Episode #213 - APA Pod Cheap Overland Brainstorm
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Concept
project car
A project car is a car that someone works on to fix up or change. People buy these cars to learn how cars work or to make them special.
Car
Honda S2000
The Honda S2000 is a small, sporty car with two seats that is really fun to drive because it can go very fast and turns well.
Concept
cheap car challenge
A cheap car challenge means buying a car that doesn't cost much money and fixing it up or using it for fun activities like racing or driving off-road. It's about having fun without spending a lot.
Concept
off-roading
Off-roading means driving a car or truck on roads that aren't paved, like dirt or mud. It can be a lot of fun but needs a strong vehicle.
Car
Mercedes Sprinter
The Mercedes Sprinter is a big van that people use for work or to turn into camper vans for adventures because it has lots of space and is dependable.
Company
ARB
ARB makes special parts and gear for cars that help people drive better on rough and off-road places.
Car
Toyota Land Cruiser
The Land Cruiser is a tough SUV made by Toyota that can drive on rough roads and is popular for outdoor adventures.
Part
rooftop tent
A rooftop tent is a tent that sits on top of a car. It lets you sleep above the ground when camping, which can be safer and easier to set up.
Term
MPG
MPG means how far a car can go on one gallon of gas. If you carry heavy stuff on your car, it uses more gas and goes fewer miles per gallon.
Term
lift kit
A lift kit is something you add to your car to make it sit higher off the ground, so it can go over rocks and rough roads easier.
Term
skid plate
A skid plate is like a shield under your car that stops rocks and bumps from hurting important parts when you drive off-road.
Concept
scope creep
Scope creep means when you start adding more and more things to a project, making it bigger and harder to finish than you first thought.
Concept
overland build
An overland build means changing a vehicle so it can travel far off-road and carry everything you need to live and camp along the way.
Term
all-season tires
All-season tires are special tires that work well in most weather, like rain or light snow, so you don’t have to change them every season.
Concept
high mileage
High mileage means a car has been driven a lot. Sometimes that means it might have problems, but not always.
Concept
depreciation
Depreciation means a car loses value as it gets older or has more miles. So, a cheap car might be old or used a lot.
Concept
off-road capable
Off-road capable means a car can drive on rough or bumpy roads, not just smooth streets.
Term
timing belt service
The timing belt is like a rubber band inside your car that helps parts move together correctly. Changing it on time keeps your engine running safely.
Car
Nissan XTerra
The Nissan XTerra is a small SUV that can go off-road and is good for camping or outdoor fun.
Term
CVT
A CVT is a kind of car transmission that changes gears smoothly without you feeling the shift. It helps the car use fuel better and drive smoothly.
Car
Suzuki Samurai
The Suzuki Samurai is a tiny SUV that can go off-road easily. It might need some fixing because it's old and parts can be hard to find.
Car
Nissan Pathfinder
The Nissan Pathfinder is a big car that can carry families and go off-road. The first and second versions were tougher and better for outdoor driving.
Car
Land Rover Range Rover
The Range Rover is a fancy SUV that can drive well both on roads and rough terrain. The LR3 version is known to be more dependable than some newer models, which is why people talk about it a lot.
Term
daily driver
A daily driver is a car you use every day to get around, like going to work or running errands.
Term
cats
Cats are parts in a car's exhaust that help clean the smoke so it doesn't pollute the air as much.
Term
transmission
The transmission helps the car go faster or slower by changing gears. If it's broken, the car might not move properly or at all.
Car
Infiniti QX56
The Infiniti QX56 is a big, fancy SUV that can carry lots of people and has a strong engine. Older models are cheap to buy but still nice.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that can drive on rough roads and trails. People like it because it looks cool and can handle outdoor adventures well.
Car
Chevrolet S10 Blazers
The Chevy S-10 Blazer is a small SUV that can drive on rough roads and is built tough like a truck.
Car
Ford Explorer
The Ford Explorer is a family SUV that can carry people and stuff comfortably. Older versions are cheap and good for those who want a simple SUV.
Car
Toyota RAV4
The Toyota RAV4 is a small SUV that many people trust because it doesn't break down and uses little gas. The old two-door manual ones are special and hard to find.
Car
Acura SLX
The Acura SLX is an older SUV that can drive on rough roads and is not very common. It's strong and built to last.
Car
Jeep Grand Cherokee
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a big SUV that can go off-road and is comfortable to drive. The WJ version is liked because it works well and is easy to find.
Car
Jeep Commander
The Jeep Commander is a big SUV that can carry many people and has a strong look. You can find good ones for cheap if you look.
