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tl;dr: Should I get a used Suzuki Jimny/Samurai for traveling out into the bush in West Africa, given that all I need to haul is two people and a few backpacks, and I want something light that's easy to get unstuck? Working in rural West Africa, and the go-to bush-capable vehicles out here look to be the Toyota Landcruiser (beloved of NGOs and the UN), various Landrovers, and Nissan Patrol. The next tier lower (4Runner and Pathfinder) get used for paved areas, but serious companies don't send them to the bush generally. Local dirt-poor Liberians will send about any drat thing into the bush; I've spent some really long days bumping around the backroads at 5-10mph jammed with six other people into a Toyota Corolla. My purposes involve some highway driving (at ridiculously low speeds, I don't think I've ever topped 50mph on even the best highways here), and a lot of dirt road driving on roads that can get pretty iffy, and a scattering of driving on "roads" that are really more just like two dirt tracks where the brush has been knocked/cut back along the sides. I don't have any need for true cross-county offroading or anything crazy, but I have had to navigate some huge potholes and mud-pits where dirt roads get washed out, and have absolutely had to use 4wd many times to get up and down steep dirt tracks in a lovely JAC pickup truck (great little Mitsubishi engine in a lovely Chinese frame), etc. Though these larger SUVs are the default standard, one of my colleagues absolutely swears by her Jeep Wrangler, saying she's gotten it all kinds of places where larger vehicles bog down, is way easier to recover or self-recover, etc. Clearly it's not going to carry anywhere near the gear and crew that a Landcruiser is, but she tends to do gigs where it's just one or two people heading way out into the bush to inspect or monitor worksites, so limited capacity isn't an issue. I may have a string of gigs coming up in Liberia and maybe Senegal (possibly later Mali) that involve going out into the sticks along 4-6 hour stretches of dirt roads, but where I don't need to haul any gear or people other than a crew of two and a few backpacks. I would almost want to just go with dirtbikes, but that's extremely limiting on gear, probably less safe, and even less comfortable for long days of driving (like ones where we do five hours on dirt roads and then the next five on the paved highways to get home). I don't want to get a Jeep Wrangler for various reasons, including an antipathy to "American" cars, the Wrangler's relatively high price, and they're pretty uncommon in Liberia so my friend has often had to get even basic parts brought into country in friends' luggage from South Africa or Europe to keep it running. Recently I ran across a Suzuki Jimny/Samurai for the first time here, and was immediately infatuated with it, and from a little reading online it appears that the Jimny is roughly similar to the Wrangler, just cruder/simpler/cheaper. Given my situation, would the Jimny/Samurai be a potentially useful option? Here's a good GoogleImages example of the kinds of things I've commonly run across:   Proposed Budget: Maybe US$5-10k? I have no idea what a Jimny costs here but I can ask around. For reference, a 19yr old Landcruiser cost us like US$9k here, and when that became a maintenance headache we sold it at a big loss and paid another expat US$5k for a 9yr old Nissan Pathfinder. New or Used: definitely used because we're a small for-profit company with limited budget. Body Style: (e.g. 2 door? 4 door? Compact/Midsize/Fullsize Sedan? Truck? SUV?): ultra-compact SUV, something really tough but small that won't get bogged down and/or is easy to un-bog. How will you be using the car?: (Do you tow things? Haul more than 5 people on a regular basis? Have a super long commute? How are you going to use this vehicle?: driving on dirt roads or tracks for hours at a time. Probably never towing, and I wouldn't be using it to haul anything heavy like cement or metal. Just two people (with occasional short trips with a person or two sitting in the bed or clinging to the bars) and a few backpacks, maybe occasionally some big sacks of food, or small batches of gear like spools of wire, crate of nails, etc. Do you prefer a luxury vehicle with all the gizmos?): Nope, the simpler the better. I would like to have at least a few "bush" mods like maybe a bracket for a small fuel jerrycan, maybe elevated lights, brush guard, and I'd really like to put a winch on the front for self-recovery if that's at all affordable. What aspects are most important to you? (e.g. reliability, cost of ownership/maintenance, import/domestic, MPG, size, style): Probably low-speed capability on rough roads, followed by ease of maintenance. 3. If you do not live in the U.S. you should probably say so because what's available can vary a lot: Liberia and thereabouts in West Africa. We mostly get a smaller sampling of the same American and Japanese cars/trucks you see in the US, but with the addition of a few Euro lines like Renault, BMW and Mercedes work vehicles, etc. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Dec 29, 2015 |
