How winning a Jeep cost me $10,000

Then a couple years ago, after a long and rewarding life, my mother-in-law passed away. The hospital wanted to recognize Sara and her contributions so they invited my wife Julie to Lexington to honor her legacy before the auction began.

Julie went to the auction, with our three kids, said a few kind words about her Mother, accepted the praise heaped on her by the hospital, kicked off the auction, and went to sit down in her camp chair with the exact same non-existent level of expectations we’ve had for the past dozen years.

Which meant she got on her phone and started planning where she and the kids were having lunch. Almost completely ignoring the auction itself.

As the auction wound down, Julie was neck-deep in her phone, and the kids were getting hangry. Until my oldest daughter Kate pulled Julie out of her phone coma and told her, “Mom, we won!!”.

Julie, not having paid attention to the auction, was completely confused and asked what we had won. Kate responded with, “We won a Jeep! Mom we won a Jeep!”.

I was on a boy’s trip to paddle the Nantahala in the mountains of North Carolina. When we got off the river, I noticed too many missed calls from my wife. I quickly called her back and with lots of happy yelling and screaming from Julie and the kids, I came to find out that I was the new owner of a 2025 Jeep Wrangler hardtop in granite crystal grey.

I loudly celebrated with everyone, but being a pragmatist as well as the person in our marriage that handles the money, I asked my lovely wife if we would be quickly selling this new rig of ours? We really didn’t NEED another car, and an extra five zero’s in our bank account would be wonderful!

In the moment she couldn’t care less about zeros in a bank account, and instead was focused on how cute she would look in a Jeep with the top down, sunglasses on and wind in her face. I instantly realized I had no chance of swaying her and put up a short and unenthusiastic fight, which I quickly lost.

The Jeep is super fun, even after paying a whopping $10,000 in taxes for our “free” Jeep, and we began enjoying her immensely. Taking the top off on the first sunny day, and me quickly volunteering for any trip to the grocery store. The more we drove, the more I began to notice other Jeeps.

I’m not new to the world of Jeeps and trail rigs, owning and restoring a 1974 Landcruiser FJ-40 and riding and working on many Jeeps from the 1970’s to the 2000’s. But what I was not prepared for was the massive explosion of aftermarket parts, everything from lights and grills, to door shelves, wraps and ducks. Back in the 90’s a wildly tricked out ride was some KC lights and 33” Super Swampers.