Made just for us

I have been meaning to post a couple of nice shots of our new set of wheels, yet updating my blog is on the bottom of my to do list with the summer projects in full swing. Traci and I are strong believers that manual transmission vehicles are for the elderly and disable, which is perhaps why the American youth are only capable of driving automatics. I'm not sure where I am going with that last sentence, however I do know that vehicles with manual transmission are becoming obsolete with each new year. Although our Civic was a great car, it only had two doors and placing Ben in the back seat is quite an adventure as he gets bigger. So our search began with the need for a four-door car. We enjoy driving manual transmission cars so that crossed out 85% percent of new vehicles and we also wanted an American made car so that didn't leave us with much choice. Our options came down to the following: Dodge Dart, Ford Fusion, Chevy Cruze, Jeep Patriot, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Compass, Cadillac CTS-V WAGON and a 3/4 ton Ram Truck. One neat advantage to a Patriot or Compass is the versatility of carrying our Yakima Skybox and ability to get more cargo area by folding the rear seats. Personally, we think the Patriot looks better than the Compass so the decision was made.

So why did we factory order a car from a dealership in Montana? Well, dealership order cars that they believe will sell and they much rather sell a car they already have than to order you a car. The guys at Yellowstone Country Motors are low hassle and they don't mind ordering a car if it's not on their lot. Of course Patriots are everywhere to found at dealerships however a 4x4 manual transmission are actually quite rare, believe it or not. Since the decision was made to order a car, why not just personalize it to our pocket books extent. The few upgrades include: 17 inch Aluminum rims, front and rear tow hooks, air conditioner, rubber floor mats, power windows and engine block heater for when we traverse the Yukon.