Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Winter tyres make a big difference.

Yeti 4×4.

Suzuki Jimny, you're welcome.

You'll get a couple of Bromptons in the back.

My aunt and uncle live in the deep hills of West Virginia. The drive to their place is miles of uphill winding fire roads. Gets snowy in winter. Subarus have been fine for them for years.

If you want a proper "jeep" you should be looking at a Landcruiser or Pajero really...
Land Rover have good options but I'd rather Japanese for reliability... Lexus LX or Landcruiser Amazon if you want luxury.

If you want something more car like you can't beat a Subaru Forester or if you want something more boujee an Audi Allroad would be nice too.

Awesome that it's a manual!

Yeah, with hardback sports seats and pse too - really nice spec

Define rough dirt track and steep?
My guess is anything awd with grippy tires will be fine.
But you should buy a Mitsubishi Pajero with snorkel, put loads of boxes on the roof, and add some stickers indicating an adventurous lifestyle.

Radavist would like to know your location

If we’re talking needless 4x4 purchases; I’m going to look at a Land Cruiser LJ70 next week… Had a test drive/ ride along in a converted Defender 90 with a Model 3 motor and it was so much fun. BMW E30 will have to go. The 70 needs ‘80s stickers badly

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https://eden-cassis.co.uk/gallery/

kind of want. might need a decent coat as well though...

They are a load of plastic shite. Nearly bought one in France in the early 90s for around 500 francs. They’re around £15k now and still only good for a short trip to the beach in flip flops

Interestingly they don’t say how much they cost either

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only good for a short trip to the beach in flip flops

that's my exact use case. want one even more now. absolutely spot on for rolling down to the marina

this is the new electric version - just watched jonny smith carving around in one on the late brake show on youtubes.

. “absolutely spot on for rolling down to the marina”
Or the golf club

Think the Land cruiser is the only 4X4 i've ever liked. A Model 3 conversion sounds like a great project.

How heavy are they to start with and how heavy will it end up being?

Panda 4 x 4
https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/future-classic/future-classic-fiat-panda-4x4-mkiii/

Having seen what the Calabrese do with them in Italy one would totally meet your needs, but you might need a bike rack.

The OG ones are silly money now or I'd have one.

Sorry just coming back to this, spoke to a couple of mates who have them (the ones I've driven) and they've said there's not much to go wrong with them.

Standard used car checks, service history and at the right intervals, decent quality tyres and matching brand are usually indicative of a caring and sympathetic owner. Only thing to think about is at the older end, they're starting to get into worn bush territory so worth checking it's not crashy or vague steering on a test drive.

I saw this one just recently. This may or may not help your cause.....

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/17392476/

OOOOOOOF

This one is 1660kg empty according to ovi.rdw. I don’t know what the motor, gearbox, and transfer case weigh but the Model 3 motor is 80kg and the 55kWh pack we’ve developed for this type of vehicle is around 300kg. That’s with BMS and CCS fast charging in the pack. Should be just slightly heavier.

J60s are so nice! Too bad they are soooo expensive nowadays

Manual 997.2 is the pinnacle pure 911 experience! Good luck with the viewing. It's safe money knowing there are so few of them and bore score issues are still pretty much a non entity with the .2

I bought the cheapest 997.1 manual C4s in the country with big mileage at the beginning of last year knowing it had bore scoring (and a bizarre amount of rust) and it's still ticking away quite literally albeit without loss of compression so I still drive it until I can afford to Hartech rebuild it. It wasn't an investment purchase but I felt compelled to rescue it from total demise and for it to eventually become a heroic car with miles piled on it. I drive it once a month...

That doesn't sound bad at all by modern standards. If it comes to selling please share a few more shots of the BMW before it goes!

Speaking of projects, mine isn't too far off now

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