What Can Follow The Green Machine?
I mentioned in a Mile Marker a while back that even though the Green Machine is doing well now, we have begun to consider what comes next. We have been asking ourselves a question and hearing the same question from others.
What in the world can you buy to follow the Green Machine?
Our little 2006 Envy Green Scion xB has become part of the Boggs Family, almost as much as the BoggsMobile. We are known for the Green Machine and the Green Machine is known for us. Where you see one, you see the other. Like Abbot and Costello, Lum and Abner, Fiber McGee and Molly and Lenny and Squiggy.🤣
This is the week we purchased it. (Without gold rims)
We are very thankful that the Green Machine has lasted as long as it has. We purchased it in May of 2012 and it has bounced along behind the bus for 8 1/2 years and is still bouncing relatively strong.
However, the Green Machine is not built with the same purpose in mind as the BoggsMobile or to the same standards. It was a whole lot less expensive when new and not engineered to run two or three million miles. It is possible that it is nearing the end of its run as our main car on the road.
Honestly, we would prefer to retire it to home pastures rather than for it to die on the road and be left behind to face an uncertain end alone. We came very near to leaving The Green Machine behind when the transmission went out in California last year. We invested a little in the California economy and the Green Machine still lives.
Toyota no longer has the Scion brand and the xB has not been made since 2015. The second generation xB was not as attractive to us as the Green Machine anyway. However, they were more solid cars in general and we are open to another xB in the 2013-2015 range.
IF we could find a 2006 xB (The only year with Envy Green) in good shape, very low miles and manual transmission, we would definitely look closely. There were only 2200 green ones manufactured and only a few hundred of them had a manual transmission.
What in the world can replace it? KJo would be real quick to speak up and say that a new Jeep Gladiator pickup or Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler or the newly unveiled Ford Bronco would fit the bill very nicely.
I would make note that each of those choices would be towable four wheels down in their four wheel drive versions. For that and for many other reasons, they would fit the bill. However, I am more concerned about the bill fitting us!😊
For several reasons, for many years we have avoided financing cars. We would rather pay cash for something less nice than new and enjoy the freedom that being car payment free gives us. It is amazing how liberating it is not to have a car payment.
I am not saying we will NEVER finance a car, but we do our best to avoid it. That is why a beautiful Jeep Gladiator is not in contention this time even though what KJo wants is very important to me.
I have rambled on long enough for one day. I will get into the nitty gritty of what it takes to replace The Green Machine in a later post. (Maybe Thursday IF something does not preempt me.) Thank you for stopping by today.
Davy
