I noticed this, not nearly as strongly, about the Jeep Compass that we rented for a month back in 2022, while our Dodge Dart was in for some work at the dealership. I got a definite sense of it having a soul, a will, a desire to explore.
Much, much more so, about the Jeep that we bought in 2024, and the second one that we bought after the first one sank five months later. It is definitely not a mere machine, but a sentient being, with a mind and a soul and a will of its own. It wants to explore, it wants to see new places, and whenever possible, it wants to go where normal cars cannot go.
I wonder if all Jeeps are like this. I very much suspect so. At least for those that are 4×4 and offroad-capable. Somewhat to my chagrin, since the mid-1980s, the Jeep name has appeared on models that are not 4×4, not offroad-capable, and really not worthy of the Jeep name. Except for the Wrangler/Gladiator models, all current and recent Jeep models have such variants at their lowest trims, not 4×4, not offroad-capable. Maybe those don’t have souls and minds, like the higher Jeeps do. Mine’s a fifth-generation Cherokee, KL, in the Trailhawk trim, which is the most offroad-capable version of any model for which the Trailhawk trim exists.
@Seanette has taken to calling my Jeep “Christine”, after the Stephen King story about a sentient car. If I were going to name it, (which I am getting increasingly close to thinking I will), I would name it “Rocinante”. I’ve been envisioning that name on each side, in stick-on letters, with a graphic silhouette of Don Quixote attacking a giant (but a modern, three-bladed, power-generating type of giant, such as those that infest such places as the mountains above Livermore).
