Sunday February 1, 2004
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You may or may not remember that the Wife test drove a Jeep Liberty about ten weeks ago, with every intention of purchasing one. We had to drive to Pennsylvania to find a stick shift version (standard transmissions are a rapidly-vanishing breed). The one she drove was pretty-much equipped the way she wanted (except no ABS brakes). She liked it, but planned to make the actual purchase a little closer to home. But none of the places matched the deal that the dealer in Pennsylvania offered. Then Christmas happened, and the new vehicle purchase was put on hold.

It was left that she would probably have to special-order one the way she wanted it, which meant delivery in March. Her original plan was to have a new 4-wheel drive for the winter months, but that wasn't likely if she had to order it, so there was no rush to proceed.

Then she discovered that Jeep was offering a $2000 rebate AND 0% financing - that was several thousand dollars off the price she had gotten back in November. If she ordered one now, the offer would expire before delivery (deals apply on delivery, not on order). Through the magic of the Internet, she discovered that the Jeep she had driven at the dealer in Pennsylvania was still in their inventory. Every month that a vehicle stays in a dealer's inventory, it incurs a tax, and since this one had been around since July, and last week was the end of the month, the dealer was very interested in getting it outa there.

So after some over-the-phone renegotiating, the Wife managed to get them to install the larger tires she wanted at no additional cost (if they could feasibly have added the ABS brakes she woulda gotten them to do that too). She picked it up Friday night.

Guess what the Wife will be writing about next time :)