New Toy: Jeep Grand Cherokee

I like the outdoors and I like shiny toys and so in anticipation of moving to Colorado, I bought myself a shiny new toy to play in the outdoors: A 4×4 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland (insert happy noise here: eep!).

If you don’t think this is a sexy vehicle, you have poor taste and should stop reading my blog.

It comes with all sorts of bells and whistles including heated seats and steering wheel, remote start, nav, and back-up camera, but my favorite is the panoramic moon roof. I also think that the heated and reclining rear seats are going to make ski trips way more awesome for our visitors next year.

Denver has 300 sunny days a year- I need to be able to take advantage of them

It also has a really sweet terrain select system. Not only can you turn a dial to tune the vehicle for certain conditions, but it has a hydraulic lift to lower (aerodynamic for highways and easier loading) or raise (navigating rocks and ruts) the truck as needed.

This may come in handy on the mountains

One of my supervisors once told me the best part about growing up is that the toys gets better- Larry was right! 

UPDATE: This is one of my most-read posts so I wanted to provide an update. I’ve had the jeep for four months now and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in purchasing one. It handles well at high speeds and is comfortable for highway driving (I should know: we’ve already driven it cross-country and from Colorado to Montana). It’s smart design allows for a LOT of gear: we just got back from a two week road trip during which two adults, two large dogs, a skiboard bag, two 65 liter packs, two suitcases, two day bags, fly fishing gear, boots, and a random assortment of other things (bear bag, dog food, and shopping bags) fit comfortably. I am amazed at how versatile it is (it also fits a fully extended fly fishing rod, and popping my nephew’s carseat in for a trip to the pool was easy). In addition to road driving, we’ve also taken her off road several times now, including recently to a remote camp in Colorado. She handled the mud, rocks, ruts and debris with ease. During a busy summer 14er attempt the ability to raise the Jeep allowed us to park off-road where most vehicles couldn’t access. If you are looking for a city/commuter car, she’s a gem, and she can also handle weekend adventures. Once winter hits, I’ll let you know how she does in the snow. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section.

UPDATE 2 (11/21/2012): Our ski condo is at the top of a long, curvy hill that is slick as snot with any precipitation; last weekend we saw two ditched cars on that hill, at least one of which was totaled. The Jeep handled the snowy, curvy hill (ascent and descent) well and we were so thankful to be in a reliable 4×4.