MM 550 XDP (Wife) vs CJ/CL 340 DP (Girlfiend)

The four letter word Jeep and the related information has been on my mind for the last five years now. Go anywhere attitude possessed by these vehicles are a class apart and this had made me a wannabe jeeper. Started reading lot about these vehicles on Jeep Thrills and later on became a member with Team-BHP after going through various threads. I was deeply impressed with the talent, experience and skills possessed and displayed by few of them like UBS ji, Dhabhar Behram, GTO, Samurai, Sanjay (4x4army), Shiva (trammway), Harjeev and was often critised by managers and family members for spending too much time on this website. Went through the pros and cons of all available jeeps in India, and even visited the very famous Moga, Dabwali, Meerut, Patiala, Jalandhar sort of places looking for one which would suit me. The assembled jeeps built in Moga truely caught my attention, however the whole meaning of the Jeep was lost with the 4x4 lacking in most of them. Toyota 2c and 3c turbo engines only offered mileage and speed and nothing else. Moreover, they cannot be legally driven in most places in India. So completely stopped the idea of an assembled jeep. In October2010 at Moga I came very close to buying a Mahindra Classic jeep in excellent shape, but the price was too much beyond my budget. It was from the last year of Classic's production (2000) and was in real good shape. The dealer quoted the price of 2.4 Lac and I seriously regret now for not buying it. Later on after reading the reviews I found that it would have been a fairly priced jeep with the current generation of jeepers literally considering it as a legendary icon. Six months later in April 2011the jeep was sold for 2.6 Lacs by the dealer. All I could do was bang my head on a wall. :Frustrati I went on searching and simultaneously comparing the CJ/CL 340 DP (Girlfiend) vs MM 550 XDP (Wife). Went through various posts (Particularly Harjeev, Trammway, GTO, Samurai, Sanjay, V-16) and finally decided to stick to the Wife the MM 550 XDP (Ex-Army), with a special mention of the fact that the sheer beauty of the SWB cannot be ignored and the search for the same will continue. Last week on Friday (Nov 25) I finalized the deal for an Ex-Army MM550 XDP with one of the scrap yard dealers (MSTC bidders) in my native town Pathankot and closed the deal on Sunday (Nov 27). He had 4 jeeps at his disposal that time out of which I picked the 2003 model as it had the minimal damage and was good from mechanical point of view. All of them required tinkering work and this was the one which had all wheels and mechanicals in all most the right shape. The 2004 model was infact much wider with broader leaf springs and hand brake, but the price quoted by the dealer was way too much and was beyond my budget. So I opted for the 2003 model. Pics quality will not be too good as they were clicked by a cellphone that too only two in number stupid: This was the 2004 model Attachment 850312 This was what I picked the 2003 model Attachment 850311 Attached Thumbnails

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