Manly Gator Jeep

Monte got a new car.

This was not an impulse buy.

Are cars ever impulse buys for people

 other than Jerry Seinfeld or Jay Leno?

No, Monte has researched and researched and RESEARCHED a safer vehicle for his frequent business trips.

But he didn’t want a “company car” looking vehicle.

He wanted a smallish SUV that was manly.

That was a tough find. 

It took him almost a year of research and asking questions of people in the know.

Smallish SUVs are aplenty, especially if you are a 16-year-old who just got their license

and a girl.

It seemed as if every SUV Monte found somewhat acceptable was driven by every woman in our community.

Women.

Or girls.

Not men.

So Monte went on a year long journey of finding a manly car that wasn’t:

1) a truck 

(terrible gas mileage)

2) a doorless, roofless Jeep 

(terrible safety rating)

3) a Porsche 

(terrible price and let’s be honest here,
terrible image)

Although he went through a 2-week phase of entertaining the 

ABSOLUTE FANTASY of owning the Porsche SUV.

Every other night Monte would show me a picture online of a vehicle and ask if I liked it even though we both knew it didn’t matter as soon as we’d see a lady friend zoom down the road driving it a few days later.

It became a real “thing” for him.

A testosterone thing.

I get it. He’s the only male in the sea of estrogen we call our family.

Just this week a new shipment of 

sparkly headbands came in the mail.

Monte deserves a manly car.

While I was picking out paint colors and light fixtures for the house, Monte was reading consumer reviews on ALL THE VEHICLES ever made in the last year.

He emailed me last week that he thought he’d FINALLY found what he was looking for. 

The very next day we walked into a dealership to meet with a super friendly guy named Kevin who Monte had emailed A LOT of questions in a short amount of time about a vehicle called the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.

I think Monte found his manly car.

I told him if this was animated in the movie “Cars”
it would be the villain.
He liked that.
He liked that a lot.

He said the headlights sold him.

They reminded him of alligator eyes.

Get this:  the color is called a very unmanly “Mango Tango”.

This thing can tow 4500 pounds.

I can not imagine a scenario where we’d need to.

People of Jeep:  Don’t name the color of a car that can off-road and tow 4500 pounds “Mango Tango”. 

It’s confusing.

I overheard Monte tell someone it was “Burnt Orange”.

Not sure any points were added to his 

Man Card for that one either.

So we’ve settled on telling people it's Florida Gator orange.

But let me back up…

The plan was for me to test drive the vehicle with Monte and if he liked it, leave him at the dealership to fill out all the paperwork and do what he likes to do best:  negotiate way beyond my comfort level.

Monte absolutely loved the car and before I could get away,

he asked for an even cheaper deal and for “something thrown in”.

Kevin said he could throw in a hat.

I left before that choice was made.

I got this picture later.

“I’m sorry, Kevin, I asked for the hat with Jeep in
big letters.”
Not sure why Monte has the crazy eyes.
Maybe it’s all the testosterone.

It’s so different yet so perfectly Monte.

Every time I see it in the driveway, I think we have company.

I’ve been getting calls from friends telling me where they have seen Monte driving. 

I guess when your husband drives a “Mango Tango” colored car, he can not drive anywhere unnoticed.

That is a good thing.

And we’ve seen nary a woman driving one.

And that is a very good thing.