Did you piss off the guys in Chicago? They are closer.
But i know how you feel, the one XK'r I knew locally moved about an hour north.....
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My wife is the opposite. She likes to sit higher off the ground. She likes big engines. She likes the jeep four wheel drives because its just always there and you don't have to think about it or wonder if you should put it into 4x4. She used to like going out wheeling in our CJ-7 when we lived in Texas. I don't think she's figured out what her commander is really capable of yet. :-P Of course having a toddler and another wee little one on the way has her focusing on other things atm.
I'm late to the conversation here, but... turning in your man card for swapping your mini for a Commander? Sir, You should have applied that man card with your down payment on the mini. Welcome back to the Jeep club.
Honestly, when it was time to get a bigger vehicle than our KJ and her Audi the XK was not even a consideration on our list. We test drove the Ford Edge, every Nissan suv, the Audi Q7, came this close to actually buying a VW Touareg, and looked at Grand Cherokees. The Jeep dealer just happened to have an XK with everything we both wanted and was right in our price range. My first comment about it was "It drives like a school bus.". After two test drives during visits looking for a used WK, we went for a third trip and I saw two "large" older women taking the XK for a test drive, and the sales guy asked if he could help us. I said, "yeah, we're here to buy that Commander they just drove off in." We filled out the paperwork while they were out driving it and they were not pleased when they couldn't buy it anymore. It continues to grow on us every time it goes out. Enough that when we (I) drowned it during the failed river crossing, another XK was the only consideration in a replacement vehicle. The new one (purchased 12-2-11) got it's 2" lift, mud tires, wheel spacers Thursday, and Flowmaster muffler Friday, and it's first off road trip Saturday :D
A couple days with the new XK and I'm noticing some definite differences between the two. The 5.7 throttle is touchy. The 4.7 you can give it a bit of the long skinny and it reacts in a well behaved manner. With the 5.7 if you give it a bit of gas you have to be very careful as it will want to jump. Not the stalled engine sort of jump it just wants to get moving...NOW!
The engines sound very different next to each other. I may have a pump or bearing starting to wear on mine there is a slight whine from mine but not enough that you would hear it and think "Ah ha! That's an alternator/power steering pump/water pump etc.."
The wife's doesn't have the heating/cooling in the back. I wish mine didn't either as that space could be used for something more useful.
I ordered rubber matts from weathertech (thanks for the link Sal) My wife has a cargo net...i want one too you don't realize how useful they are until you've had one and then you don't. I found one on amazon for $23.
The best find so far is new buttons for the key fob. C'mon look at your jeep keys, those things are nasty! You can shiny new buttons for $7. https://www.ikeyless.com/vehicles/Je.../2006/1001449/
I ordered two because I'm sure as soon as the wife sees mine she'll want one as well. I think this is going to be the biggest problem with the whole his and hers thing. When I find something cool I have to double the price :-(