Who got you into Jeeps and why did it stick??

[Green_Gladiator]

1996 MANUAL 2dr w/NOT TOP .. Had just been returned by the police after being stolen from the front yard. My buddy asked me to pick it up and take it to him. Little did I know there was no steering colum, no top and had to be started with a screw driver .. Most fun I had ever had driving a vehicle at such a young age.

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[nas4a]

I had a grey Stomper Jeep like this one when I was 4 or 5 years old. It was my absolute favorite toy. That thing would ride over anything and I played with it for years. Got me to the point that all I ever wanted was a Wrangler.

My Dad promised me if I never got less than a "B" in high school he'd buy me one. I kept my end of the deal, and so did he. I got a '95 YJ my senior year of high school. Had it until I went to graduate school in 2007 when I sold it to buy a Land Rover LR2...That YJ is the only car I've ever sold that I regretted. I had a Porsche Cayman before we had kids. It was fun. After kids, I almost never drove it because I was always taking a kid somewhere and it wasn't car seat friendly, so I sold it last fall and ordered my JTSD to get back into the Jeep game. I love my Gladiator, my kids probably love it more than me though - and that's how it should be looking at how my love of Jeeps started.

 

[montechie]

Our LJR got us hooked, and a friend with smart advice. I had an '88 XJ and other 4x4s before, the XJ was a favorite, but wasn't really that much better than others, some advantages some disadvantages. In '05 my wife wanted a convertible and we live in Montana, so a TJ was the only choice and the LJ had just come out. A rockcrawler friend convinced us to get the newish Rubicon instead of a plain TJ/LJ, he claimed it was a great value. We bought the 2005 LJ Rubicon new for $23K.

After having driven many trucks and SUVs from the 70s-2000s, Toyota/Ford/Chevy SUVs, Cherokees, Grand Cherokees, nothing OEM came close to the experience of driving that LJR in the mountains. It opened up trails and adventures year-round. Snow, mud, rocks, shelf trails, tight trees, stupid slick clay, steep ass climbs/descents, it just goes. I'll say the Gladiator isn't quite the leap from other 4x4s as the LJR was, there's more options now for capable OEM offroaders, but the Gladiator still recaptured some of that "miles beyond" capable feeling for me from other 4x4s I've driven.

 

[LeChuck]

Got one of these in 1999. Stuck cause my step-dad took me to a spring break in Daytona one time in 2002? And the amount of lady parts I saw in jeeps all over the beach from pretty women. Hmm. It all made sense to my 9 year old brain.

I also started with a Power Wheels Jeep in the 80's. Remember sitting in it feeling like it was a real car. Pretending to work on it by opening the hood. Still remember those hood latches.

Fast forward to 3 years ago and we wanted something fun on vacation in CA. My wife was lukewarm on the Jeep rental initially, but after spending a week with it she "needed" one for our next vehicle. No arguments here - haha. Waiting not-so-patiently now for ours to be delivered.

Don't know why I didn't look at one earlier. I suppose being preoccupied with wanting something fast and sporty instead.

 

[BLK HOLE]

Rented a base wrangler in Mexico in 2007. Was infatuated with it.

Bought one a few years later. Still have it.

That little 2500 dollar trip to Mexico cost me 100s of 1000s of dollars, lol

 

[Lunentucker]

Jeeps are like redheads.
I know they're impractical, costly, and potentially dangerous, but I have always wanted to try one.

 

[Klutch]

I grew up in Orange County, California. My dad had a buddy who built an early 70s Jeep with a Chevrolet 350 and a four speed. It also had open headers and a roll cage. We went with him to Pismo Beach. He took my brother and me for a ride in that Jeep and it was an absolute BLAST! After blasting around the dunes for a while, we headed to an area where people raced up a really big dune. We raced a few times and absolutely blew away ever vehicle there.

This started my love of Jeeps, but I knew they weren't very practical for the street. I joined the Navy out of high school and got stationed in Southern Virginia. The only place to take a Jeep off road was cruising on the beach down in the Outer Banks. Again, not practical.

I bought my wife a new XJ in '97. She loved it. I bought myself an XJ in 2016. I really liked it, but it got destroyed in a hail storm. So I bought a JT. Love it!

 

[vmiaptetr]

Buddy of mine in the military had a CJ7 we would ride around in. His demons eventually got him when we got back home, but I feel like we're still riding together every time I hop in mine.

