To AINTD:

There were several reasons why I thought a Jeep or something similar would be best for us:

We have a friend who has been trained to work on certain types of vehicles. We trust him to do work on our vehicles and he only charges us for parts. My husband does work on his computer or sattelite television equipment in trade. We wanted to get something our friend is able to work on easily.

The vehicle had to be both a family one and be functional for work. A car would have been cheaper than a Jeep but my husband could not get his tools into a car and his ladders would not have fit well on top. We did consider pick-up trucks but I really detest trucks and the Jeep I found was at a better price than any of the trucks. It has also surprised us by being better on fuel useage than we expected.

The US has a large variety of land types. We live in a country like area close to the coast. That means we are wet and muddy. From my front door,I look up at the road! My husband has to be able to get out of our yard even on rainy days and sometimes he is working in areas as bad as our yard and even worse.

Finally, Jeeps are nice looking vehicles. I prefer the older box style though. I belive they stopped making those in the mid 90's, ahh well.