You may be puzzled by the title of this post, but for those of you that know me you know that that means that I no longer have my Jeep Wrangler. I loved my Jeep. And it is not just because Jeep’s are the coolest vehicles on the planet, but because this Jeep was special. I special ordered it. When it came in to the dealer on 22 May 2003, it looked so beautiful on the lot with the Jeep bike sitting on the bike rack. My dealer told me that he had several offers for it, but he would just point at the sticker on the window that said “Built especially for Todd D. Porter”.

The problem is that the Jeep got horrible gas mileage and with the price of gas about $3.50 a gallon, I couldn’t afford to keep it anymore. The MPG on the Jeep was about 17 city and 19 highway. So we decided that would look for a car that was better for family trips, better on gas, more environmentally friendly, and was American made. So we started searching and through much research we decided that we would get a hybrid. We ultimately decided to get a Toyota Prius. Yes, I know that it is not American made, but I decided that just like the Marine Corps has the motto of “God, Corps, Country”. I have a similar type motto, but mine is “God, Family, Country”. And I felt that the first two outweighed the last one. And the Prius would be the best option for my faith and my family. Being environmentally friendly and better economically is better for me and my faith, because I believe it helps me to be a better Christ-follower. Being better economically and a good sized family car is better for my family. And honestly being environmentally friendly and using less gas is better for our country. Sure it doesn’t provide more American jobs, but it does help us reduce our dependency on foreign oil and help the environment in our country. And I wish the Big 3 actually cared about these things like Toyota and Honda seem to care.

So we went to Victory Toyota of Canton, because they were having some great deals this weekend. And for those of you who have seen the commercials, yes, we did get to meet Rockin’ Rick Hodges. After finding out that there is a HUGE demand for hybrids right now and so they have been marked up and there are no deals, we decided to get a Toyota Camry instead (You can see the pic of it below). The gas mileage is good (24 city and 33 highway), it has low emissions, is a great family-sized car and it is made here in America. The deal on the Camry was great and Rick Hodges helped get us the great deal that we did get on the car. If anyone is in the Detroit area and in the market for a Toyota (or Scion, Honda, Nissan) I would highly recommend going to any of them. Great dealership to deal with and their sales people seem to be very well trained and highly knowledgeable.

While I am sad at losing my Jeep, I am happy with the new car for our family. Plus, Kimmy looks really hot driving it! Of course she always looks hot!