I tearfully sold my first car, a 1973 240z, because of its diminished utility to me. I'm in the Army, and will eventually leave CA...if I were to stay here for the rest of my life, I would have kept it. As it stood, I had no use for two 2-seat sports cars (I also have a 3rd gen RX-7). I was looking into a small truck for utility (pref. with 4x4, 5spd)...looked over the new 2005 tacoma, scared away by price...ditto new frontiers.
I was really close to buying a jeep wrangler or liberty...I looked into isuzu amigos/rodeo-sports, as my parents have a 190,000 mile Trooper that keeps on ticking with no problems. In my search I found info on a VX. I remember these back in 1999-2000, but my rule of measure has always been: "If it costs more than $30k, you may as well spring for a corvette." But in 2004, I found the price of a VX was much more attractive...
4 week search, some haggling, got me a 1999 Astral Silver with 52k miles. I love the wrangler-offroad-ability and the nothing-like-it ONroad-ability. I wanted something with (relatively) more hauling room than a 2seat sports car...preferrably with 4wd...i found a lot more in the VX.