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Dec 29, 2015 19:36
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Tyro posted:No experience with that particular vehicle but I think you're on the right track. I had a diesel Patrol for a while in east Africa and liked it a lot. Any reason you're not looking at Hilux? I love those things. Hilux is pretty awesome, though they're just not the same without a belt-fed Soviet machine gun mounted on the back rail... But yeah we've looked at Hilux and might eventually get one to replace our POS Chinese pickup, though overall for medium/heavy trucks the Landcruiser is king here. This post here is just looking at the more niche role of a really small off-road truck for agility. I'd never driven a Patrol until last month, when I spent 12 hours driving a foreign news crew from the airport way up into the bush. Really enjoyed it, though I didn't notice a huge difference from the Landcruiser and a little googling seems to indicate that those two makes are pretty equivalent choices. Patrols aren't anywhere near as popular as the LC with NGOs and UN here, but are pretty popular private purchases, and the Pathfinder might even be more popular than the 4Runner in Monrovia. Our little JAC pickup is diesel and gets ridiculous fuel mileage, like a six hour trip up to the Guinean border cost us like $30 or something silly like that. I'm overall down with diesel trucks for bush use, with the caveat that once you get a little bit off the larger dirt roads and more into the villages, they only sell gasoline and not diesel. So for trucks we just make sure to top off whenever we're in a larger market town, and for small capacity items like the small generators we use to run power tools or a few other lighbulbs, we use gasoline ones since we need to refill them more frequently without having to make a special trip out of the hills just to fuel them. powderific posted:You might want to ask in the 4x4 / offroading thread in AI too as there might be folks with more experience in that sort of terrain. I know Samurais have a bit of a cult following in the US. Good idea, I posted in that thread pinging any Samurai buffs to come post here. They're just adorable little rigs though, one review said "like a Landrover Discovery that's been left in the dryer too long"; look at this little bugger:  Another colleague has a lot of Jimny experience in Central America and said they're great in river areas because the truck is so light and relatively broad for its weight so it "beetles" a little in water, slightly floating and taking pressure off the river bottom to keep the truck from miring down. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Dec 30, 2015 |
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Dec 30, 2015 11:46
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Short-form question: if the no longer produced Toyota MR2 Spyder is my dream car, would it be a terrible idea to try to get one (maintenance issues, obsolescence), and if so what cars would be a reasonable alternative in current production?
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May 22, 2016 16:18
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Bovril Delight posted:It shouldn't be too hard to get parts. Working on that car is very cramped. Storage space is non existent. Some good suggestions; I really avoid American cars so the Solstice less appealing, the S2000 though is cool though a little longer than I like. I love the stubbiness of the Spyder; btw convertible is not important to me, honestly would prefer hard-top. Miata... it's just a really femme car, cute though it is. There's been rumors for years that Toyota will bring out an electric Spyder, which would be loving amazing, though I'm concerned they'll put it in a much larger body and lose all the charm of the old ones. I've idly pondered getting a used Spyder and having it converted to electric, but I reckon that costs $$$$.