Brand
Chrysler
Chrysler is a car company from the United States that makes different types of cars. Sometimes, people think their cars can have problems more often than others.
Term
Carfax
Carfax is like a report card for a car's past. It tells you if the car has been in accidents or had repairs, so you know what you're buying.
Part
valve covers
Valve covers are parts on top of the engine that keep oil inside and protect important engine parts.
Term
Michelin Latitude
Michelin Latitude is a type of tire made for bigger cars like SUVs that helps with smooth and safe driving in many weather conditions.
Car
Lincoln Aviator
The Lincoln Navigator is a big, fancy SUV that is very comfortable and has a strong engine. Many people buy it for luxury and space.
Car
Mercury Mountaineer
The Mercury Mountaineer is like a fancier version of the Ford Explorer, a family SUV. It has nicer features but is very similar inside and out.
Car
Suzuki X90
The Suzuki X-90 is a small, funny-looking SUV that only has two doors. It's not very practical but is interesting to some people.
Brand
Sega Dreamcast
The Sega Dreamcast is a video game system from the late 1990s. It had some fun racing games that people still remember and enjoy today.
Car
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people like because it doesn't break down often and uses gas efficiently. It's similar to other small cars like the Nissan Sentra and Honda Civic.
Car
Nissan Sentra
The Nissan Sentra is a small, affordable car that uses little gas and is good for everyday driving.
Car
Honda Accord
The Honda Accord is a very dependable car that many people buy because it doesn't break down often and uses gas well.
Term
EPA ratings
EPA ratings are numbers that tell you how much gas a car uses and how clean it is for the environment. They help you compare different cars to see which one saves more gas.
Car
Honda Prelude
The Honda Prelude is a small, sporty car that is fun to drive and looks different from regular cars. People who like sporty cars often like this one.
Car
Cadillac Ctsv
The Cadillac CTS-V is a fast and fancy car that looks nice and goes really quickly. There was even a wagon version that could carry more stuff.
Car
Rivian R1S
The Rivian R1S is a new electric SUV that can drive on rough roads and has lots of modern features. It's part of the new wave of electric cars.
Car
Rivian R1T
The Rivian R1T is a new electric truck that can carry heavy things and drive on rough roads. It's part of the new electric vehicle trend.
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people trust because it lasts a long time and doesn't use much gas. Lately, they don't make it as a two-door or four-door like before.
Car
Volvo XC70
The Volvo XC70 is a wagon car that can drive on rough roads and is very safe and comfortable inside.
Part
tire pressure sensors
Tire pressure sensors are little devices in your tires that tell you if your tires don't have enough air. This helps keep you safe while driving.
LIVE
In a world with entirely too many shows about cars, this is another Pointless Automotive
podcast.
You want to bring us in Big Dog?
Oh, do I ever?
Welcome to another Pointless Automotive podcast.
You know my voice, or maybe you don't.
I'm Frank Chadwick.
Co-host extraordinaire, partner of crime.
How the hell are you?
Doing all right, man.
Doing all right, and how are you doing, dude?
Like, really?
Really, how are you doing?
Oh, boy.
Good.
So, normally, and actually currently, I am sitting on a stool in my garage.
It is not the cuck stool, it's a standard, I think it was like a Harbor Freight, like
super cheap stool.
I really need to get another one, because it kind of hurts my back if I sit on this
thing for quite some time.
And currently, it's not hurting my junk, which is good because I am fresh off, I guess, just
about a week and a handful of days off of your boys shooting blanks now.
Yeah, it got me the ol' viceectomy.
And same flavor as before, original recipe or...
Well, you know what, I haven't taste tested, to be honest, the first thing I would have
done.
Yeah, immediately.
In the car, after.
Exactly.
God.
I just imagine the receptionist at the office at like the medical office is like, God damn
it, has to call the cops again, like it happens all the time, like, oh man, I got to call
the cops on another one.
No, haven't taste tested.
Everything works.
I'll put it that way.
But what I'll say is the procedure itself, and maybe this is a deep risk of oversharing.
I think this is PCP, Project Car Progress.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't want to say what the PCP stands for, the SNA.
Let's just avoid it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Progress is potentially progenity, I think might be one.
Anyways, it's got to be penis, but potentially low hanging fruit.
Hey, so recovery, pretty keen.
Nice.
Like I was laid up.
I just like had a photo shoot later that day, and I did it, and then I was just like, I
need to get this done today, because I'm probably going to be like irreparably sore for the
following days after.
And I was like, nah, like, not a thing.
So recovery was the procedure itself.
Not fun.
Like, I'll put it this way, I felt a lot more than I was anticipating.
You were awake for this?
Oh, yeah.
