing into me. Do you experience this feeling?
Yes, you sit up higher in this Jeep. You can see things around you better. Things like idiots hugging your rear bumper, and cutting in front of you becuase God forbid you have any space between you and the car in front of you. Nope, can’t have that. Then the parking lots. Our town has one of the highest concentrations of elderly retirees in Florida. My local grocery store parking lot is one of the most dangerous in the county. People frequently drive the wrong way up the one-way parking aisle. I try to park my 392 way out in the outer fringes of the lot, away from folks, but no. Some geezer in a 20 year old scratched up Honda found me in the boonies and has to park right slap next to me. I waited until he went in the store and I moved.
People in our neighborhood are constantly watering their lawns. Most have in-ground sprinkler systems. So what’s the issue with this? They use well water to do it. Our south Florida well water is very brackish and full of iron. It’s very, very “hard” water. Anything it touches turns orange over time. You can drive anywhere, look at house, and see the spots where the sprinklers hit repeatedly because of the orange stains. My last car, a Honda Pilot, sat in my driveway and got sprayed with sprinkler water frequently. It almost permanently damaged the paint and wheels.
Now my nice clean $80k white Jeep stays in the garage. But I play a game called “avoid the toxic sprinklers” every day coming home from work. Because retiree “Frank” doesn’t care that his sprinklers are watering the street as much as his lawn. A few times I lost the game and had to rinse off my Jeep when I got home becuase it got covered in well water.
Anyway, bottom line is that I love my 392, drive it every day, but I have a heightened sense of fear of people bonking into me in heavy traffic like I’ve never had with any previous car I owned. This model Jeep will become irreplaceable sooner than we think as well. A couple years from now I won’t be able to just go out and buy another one if mine gets damaged since they’ll probably discontinue the 392.
Rant over, no harm intended and I’m just curious if others feel a heightened sense of getting bonked in your 392.
And the automobile inspection was worse. First my inspector took a screwdriver and poked holes in the rocker panels where he saw rust, then he made me put the car in reverse, accelerate to 25 MPH and slam on the brakes. 