 

[Beach Buggy]

I grew up surfing and fishing on the beaches of Cape Cod. During one of my summer restaurant jobs, I was exposed to driving on the outer beach, which opened up an infinite number of uncrowded surf spots, and a much more relaxed way to enjoy the beach. Hauling surf fishing gear became much easier too. By the following summer, I had procured a rusty 1967 CJ-5 with big off-road tires for the princely sum of $400. A summer or two later I sold that one (keeping the nearly new tires) and bought a '73 CJ-5 that had been parked in a small shed for years, this time for $200. It came with a full metal body, a serviceable soft top and heavy duty suspension. That Jeep ran the beaches for another 6 or 7 years, when I finally purchased a brand new 1993 Jeep Wrangler, which I still own today. This spring, I bought a 2020 Gladiator Rubicon (Firecracker Red) to make those trips to the outer beach a little easier

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[Kevin_D]

The first Jeep was a ‘76 Wagoneer bought in ‘86. We needed a winter car, and it was the Wagoneer or a K10 Blazer. Since I couldn’t see myself owning a Chevy, we got the Jeep.
That thing would go anywhere except past a gas station. We drove it for 5 years until it started falling apart (literally: it grew up in the Rust Belt.)
The next one was a 1971 J4000 Gladiator I bought for my daughter for $200 in 2003. The points were dirty, and it didn’t start. I made the guy the offer, and he took it. His jaw dropped when I cleaned the points with a piece of paper and drove it away!
Unfortunately, my daughter wouldn’t drive it because the reach was too long for her, so I kept it. It’s still a project waiting to happen.
When I saw my first JT in 2019, I knew I had to have one. I got a 2021, so my Gladiators are 50 years apart.

Kevin

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

I’d say Tommy from the YouTube channel “TFL Offroad”. He sold me on the Gladiator which was also my first Jeep. I’ve said it many times on the forum, but it’s the best vehicle I’ve ever had.

 

[SpeedNeed]

The RAT PATROL a great reference Buzzhead! I had some great Jeep rides as a kid, but TV shows like that probably planted the bug even earlier.

Jeeps were stars on TV long before Mash, Jurassic Park, Daisy Duke, Terminator, whatever. There’s a thread on Jeeps in Movies on the Wrangler Forum, and several web sites. But before all those they were In older shows like Daktari, Flipper (that one a Gladiator pickup), and every WWII show.

The two Jeeps were the stars of Rat Patrol! Rat Patrol (1966-1968) was a (totally inaccurate) 30 minute action show about four guys (3Yanks, 1 British) in two Jeeps fighting half the German army in North Africa, blasting around the sand dunes with big Jeep- mounted machine guns.

There was a lot of strange production history to it: First WWII TV show in color, filmed mostly in Spain to use stuff the movies had left behind (Battle of the Bulge, The Great Escape). The Jeeps delayed production by breaking down all the time, they rolled over causing injuries (and the eventual death of one actor), the whole show was banned in the UK for a time as only the British actually fought the Germans in N. Africa. And more. It’s said that the popularity of this show led to the release of the classic GI Joe’s and their accessory Jeep.

If you run on the sand, or maybe just selected a Mojave, you should really check out a few episodes on YouTube or somewhere. Those Jeeps launching off of sand dunes with some poor guy desperately hanging off the back by the gun handles - classic!

 

[ricky0018]

Pops got me into Jeeps. Coming from an immigrant family, the Jeep was kinda a status symbol for us. At least that’s how I read it by the pride on his face every time he drove us around. He had a Cherokee chief, Cherokee, then a grand Cherokee before he moved on to Chevy.

Will it stick? Let’s just say that pride is still very much alive.

 

[MikeyK]

Always drove used vehicles since I was 16. The only new vehicle I ever purchased after 2 college degrees was a 1990 and then a 1995 GSXR-750.

Several people told me to be more practical ?

So I went looking with absolutely no idea or inclination as to what I wanted. Then I saw my brand new 1998 TJ!!!

It’s only gotten more expensive since then ?

 

[NachoRuby]

I always wanted one since I was a little kid. I don't know why. Then my buddy bought one when we were in high school (a used 97 TJ). About 10 years ago, he was looking to sell that TJ to pay for a new truck (no Gladiators yet back then, and brutes were crazy expensive). My wife (then girlfriend) needed a vehicle. It was meant to be. It was a 5 speed soft top, with no air, but served us well for a while. But eventually just too much rust. We went jeepless for about 5 years, when we traded it for a Compass (haha). Now we're back in the Jeep game with a JKU 75th and a JTR. I don't ever want to be jeepless again.

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