Today's Best Car

1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.2L V8

We settled in to life in New Jersey. Molly got fat, Jessie sadly gave in to her fight with renal failure and Barney… well he was Barney.

Barney was the kind of dog who was happy wherever he was. From the day he came home to live with me he was happy. I’m not saying he wasn’t trouble and if you have ever read the book (or watched the movie) “Marley and Me” then you already have an insight into the kind of dog he was, but he was a happy dog. He loved to meet people, he bounced when he walked and was always smiling. As a puppy overall he had eaten the front panel from a car stereo (back when they were removable), a safety razor and a pop sock (that’s a knee high for the American reader). At dog training classes he was a complete and utter nightmare… Until the end of each session where he would show to the rest of the class that he could perfectly follow the instructions that I gave. He was the kind of dog that you could take to motor races and converts. I even took him to the Red Bank 4th of July Fireworks without any problem.

Saturday was the fourth anniversary of his death. I still miss him. He was special.

But I digress…

The Saab was a load of fun. It was pretty quick and handled okay, had great seats (yes Dad, you were right) and had a great stereo with tight bass which helped me rediscover how great Pink Floyd sound.

On one occasion I remember looking for new tyres. My research on tirerack.com led me to a great pair of Pirellis. The review said “Dry grip: 10, Wet grip:9” perfect I thought, a great tyre for all driving… Almost. Under snow it said – “park in a ditch and save yourself 10 minutes” and it snows in New Jersey.

So we needed a second car…

Test driving this time was a more leisurely affair. I drove a V8 Mustang Convertible, a Mitsubishi 3000GT and a Jeep Cherokee. The rumble of the Mustang around town was amazing, but the car felt old and heavy. The Mitsubishi was fast and tight but had no soul after the mustang. And neither could carry a dog or deal with snow. The Jeep was a lot of fun but didn’t feel big enough for four adults plus a dog. My eye was drawn to a Grand Cherokee next to it. They had several options; One had leather that looked like an 80s sofa, no thank you. The next was a Gold coloured V8. It was nice and smooth and had plenty of torque. The third was grey, had nice leather and was a V6 so was far more sensible… But after the V8 it felt slow. Why buy the ‘tiny’ underpowered 4.0 V6? I asked myself. So it had to be the V8 even if it was Gold… after about 6 hours and some hard negotiating the Jeep was purchased. I should add that the hard negotiating was a little accidental. I had informed the dealer that I could only afford a certain number and after an hour he had accepted that number – hooray I thought! but then he added sales tax, dealer charges, registration, etc. and I said I was sorry but had no idea that they were additional and my final price was what I could afford. I apologised again for wasting his time and said that I would have to leave. Having invested three hours at this point he didn’t want me to leave so negotiations continued. Another hour later he finally accepted that I wasn’t going to budge and sold it to me for my total budget. I think every employee in the building came and congratulated my on my deal and then I left.

Buying cars in the US is very different to the UK. It was a struggle but I went home that day with the car.

Barney liked it.