purchase of 1995 ford bronco

well I really went and did it this time! donna decided to sell her 1989 saab 900S that I had been driving for two years and I knew that I just had to have my own horse trailer.

calling it the "Daxaloosa-mobile" before I even bought it, I went searching for the perfect truck to pull my non-existent trailer (but the trailer I knew that I would soon have).

I spent about two weeks on-line researching and found that likely my best bet would be either a chevrolet suburban (out of my price range) or a dodge dakota pickup. I was set on the suburban-type vehicle though, so after test-driving what seemed like 10 dakotas, I stumbled upon my first ford bronco and knew that I had found the truck of my dreams.

once I got set on the bronco, I researched pricing and reliability. my favorite sites for finding the best price, best value were :

• microsoft carpoint - for getting the reliability studies and finding all of the gotchas
• autoByTel - for researching prices and finding dealers to visit
• world wide wheels - a mainly Illinois dealer listing with online photos of cars and trucks.

I called the dealer where we had done a test-drive of a 1993 bronco. according to carpoint, the 1993 was one of the worst years for the truck. I remembered a 1995 dark green bronco parked right next to the 1993 but we had not driven it as I was convinced it was out of my price range. I mentioned to the dealer that I'd like a price on the 1995 - what could he sell it for? back and forth we went on pricing. I ultimately ended up purchasing two identical 1995 broncos from two different dealers, one green and one red, before my mechanic eliminated the red one and I reached an agreement on final price for the green one.

I ended up with what I felt was a great deal on the fully loaded 1995 green bronco at wickstrom ford in barrington. I have to give an honorable mention to the ford bronco at packey webb ford, in glen ellyn, for the 2nd best truck, very persistent sales men and absolutely top-class service.

two weeks later I was hauling home my new, economy horse trailer. I'd put up a picture and tell you all about it, but the day after picking it up and putting $500 in new tires on it, I lent it to my girlfriend, heather, to drive her horse jeunesse to utah. heather is moving in two weeks to budapest, hungary. I'm gonna miss her! (see photos of heather & jeunesse in the carbondale 1998 spring break photo album).