# (Old) Marching along in the MMP

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-marching-along-in-the-mmp/1028705>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Tags:** mmp\
**Created:** [March 23, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-marching-along-in-the-mmp/1028705 "2026-03-23T11:10:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 163

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**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-marching-along-in-the-mmp/1028705/163 "2026-03-27T20:38:14Z")

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> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> > [@Seanette](#):
> >
> > My husband insists that our Jeep has a mind of its own and enough sentience to do things like trick him into taking wrong turns to get to roam dubious “roads” and such. I call it “Christine”.
> 
> How odd. My Jeeps all had the same problem (or perk, depending). I’d be driving on a perfectly decent dirt road, when suddenly the Jeep du jour would veer off onto a moose trail full of boulders, mud and lakes.

&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; I got a definite sense of it having a soul, a will, a desire to explore.

&nbsp; Much, much more so, about the Jeep that we bought in 2024, and the second one that we bought after [the first one sank](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-tying-up-loose-ends-in-the-mmp/1011700/239) five months later.&nbsp; It is definitely not a mere machine, but a sentient being, with a mind and a soul and a will of its own.&nbsp; It wants to explore, it wants to see new places, and whenever possible, it wants to go where normal cars cannot go.

&nbsp; I wonder if all Jeeps are like this.&nbsp; I very much suspect so.&nbsp; At least for those that are 4×4 and offroad-capable.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Maybe those don’t have souls and minds, like the higher Jeeps do.&nbsp; 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.

&nbsp; @Seanette has taken to calling my Jeep _“Christine”_, after the Stephen King story about a sentient car.&nbsp; If I were going to name it, (which I am getting increasingly close to thinking I will), I would name it _“Rocinante”_.&nbsp; 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).

[![](https://www.shltrip.com/sitebuilder/images/7s_IMG_1208_4_-1008x625.jpg) ](https://www.shltrip.com/sitebuilder/images/7s_IMG_1208_4_-1008x625.jpg)

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