A few years ago, I found myself thinking about buying a Jeep. Not a Grand Cherokee, or a Liberty, Patriot, or Compass, but a proper the-doors-and-roof-come-off Jeep. I realized then that nobody makes a better Jeep (that I can buy here in North America, that is) than the Jeep TJ (now the Wrangler). This meant that for a very attainable price, I could have "the very best." Sweet, I thought, I can have the Bugatti, the Louis Vuitton, the Dom Perignon of Jeeps.

I bought that Jeep. It was horrible. And months later, I sold it.