Rent a Wrangler

Excellent idea to do a long test drive before buying. I've driven many rental cars that I'd never buy after spending a few days with them. (and a very few that I really enjoyed.) As for renting a Wrangler in DC, good luck. Thrifty and a couple of others rent them in Moab. There are Jeep rentals in Hawaii.

hmmm, Could that be an excuse for a Hawaiian vacation?

Dean

That's a great idea you have. One of the biggest problems buying a new car is that the dealers often discourage test driving, and certainly don;t like extended ones, like overnight.

Quite a few of the rental agencies have Wranglers at tourist destinations. Call the major ones National 800 numbers and I'll bet one of them can direct you to a place near DC where you can get one for a few days.

I'm surprised to hear this because I've had just the opposite experience. I've had dealers tell me to take the car home, keep it overnight, and just bring it back the next day. They are usually so eager to sell a vehicle they will do almost anything within reason.

There's a place in Vegas that rents Wranglers, along with Ferraris, Corvettes and other exotics...

hee - that's funny about Hawaii - that's where our used 98 TJ came from back in 2000 - from a car rental in Hawaii

Paul

I have bought several of these rentals and they are just like the ones here...they are all automatics with full doors and cheap wheels... back in

93-95 the batches that I bought had nasty huge spiders living inside the Jeeps...but I hav'nt had this problem in any of the TJ's

-- Jarod Sprauer

281-807-JEEP (5337)

The overnight option is fairly common in small towns like I live in, but maybe in the "big city" dealers are more reluctant.

I don't think you'll find a rental company in the DC area with a Wrangler, or even a Jeep dealer that has a Wrangler to rent. Go over to Leesburg and see the boys at Dulles Jeep. They are great to deal with and have a hugh inventory. That's where mine come from. Check out their web site.

Tom T

Hey Bill,

Shockingly it was in great condition. I did a VIN search before buying and saw it was a rental. Thought to go check it out, it all looked good except for the mileage (40K). It's been trouble free (knock on wood) except for the usual stuff - plastic radiator, bad rotors at 55k...

As for cheap - I think I lucked out in the fact that the TJ is pretty sparse overall inside :)) Not too many options - vinyl seats, plastic inside etc.

Paul

I don't provide much input to this excellent newsgroup (3 or 4 inputs over the past 3 or 4 years), but when I see someone commenting on Dulles Jeep in Leesburg, I just have to jump in.

I bought my 1995 GC there (new) and had an excellent experience. But it went downhill ever since. Tried to go back every 2 - 3 years to replace my "other" vehicles with a Wrangler and never got anything but runaround. "We'll call you," "we'll be in touch," "when one comes in with those options, we'll let you know." In addition to the indifference and outright apathy, there is also arrogance. And to top if all off, the service is terrible, too. Just brought my GC in for 90,000 mile service. That's a major service that supposedly "checks everything." It should, because I specifically asked them to make sure that old Grand Cherokee is still "offroad ready." They said that was part of the 90K checkup anyway. A few months later I brought it to my local mechanic for a simple oil change. This is a guy I've been working with for years and he's excellent. I asked if he could also find the source of a low squealing sound, which he did and showed it to me while it was still on the vehicle. Fan belt. He believes it was still the original, but at any rate it was OLD and thread-bare. If the Jeep dealership should have done ANYthing at 90K, it should at least be check and replace all belts (that's what the owner's manual says will happen at 90K).

It's no wonder Dulles Jeep has a huge inventory -- everyone I know in the Loudoun County area won't go near the place. They USED to be great, perhaps 10 years ago. But they have definitely fallen into a decline over the years and don't seem to care about it. If they were still as good as they used to be, they would have sold me three more new vehicles since I first bought that GC. And they wouldn't have lost their 5-Star Rating.

Not ranting; just trying to add something informative to the group.

Steve

Tom T wrote:

That's how I got my Jeep - I test drove it on a Saturday afternoon, said that I wasn't quite sure, and the guy said "Tell you what, take it for a longer test drive - have it back tonight before 6, or Monday before 9, and see what you think."

48 hours and 400 miles later, I bought my TJ. ::grin::

Tirya

-- TDC Inca Jeeper A girl and her Jeep... it's a beautiful thing...

destinations.