{"id":2000,"date":"2012-11-13T08:05:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T14:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=2000"},"modified":"2012-11-13T08:05:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T14:05:47","slug":"the-freight-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=2000","title":{"rendered":"The Freight Train"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s what I got. And yes, it’s got baby seal skin seats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2002 Ford Excursion Limited Ultimate. I went with a V10 instead of a diesel, because for the extra $7-10,000 a diesel was going to cost me, I decided I’d just buy a commuter car.<\/p>\n

This one gets 15mpg on the highway, 12 in town. I filled it up when it had 1\/4 tank, and it cost me $110.<\/p>\n

I have no practical use for it. I’m not towing anything, and don’t plan to. We’re not going to end up with a basketball-team’s worth of kids. I got because I wanted it<\/i>, with a side of “Screw you, hippie.”<\/a>*<\/p>\n

In 2006, I was waiting outside a canoe-rental place for some friends of mine, and a black diesel Excursion with a really big lift and some ginormous tires roared by. I made up my mind that one day I would have one. I did the same thing in 2001 with a Full-Size Bronco…saw one at a gas station, decided I wanted one, and a couple years later I bought one.<\/p>\n

Driving this thing reminds me of that Bronco. It’s a big, lumbering, mobile fuel tank that’s fun to own. That it’s practically a luxury car on the inside is just a huge bonus.<\/p>\n

It’s also the first car I’ve owned that was made after Clinton was President.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago I decided that the Jeep was getting to the point where I needed to start looking at my next vehicle. If you’ve read “How to buy a cheap car”<\/a>, you know my process is to start with a budget and then figure out what you get. After that I got on some forums and asked about the various engines and model years, and learned that the V10 was going to be my best bet. I also wanted captain’s chairs in the second row instead of the bench, because Tactical Dog will jump over bench seats like they’re hurdles. Repeatedly. Enthusiastically. In a 2003 or later, swapping them out is fairly straightforward but the chairs are expensive. Before 2003, there’s some cutting and welding required.<\/p>\n

I stopped looking at them when I started getting excited about buying one. I wasn’t ready yet, and there was no need to get worked up about a good deal on something that was close to what I wanted when I wasn’t planning on buying one for 6-9 months.<\/p>\n

Then, a couple weeks ago, I left for work and by the time I got to the end of my 40 foot driveway I had smoke coming from the dashboard of my Jeep. Long story short, there’s a wiring short somewhere behind the dash and I can’t have any dash illumination. So I can’t see my gauges at night. This kind of problem is very difficult to hunt down (read: expensive), so after lots of reflection we decided it was time for me to go ahead and buy an Excursion.<\/p>\n

Original sticker price was just north of $50,000. I paid less than 20% of that, in cash. It’s the nicest car I’ve ever owned.<\/p>\n

*No, I’m not calling Tam a hippie. Read the post. You’ll get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what I got. And yes, it’s got baby seal skin seats. 2002 Ford Excursion Limited Ultimate. I went with a V10 instead of a diesel, because for the extra $7-10,000 a diesel was going to cost me, I decided I’d just buy a commuter car. This one gets 15mpg on the highway, 12 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-debt-free-living","category-disaster-preparedness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}