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May 22, 2016 16:50
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tl;dr: Given that it's just the kind of car I've wanted for 18 months now, should I spend US$2,200 to buy a '97 Suzuki Sidekick with 103k miles to use as a commuter and highway car, and for very light hauling, in Montreal? A couple years ago I was working in Africa and spent a couple days driving in the bush with a Vice cameraman who sang the praises of the Suzuki Jimny and what a great little bush-rig it is. He got me curious so I read up on it and liked what I learned, and when I moved back to the US I was idly keeping an eye out for one, but they're rare and overpriced in the US since they got slammed by Consumer Reports for roll-over risk (which they argued is no worse than a Wrangler) and Suzuki stopped sending them to the US. Fast forward a few years and I'm living in Montreal and applying for Permanent Residency, so I figure I might as well get a Suzuki Jimny or one of its cousins, and the Suzuki Sidekick seems a good bet since I really don't plan to do any off-road here and the Sidekick is supposed to be a much smoother ride on paved streets, plus is way cheaper since the gearheads don't buy them all up to convert to muddin' trucks and all. I've been watching Kijiji (Cannuck Craigslist) for a few weeks, getting a feel for the market, and yesterday went to test-drive a '97 model, 103k miles, asking US$2,200. (for the purposes of this post I'm converting everything to Imperial units and US dollars). The current owner is a sharply-dressed woman in her 20s who got it a year ago "because it's so cute", and is selling it because daddy is giving her his extra Hyundai Santa Fe to be her commuter. Not to judge too much by covers, but she seems really high-maintenance in a personal way, like really well-organized, the interior vinyl is freaking *pristine* since she keeps it wiped down, she has all her maintenance paperwork and the manual in the glove-box, etc. So even though she might be the fourth owner or whatever that's a good sign, and she just had US$650 of tune-up work done to it last month to get it ready for sale, including something to catalytic, muffler fix, and some seals. She's not mechanical at all, but seems to take care of her stuff, and she's put a large chunk of the current mileage on it in just the year+ she's owned it, including a road trip from Montreal to Miami, lots of trips to NYC, etc. She says she's had no problems with it other than the things recently fixed, finds it stable at highway speeds, and claims she's a speed-demon and routinely holds it at 85mph on the back highways when driving to NY, and that it takes it without complaint. Before I buy, I'll certainly take it to a mechanic for an assessment, but to my casual eye it looks really good. Paint appears to be original and is really clean except for a little rust bubbling at the bottoms of the doors and all, since they use CaCl on the road ice here and it's killer. It was raining so I couldn't get under it to check for rust, but she said her mechanic didn't mention any underbody rust, and I'll make a point of asking my mechanic to assess before I buy. I believe the engine is original, and in my 30min test drive (streets and highway) it felt and sounded great, except it was a little slow on the ignition at first (it was also a chilly day).  Bottom of driver's door:  I like that this is a not-too-old model, Sidekick should be better for the city than the Jimny/Samurai variant, and the automatic transmission and available 4WD will make city driving easy in these narrow streets and on ice this winter. It has a hard-top (which I think are usually aftermarket) in great shape, and a sunroof (manual, as I prefer for simplicity). EDIT: and it had four winter tires bought just last November, tons of tread. I haven't filed my actual PR paperwork yet, but I have 150 days of visa left anyway, so at worst I can just drive the car as long as I'm here, then sell it or leave it with a friend to rent out on Turo. Any huge red flags, or if I have the budget for it should I just call the seller and meet her at my mechanic for a going-over and negotiate a purchase? http://www.kijiji.ca/v-autos-camions/ville-de-montreal/sidekick-97/1265505329?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true posted:Sidekick 97 City of Montréal Greater Montréal TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 14:51 on May 26, 2017 |
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May 26, 2017 13:50
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May 26, 2017 14:47
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Follow-up on my earlier "looking at Suzuki Sidekick in Montreal" question. The woman selling the red Sidekick in downtown Montreal is flakey and hasn't answered my call or email, so I'm letting her sit so I don't look desperate. Again she's asking around US$2.2k for a '97 4-cylinder automatic in pretty clean shape with around 100k miles. However, a guy an hour out of town has a visually similar model, but a '90 with manual transmission, with 115k miles, but the interesting thing is he's dropped a Mazda V6 into it. How do I read that? Is it more "huh, that's clever but that *decreases* the value unless it's an amazing job" or is it actually "that's awesome and a needed upgrade so get that one"? http://www.kijiji.ca/v-autos-camions/shawinigan/1990-suzuki-sidekick-4x4/1261973698?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true Alternately, albeit 3 hours away, this guy has an automatic '91 with 135k miles, supposed to be in overall good shape except the oil pan leaking, and he's asking only $1.1k for it: http://www.kijiji.ca/v-autos-camions/rimouski-bas-st-laurent/1991-suzuki-sidekick-cabriolet/1263164281?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 07:38
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