Went shopping yesterday - holy interest rates Batman

[TheDerb]

So... Was able to snag a 2.9% for 60 months at a Ford dealer. This went home with us today. Fully loaded Heritage Limited.

Back story: I only have vehicles with clutches and planned on getting a JTM in fall of last year. But I decided to hold off due to the dealer I was working with tried to pull a fast one and sitting tight until prices stabilized/came down.

I then torqued my knee and will have it cleaned out in a few weeks. Need something with an auto for a couple months. At the same time, her CrossTrek is approaching 200K miles and will eventually go 10-7 on us... and it's our road trip vehicle.

Biggest gripe so far: I just bought a brand new car in 2023 and it doesn't have wireless CarPlay.

I feel like the Bronco Sport is to a Bronco as the Renegade is to the Wrangler. I don’t see the point of why.

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[Sandevino]

So... Was able to snag a 2.9% for 60 months at a Ford dealer. This went home with us today. Fully loaded Heritage Limited.

Back story: I only have vehicles with clutches and planned on getting a JTM in fall of last year. But I decided to hold off due to the dealer I was working with tried to pull a fast one and sitting tight until prices stabilized/came down.

I then torqued my knee and will have it cleaned out in a few weeks. Need something with an auto for a couple months. At the same time, her CrossTrek is approaching 200K miles and will eventually go 10-7 on us... and it's our road trip vehicle.

Biggest gripe so far: I just bought a brand new car in 2023 and it doesn't have wireless CarPlay.

My daughter looked at those and we were close to pulling the trigger until the dealer waffled on the agreed price.

She ended up with choice #2 - a VW Taos which she absolutely loves.

 

[BourbonRunner]

I feel like the Bronco Sport is to a Bronco as the Renegade is to the Wrangler. I don’t see the point of why.

The BS is in the same price range, size, category as the Cherokee. The full size is a Wrangler competitor. (and maybe better. it definitely rides better on the road.)

The BS was never on the radar but after a horribly underwhelming Cherokee Trailhawk test drive, she said eff it, let's try it out. We tried a Badlands.

he Ford blew the Jeep out of the water. We had originally narrowed to the Trailhawk and the Outback Wilderness but the Heritage Limited retro style yellow was a big selling point for her more than me. Its growing on me.

Besides: She needed a vehicle that can do daily driving/commuting the DC Beltway but we can also take on the beach at Assateague and fire roads in WV as well as road trips. The little Bronco is more than capable. It ins't a hard core off roader but reviews and forums indicate its is very capable.

Regardless, I wanted to post more to let everyone know that there are some incredible rates out there, the 2.9% FoMoCredit gave me is a steal compared to my credit union at 5.99. I'm hoping this will help to drive down others to more reasonable rates.

 

[Hootbro]

So... Was able to snag a 2.9% for 60 months at a Ford dealer. This went home with us today. Fully loaded Heritage Limited.

Back story: I only have vehicles with clutches and planned on getting a JTM in fall of last year. But I decided to hold off due to the dealer I was working with tried to pull a fast one and sitting tight until prices stabilized/came down.

I then torqued my knee and will have it cleaned out in a few weeks. Need something with an auto for a couple months. At the same time, her CrossTrek is approaching 200K miles and will eventually go 10-7 on us... and it's our road trip vehicle.

Biggest gripe so far: I just bought a brand new car in 2023 and it doesn't have wireless CarPlay.

Looks good. I custom ordered and received last summer a Bronco Sport for my wife. Not bad for what it is and she seems happy with it.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Looks good. I custom ordered and received last summer a Bronco Sport for my wife. Not bad for what it is and she seems happy with it.

Nice. Have you played around in the dirt/sand with it? I think we may hit Assateague Island in late August for quick overnight and try it on the beach.

I did a last ditch effort to see if she would go for the full size 4D Bronco, too. Dealer we bought it from got a stock Big Bend. She liked driving it but it would suck on MPG, especially on 495 daily and the mini just does everything we need her car to do.

I still have my BMW. I just can't drive it much after July 27 for a bit.

