Best Inexpensive, Safe, Reliable, Smallish 4x4
 

There's a moderate chance I'll be buying a family compound with a half mile of moderately rough road (dirt, broken pavement) that when it rains may get a little precarious. Presently my wife drives the Hello Kitty Miata. It would be fine when the road is dry and she drives slow (dificult!), but likely impassible or miserable during the rainy season.

Priorities are:
Safety
Reliability
Size (small)
Cost

If a Suzuki Samurai wasn't a death trap it might be great. I'm thinking used RAV4? Whatta ya'lls think?

Doesn't actually have to be 4x4 really. I just meant to emphasize there is an offload component.

I would get a blazer (S-10 style mini one not the K-5). Get the 4.3L V6 and the 4 speed auto. Its reliable and you can pick em up pretty cheap. Does this decision to move to a family compound have anything to do with the election last night?

First gen troopers can be had really cheap, They are easy to work on (just like most trucks) but most of mine have no problems.

2ng Gen troopers are a little upper class on the inside. They are a little more money but are a better bang for the buck.

Jeep with V8
Explorer with V8
Turbo Diesel Van

Let me rephrase smallish -> small.

Explorer is smallish

The blazer idea is a good one that 4.3 V6 motor is bullet proof. I had that motor in a Sonoma and that thing ran like a top to this day I kinda wish I still had it. But it didn't fair well in the sand due to it not having powered front wheels.

Tangentially I suppose, but it wouldn't have mattered who won. . .

Are there particular years that are better than others?

Actually a "rally car" like an Imprezza might be the best choice. Small functional car that'll do just peachy on broken, dirt, gravel roads.. . . mmm.

95 and newer. A Bravada would be good too since its AWD, same years.

Wouldn't a subie be kinda expensive?
Perfect option
Diesel, Mid sized, has a bed, dead fucking reliable
http://tucson.craigslist.org/cto/3380623700.html

It's for my 5' tall, 100 pound Japanese wife who presently drives the Hello Kitty themed Miata. She also enjoys speeding tickets (this might help that at least!) and hitting things. . .

Though the idea of her driving a diesel truck is amusing. Maybe if I paint it pink and put some sunflower hub caps on.

Also, if this project pans out, might get into making some biodiesel for shits and giggles since I have easy access to lots of fry oil for free, and that would drop incremental fuel costs by about 75%. (And my mom has a Cummins diesel truck and at some point would probably get a diesel tractor.)

Vanessa drove my dually just fine on more then a few injured occasions. Plus if bio diesel is your thing the older 7.3l truck are ready to convert, no injector or fuel system changes needed, just a tank heater and you're done.

That layout of truck isnt all that large, i'd say about as big or slightly bigger as your tree sap danger truck.

Wj body jeep.

Can't do anything at the moment as I'm in the middle of financing, but this looks interesting. Given the resources of MG, I'm guessing whatever the issue is would not be too difficult to figure out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1995-...item3a7b9117ad

:clapping:

Might find one or two that haven't returned to their base minerals yet...

:p

You dont live near Glendora do you? Saw an asian girl getting out of a Hello Kitty decked out miata at the gym. Lol. I think it was blue but she looked a little taller then 5ft.

She will fit better in this...lol

Ha! Maybe her Doppelgänger. Anyway, figuring out what we're going to do with this side issue. The Miata is still marginally valuable and all things considered, for her, the commute, and the road a Nissan Juke is looking like a good option. Another possibility, since if I do this I don't have to keep the one buck truck, is to sell it and get something else, like the S10 Blazer, which she could drive on bad weather days.

Zeroing in on a 2003 S10 Blazer. Prefer 4d 4x4 if possible. Budget around $6k lets say. The reason for the 2003 is that there is a Baytech CNG conversion that is CARB legal. Me mum and I work fairly close to one another and we can carpool when weather is good (most of the time, reducing commute costs to minor) and my wife can keep her Hello Kitty Miata. When weather is bad, she can take over the Blazer, I can take my Wrangler and me mum her Cummins Diesel.

You need to convince your wife to get an STI or an Evo. Its AWD so she wont get stuck, and powerful enough to get her unstuck out of the mud, or to get her away from thugs if they try to chase her down.

So ya, get an STI or an Evo, unless you dont care about your wifes safety.

My wife holds the world record for most speeding tickets in Hyndai Accent. She approaches the gas pedal as something more like a switch. At least she's not as bad as her mother who learned to drive from a Tokyo cab driver . . you really are only ever stopped, accelerating or decelerating and as long as there is a milometer of separation you're good . . . at speed.

Probably she'll keep the Miata for dry weather and I'm thinking to get the Blazer, possibly with a CNG conversion and carpool with my mom most of the time, Then when it's nasty, the wife takes the Blazer and we take the Wrangler or Cummins.

You have a cummins now?

My folks do. The property I'm talking about is combining my wife and I with my folks. Hence the carpooling idea. We'll be living at the same address and commuting into the OC relatively close to each other.

The tough bit for me is I'd be fairly radically shifting my lifestyle schedule towards earlier morning. Ick. But, change itself is good sometimes.

I've been seeing a ton of CNG vehicles on CL lately. Fucking cheap too.

It's almost entirely Civics, Crown Vics and commercial it seems.

I've seen a few f150's some jeeps, 4x4 vans and even a c4 vette.

Well, if you cross a Jeep or other SMALLER SUV/CUV, let me know, could be interesting. Don't go out of your way, just if you stumble on it.

I'll do my thang. But seriously a 92-96 f150 xcsb isnt all that much larger then some of the vehicles you listed. Just sayin. Hell that's my idea of small. A normal SUV, to me, would be an Excursion :p

Id rather be Cummins than Stroke'n!

#1 Duramax
#2 Cummins (very close to my #1)
#3 Powerstroke

Powerstroke
Coummins
Mercedes
Isuzu
Duramax

Duramax=Isuzu
Coummins
Powerstroke
Mercedes

I was going to ask about the Mercedes unit that's in the Jeeps. I thought it was supposed to be an excellent smaller diesel engine. :huh:

It is, I towed a car no problem but its not duramax giant. Im not towing any mobile homes in the near future

I'm thinking more like life cycle. Will it, with proper oil changes, etc., last say 500k plus miles. I've heard people with the Volkswagen TDI (Jetta) going well beyond 500k. Certainly people are up there with the Cummins as that's really just about a commercial engine. But since I'm targeting something smaller like a Liberty sized vehicle, they do (I think) have the Merc diesel motor like your Cherokee.


I'm toying with the idea of one since I have access to lots of fry oil and making biodiesel. Apparently this can get down to way under $1 gal if you get into it. We'll have the Cummins already, so that would be two vehicles that could use it.