Need to decide which vehicle to keep

[Dojo2000]

I have to chose between my 1996 Firebird and my late mother's 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4WD. Keep in mind I basically live in two different places. One is Fayetteville, NC - relatively flat, large city, lots of roads. The other is Boone, NC, where I go to school. Boone is in the middle of the Appalachian Mts - hilly to very mountainous depending on where you go, few roads, and it snows a lot during the winter. These places are about 200 miles apart (4 hours,) and so I have to do a lot of highway driving.

The Firebird is only worth about $3000 and I still owe $2000 one it. It doesn't have power accessories, but it is manual which is so much fun to drive. It gets great gas mileage (25 city/30 highway.) I had to take off my lowering springs to get around Boone. Getting around in the snow is actually pretty easy - just throw it in second and go real slow - so that doesn't really bother me.

The Jeep (inline 6) is worth around $4800 and is completely paid off. It has power locks/windows, which is great. It's an automatic, but it was part time 4WD which would help me through the snow and ice. The gas mileage is horrible, 16 MPG, and its not even as powerful as the Firebird. I towed a trailer down from MI and got 11 MPG, but Edmunds.com says highway fuel economy is 20 MPG. Of course it has much more room than the bird, too.

The bird is in my father's name, so if it's sold he'll probably keep the $1K that's left over after paying it off.
I'm thinking that if I sell the Jeep I could pay off the Firebird, and still have money left over to buy a good motorcycle.

I need to decide which one to keep soon. Please help me out guys.

[Merlin]

I would keep the bird. But what else would you expect by posting this in an fbody forum :D

[Justin Kirkham]

I would keep the bird, but I don't know how bad the winters are there.

-Justin

[Dojo2000]

Originally posted by Merlin:
I would keep the bird. But what else would you expect by posting this in an fbody forum :D

Ya ya, I know [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Originally posted by Justin Kirkham:
I would keep the bird, but I don't know how bad the winters are there.

http://booneweather.com/snowtotals.php
http://raysweather.com/photocontest.php

[Silv6]

sell the bird and with the money, get a tune up for the Jeep, maybe a K&N intake to also help with the milage. you will have less insurance also.

[Dojo2000]

Originally posted by Silv6:
sell the bird and with the money, get a tune up for the Jeep, maybe a K&N intake to also help with the milage. you will have less insurance also.

The bird is in my father's name, and he's been paying for it since I started college. If he sells it I won't get anything.

I think the Jeep has an exhaust leak (probably rusted,) and I just remembered that my mom's boyfriend told me that one of the engine mounts is cracked. There's a replacement engine mount sitting in my mom's dining room that I'll have to get installed.

An SUV would be ideal while I'm in Boone, but I don't think too highly of Chrysler products, even though my mom's boyfriend just retired from Chrylser. If this was a 4WD Blazer or something I would jump right on it.

[Silv6]

my stepdad's old jeep with inline 6 had 200K+ miles on it

[Everglades W68]

Keep the Firebird, duh.

[eXzodious]

From what I have experienced in the snow there really isn’t anything to worry about there’s plenty of weight when I had my Grand AM GT it was 100 times worse it didn’t weight anything and handled like crap in the snow even though it was front wheel drive.

Ever go off roading with a bird, there’s a first time for everything, snow bird perhaps? [img]graemlins/naughty.gif[/img]

[pontiac nino]

Dojo, out of curiosity why don't you just keep both? I would be really beneficial.

Laters

[eXzodious]

Jeep beater?

[Dojo2000]

I've never had too much trouble in the snow with the bird since I un-lowered it. You should see the idiots with FWD autos try to get around in 6 in. of snow.

Originally posted by pontiac nino:
Dojo, out of curiosity why don't you just keep both? I would be really beneficial.

The Jeep's title needs to be transfered over to somebody by August, when its registration expires. I don't have, and can't afford, my own insurance policy to insure it. The bird is in my dad's name, under his insurance, and he's been paying for it the past two years. If I keep the jeep and drive it he'll sell the bird out from under me. I have a sister, but I don't trust her enough to put the jeep in her name. I was going to try to keep it around by letting my girlfriend drive it during the non-winter months, but I still need to put it in someone's name. If I sell it I can probably pay off the bird and buy a motorcycle.

The Jeep isn't a beater. It is better condition than my bird. It has 128,000 miles on it, while my bird has about 137,000.

[Dojo2000]

Anymore votes before my post gets thrown to the second page? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[3.4 [deployed]]

If I sell it I can probably pay off the bird and buy a motorcycle.

There's your answer right there.

[eXzodious]

What you really need is a hovercraft.