 

[Hootbro]

Nice. Have you played around in the dirt/sand with it? I think we may hit Assateague Island in late August for quick overnight and try it on the beach.

Nothing off road. It has all season street tires as delivered. Bought for the wife who drives it 99% of the time and for the occasional snowy road for her 9 mile work commute. Did okay last winter but it was a mild one far as snow goes. The plan by her request is to get some better AT tires on it before next winter.

Early last year, she started to say she wanted a "Bronco" which I took for meaning the full size one. Those were on both production delays and when found, had ADM pricing out the wazoo. I kept asking her "which one?" as she had no clue between the full size and the sport Bronco. I actually had to drag her down to the dealership on a Sunday when they were closed and walk the lot with her and pointed out the full size and Sport Bronco. Luckily for my pocketbook, she wanted the Bronco Sport.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Nothing off road. It has all season street tires as delivered. Bought for the wife who drives it 99% of the time and for the occasional snowy road for her 9 mile work commute. Did okay last winter but it was a mild one far as snow goes. The plan by her request is to get some better AT tires on it before next winter.

Early last year, she started to say she wanted a "Bronco" which I took for meaning the full size one. Those were on both production delays and when found, had ADM pricing out the wazoo. I kept asking her "which one?" as she had no clue between the full size and the sport Bronco. I actually had to drag her down to the dealership on a Sunday when they were closed and walk the lot with her and pointed out the full size and Sport Bronco. Luckily for my pocketbook, she wanted the Bronco Sport.

Ours came with AT's, think they're Firestones. Shouldn't be awful in the sand. And I'm with you- I'm glad she was set on the less expensive Bronco. If it was up to me it would be an Outerbanks Advanced with some fun adds, but that's another $20K over where we wound up... And a God knows how long wait. A friend has a 4 door 7MT on order for going on a year now.

 

[Iowafarm]

That’s true, but in five years she would still be making payments. The GC will be paid off next year.

When she gets it paid off keep taking that same mount out of the account and start a car fund. Won't take to long and you can purchase a new car with cash.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

When she gets it paid off keep taking that same mount out of the account and start a car fund. Won't take to long and you can purchase a new car with cash.

By then the price will have doubled and they'd need twice as much to buy another.
The difference between my first JT, my second one, and then the JLU, ouch - up, up and away!

 

[Sandevino]

By then the price will have doubled and they'd need twice as much to buy another.
The difference between my first JT, my second one, and then the JLU, ouch - up, up and away!

By then she’ll want something different.

 

[TheDerb]

The BS is in the same price range, size, category as the Cherokee. The full size is a Wrangler competitor. (and maybe better. it definitely rides better on the road.)

I think the reason the Bronco Sport is objectively more suited for comparison against the Renegade is because the Cherokee model occupies its own space. It was the 4-door, unibody, smaller 4x4 that came about because of the late 70s energy crisis. And it was marketed completely separately from the CJ or YJ, and still is to this day. The difference in the 2 models is quite deliberate and always has been. This is the opposite of what Ford did with the Bronco Sport. Ford made a smaller, less capable unibody that would ride the wave of the Bronco name. Jeep made a smaller, less capable unibody that would ride the wave of the Renegade name (which is a pretty universally well known Wrangler trim level). So, when you look at it from that perspective, I think it’s a fair comparison.

 

[atrizzy]

Thus, the fed achieves its goal of slowing the economy.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Thus, the fed achieves its goal of slowing the economy.

Guess you didn't live through the Carter and Ford years (not blaming them, just throwing out the time period)
Act or implode (not referring to any recent events, either)

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Cherokee model occupies its own space. It was the 4-door, unibody, smaller 4x4 that came about because of the late 70s energy crisis.

