Southern Utah Dirt

[Aldaron]

Holy cow. I'm going to try to sell my Xterra, so I'm giving it a good cleaning. Man, that southern Utah dirt gets up in everything.

I guess that's just a price you pay for getting to live near it all!

 

[Nick]

What you gonna get??

 

[Aldaron]

4runner all the way.

 

[Dave]

When I went up to Outback struts/springs on my wagon, I pulled chunks of hardened mud out of the spring perches that were astonishingly tough. They were stiffer than concrete. All that mud ended up flung across the undercarriage when I had to drive back from the Harris Wash TH after a snow storm. Some of it is still up under the car years later.

 

[Artemus]

I guess that's just a price you pay for getting to live near it all!

I call that red dirt on my Taco my "Red Badge of Courage" and I proudly wear it around town showing off. I refuse to wash it off. Course it is really my sweetie's Taco so I have to arm wrestle her to leave it on for a couple of days since she likes a clean truck. I even bring red and coral pink sand home and build displays out of it for around the house.

Red Dirt ON !!!

 

[Aldaron]

I think I got it pretty clean. Now let's see if I can be the proud owner of a new vehicle tomorrow.

 

[Artemus]

Good luck with the car salesman pain. Tough it out, it will be worth it. We want pictures of you driving the new Toyota off the lot - or your sweetie depending on whose truck it is :twothumbs:

 

[Aldaron]

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that pain...I'm HORRIBLE at negotiating.

And I thought I had a couple of people who wanted to buy my Xterra, but they changed their minds, so now I'm going to trade it, I guess.

And I just figured out that the transfer from my savings account to my checking account won't complete until Tuesday, so now I have to wait another day...I'm ready to buy this thing!

How about I post a picture after I get the BCP sticker on it?

 

[Nick]

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that pain...I'm HORRIBLE at negotiating.

I rule at negotiating. Or maybe Audra does and I actually suck at it, who knows. Either way, it's turned out really good for us so far. But in the absence of mad negotiating skills, I suggest that you talk to Andy Ross at Mark Miller Toyota in downtown SLC. We've bought 3 brand new cars in the last 4 years and were it not for Andy, I would probably be in prison for killing a car salesman by now. Everywhere else we went was a nightmare but Andy is awesome. Can't recommend him highly enough and I have zero material or personal connections to him. Tell him I sent you. The Costco discount is a good start, btw.

Here's his contact info:

Andy Ross​

Mark Miller Toyota​

730 South West Temple​

Salt Lake City, Utah 84101​

​

office: 801.505.4933​

cell: 208.421.0107​

andyr@markmiller.com​

 

[Aldaron]

Mark Miller is where I was going, anyway, so I'll give that a shot.

Maybe you or Audra should come help me buy this car!

 

[Nick]

Maybe you or Audra should come help me buy this car!

Ha! Then I'd just end up with a new one myself! I need to wait a year or two!

 

[Yvonne]

Aldaron:

good luck with getting a new car


so far with dirt:
It's going to rain a bit tomorrow, then I can actually see the originally color of my XTerra again
It's usually totally dirty and dusty, but I don't care. It has to look like that.

 

[Nick]

We're waiting for pictuuuuuuures....

 

[Aldaron]

I knew you were going to say that!

I came home and just crashed from my lack of sleep last night, so I've only got one picture so far, but here it is:

I'm happy so far! I'll be heading out to Escalante next week, so I'm going to run it through some of its paces pretty quickly.

 

[Artemus]

Sweet! This is only a placeholder. We need a picture of the whole thing! Preferably with your two smiling faces in it. Time to go exploring.

 

[Nick]

Sweet! This is only a placeholder. We need a picture of the whole thing! Preferably with your two smiling faces in it. Time to go exploring.

Haha! That what I told him earlier when I saw that pic pre-BCP!

 

[Nick]

BTW I dig the faux hood scoop. My old 4Runner had one too. Wish that came on the Taco TRD Off Road and not just the sport. So I guess that's the 4Runner Trail edition?

 

[Aldaron]

Yeah, I like the hood scoop, too...I don't know why, exactly, but I do like it. Yeah, it's the Trail edition. It seems to have a lot more 4x4 flexibility than the Xterra, with active traction control, locking rear differential, downhill assist, kinetic dynamic suspension system (disconnecting the stabilizer bars), and multi-terrain modes.

I'm sitting here with the manual...I have to figure out how and when to use all that stuff!

 

[Dave]

Take all the rest and leave me with a rear locker.

 

[Aldaron]

I don't know, I think the KDSS will be nice, too.