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June 25, 2006

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Due to ongoing complications with my right hip and knee, and increasing difficulties in getting in and out of my current vehicle, and the fact that my '92 Dodge Stealth has almost 165,000 miles on it, I finally decided to get a vehicle that's a little taller, and a little newer. At first I had noticed that it very easy getting in and out of my uncle's minivan and initially thought that would be a good option. But then I remembered a pact that I had made with two other friends, many years ago. We had all agreed that if any one of us bought a minivan, that the others would have to kill them, on the spot. So, rather than being shot by my own friends, I decided against the minivan and started looking into a SUV of some kind. But it couldn't just be any typical SUV, because, after all, I don't like big cars. So it had to be a small SUV. But then, downsizing from a 6 cylinder engine to a 4 might be a little hard to get use to. My search was not providing me with many options that I was fond of and I was just about to give up. But then I remembered the Isuzu VehiCross that I had seen years ago, when they came out. It totally grabbed my attention so I went to the dealer to check them out. But the price tag was pretty steep and all they seemed to have was yellow. So I decided to keep my blue car for a few more years. So last week, while searching through AutoTrader.com I decided to look for the VehiCross and actually found very few of them at all. But one was just right on the other side of town. So I called and checked into it and just this past Friday I bought it.

Now, a bit of information about this extremely cool vehicle: There is actually not that many of these in the United States as Isuzu only shipped us 4,309 of them from 1999-2001. This particular one here is a 2000 and was taken very good care of and is in perfect shape and just like new. It's an automatic, 4-wheel/all-wheel drive, and with it's 6 cylinder, 3.5 liter engine, seems actually faster than my Dodge Stealth. Leather seats that are the perfect height from the ground as I make a simple, lateral move right into the vehicle. And then there's even a small portion of the seat cushion that extends forward a bit and fits so nicely under my leg and supports my bad knee very well. The 6-CD changer has already spoiled me, and the sound system is really nice. The back seats fold and flip up to provide lots of space to carry things in the back.

I'm still at a toss up as to how to describe this thing. I mean, on one hand it's like a luxury jeep. But on the other, it's like a sports car on steroids. It's definitely different and seems to draw people's attention. I've already had several strangers come up to me and ask me about it.

Now, anybody want to buy a good used 1992 Dodge Stealth with a lot of miles?

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