More because of a struggling company trying to come up with something fresh. They'd been the kinds of unibody since the 1950s and had all of the technology and legwork done via the Eagle.
The XJ was 1984 - 4 years after the unibody Eagle. They had the drivetrain already nailed.
The XJ was 10 years after the "energy crisis" (the oil cartel embargo, etc.) That was early/mid 1970s with the war in the Middle-East. (I turned 18 in 1975 and recall those years well as gas was no longer 34 cents with 20 cent gas during a "gas war") So the oil embargo "energy crisis" was 10 years before the XJ, and the Eagle was 4 years before that - 1980.
The engineers at AMC had actually approached the board in the mid-1970s with the Eagle concept based on the the wildly popular Hornet platform. The board said sorry, no one would ever buy a 4 wheel drive car, it will never sell, especially then with the gas prices shooting up. the board was badly mistaken as when it was introduced, they were unable to keep up with demand (and Renault had done what Renault has always done and still does - raped them of all cash so the Eagle was the last hope, but too late)
The Cherokee/XJ version wasn't called a SUV or anything but a station wagon. Jeep didn't refer to it as an SUV and in actually took the place of a lot of cars.
The Eagle was blowing away production numbers. AMC had to run 3 shifts and still couldn't keep up with orders at first so the XJ was a logical platform. People bought them instead of cars.
The XJ was largely based on the Eagle in many ways and shared a lot of parts. In fact, the spare vacuum motors I have for the FAD and transfer case are actually Jeep parts but it's the same part in every way.
Ironically, VAM came up with the idea for the 4.0, AMC said no - but when faced with the need for a new engine, they took VAM's idea and did it with no credit.
So the XJ Cherokee came as a result of the Eagle (it's the son of Eagle) and the 4.0 is the result of Mexican engineers at VAM.

The Eagle was classified as a light duty truck, the Cherokee of the XJ platform was a station wagon.

 

[TheDerb]

More because of a struggling company trying to come up with something fresh. They'd been the kinds of unibody since the 1950s and had all of the technology and legwork done via the Eagle.
The XJ was 1984 - 4 years after the unibody Eagle. They had the drivetrain already nailed.
The XJ was 10 years after the "energy crisis" (the oil cartel embargo, etc.) That was early/mid 1970s with the war in the Middle-East. (I turned 18 in 1975 and recall those years well as gas was no longer 34 cents with 20 cent gas during a "gas war") So the oil embargo "energy crisis" was 10 years before the XJ, and the Eagle was 4 years before that - 1980.
The engineers at AMC had actually approached the board in the mid-1970s with the Eagle concept based on the the wildly popular Hornet platform. The board said sorry, no one would ever buy a 4 wheel drive car, it will never sell, especially then with the gas prices shooting up. the board was badly mistaken as when it was introduced, they were unable to keep up with demand (and Renault had done what Renault has always done and still does - raped them of all cash so the Eagle was the last hope, but too late)
The Cherokee/XJ version wasn't called a SUV or anything but a station wagon. Jeep didn't refer to it as an SUV and in actually took the place of a lot of cars.
The Eagle was blowing away production numbers. AMC had to run 3 shifts and still couldn't keep up with orders at first so the XJ was a logical platform. People bought them instead of cars.
The XJ was largely based on the Eagle in many ways and shared a lot of parts. In fact, the spare vacuum motors I have for the FAD and transfer case are actually Jeep parts but it's the same part in every way.
Ironically, VAM came up with the idea for the 4.0, AMC said no - but when faced with the need for a new engine, they took VAM's idea and did it with no credit.
So the XJ Cherokee came as a result of the Eagle (it's the son of Eagle) and the 4.0 is the result of Mexican engineers at VAM.

The Eagle was classified as a light duty truck, the Cherokee of the XJ platform was a station wagon.

I need to edit that: I was specifically talking about the XJ.

I know a lot of people hear different things, but I was at a convention- I can't remember which- several years ago where Dave Yegge, to answer an off-topic question, mentioned that the 1979 energy crisis was one of the driving factors for the XJ, and I'm pretty sure it was referred to as a Sport Utility Vehicle, at least retroactively, by Jeep.

The below link also confirms this. Not saying both things aren't true, just that in 45 years a lot of information may have been blended.
https://www.jeep.com/history/1980s.html

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