No, I think you're always awake.
But like...
Was that in general that statement?
I think you're always awake.
Sir, I'm very much not woke, let me remind you of that.
No, I think traditionally the procedure is done with local anesthesia, and certainly
it was for me, but I still felt a lot of unpleasantness.
Did they do a live feed so you can watch the fucking thing in front of you on a laptop?
I mean, I could have just looked it down.
I was just lying on.
They didn't put a courtesy curtain?
No, I wasn't gonna.
And the urologist, shout out Dr. Leib, you're a real one.
He was like, ah, you know, like you're cool, like I'll tell you what's happening as we're
going along.
I was like, can you actually not give me a play by play?
Like, I don't really want to be like, and now I'm like, you know, pulling out the vas
deference.
You're most froze with an agony face.
Just then.
So anyways, if you're thinking about doing it, don't let me steer you away from it.
You should just do it.
What's the scariest thing you can, and we are talking about a vasectomy.
I don't think we can find that.
We didn't do it.
It was an agenda reassignment.
It was a vasectomy, I believe.
And the worst thing you could probably hear is like, oops, that's the penis.
Yeah.
Oh, that's gone.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah, it's it's an experience.
It was the procedure and it felt like it was like a half hour thing.
It was probably like 15 minutes, but like it was, you know, I can hand like the hearing
the sizzling of the conversation and stuff like that's that's fine.
I didn't feel any of that, but like the rooting around for things and stuff.
I did feel like it was decidedly unfun.
Frank, I'm not going to go on record and say we have the best intros to an automotive
adjacent podcast.
We're pretty fucking good.
Yeah.
Well, I got in my car and I drove myself home sitting on it.
They gave they gave me a little like, you know, just a little ice pack bag thing that
I didn't even really use.
But I sat on my way on the drive home.
It felt right.
And a thing of Mott's apple juice.
They gave me a little juice box.
I thought that was the funniest picture.
I like how you candidly had your nuts sitting on an ice pack in the background of that
shot.
Yeah.
No, that's not seen.
I did that on purpose.
You probably could have had pants on, but I'm going to give you points anyway because
of the scenario.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But no.
So anyways, that's my life update.
How about you?
Have you had any general altering surgeries lately or no?
No, I'm still walking around with a fully loaded weapon.
It's quite dangerous.
Oh boy.
Yeah.
It is what it is.
Oh, no.
Okay.
Well, on that on that bombshell.
Well, first off, you got paps today, you're not going Miller.
I got paps, dude.
I got to I got to kill his paps.
I had like a couple of 30 racks.
Wow.
Just just cuz.
Just cuz.
You never know, man.
Just cuz.
I got a I don't know if you could see this read my can here.
We've got the forget about a cus I'm drinking.
God, I saw the street.
I really thought that said two foggy, two furious.
It's like a fast and the furious, yeah, four pack of years, second gen eclipse from what
I can make out.
Maybe.
No, it's it's the it's the pink.
Hard to see.
It's the pink s 2000.
Okay.
Got it.
From the second fast and two fast, two furious, actually, and it's a four pack of cans and
they're all different.
I've got I now have if you can see, oh, there's a shitty lamp.
Okay.
Let me move the shitty lamp.
I have a beverage fridge now.
Look at you upgrading.
It was a hand down for my parents.
It's designed for wine.
So I had to like remove some shelves and stuff.
And so now I have some.
I have to have some cars.
I'm going to keep car themed beers in it and Alvarado Street's a big big fan.
I'm a big fan of theirs and they are a big fan of doing car themed labels on beers, including
this too foggy, too furious.
And so this is this is what I'm drinking today.
And this is a very long intro where it is for our topic today, which is, um, boy, are
we are we going to do it?
Are we going to throw throw another gauntlet down for one another?
Am I in a position to do it?
No.
Do I have like this unbelievable force that's pressing me towards it?
Yes.
We're going to do it, dude.
We're going to do this.
Shall I?
Shall I spill it?
Shall I spill it?
Do it.
I mean, I'm going to take a sip of this and taste it and you tell the police, drink your
peak shiny can.
So it's, you know, last time we did a, an APA podcast official cheap car challenge was
for the rally was the $3,500 rally cars were that included the price of the car, the build.
And we've thrown around some other ideas because that was a lot of fun for one of us, but it
was a, it was a fun idea.
And, uh, I think we should do that again.
I think we should absolutely do it again.
And we've tossed around this idea, the cheap overlander, because overlanding is awesome.
Uh, off-roading is fun in general, like really fucking fun.
Uh, but it's a super spendy automotive hobby.
If you're really, if you're really going to build a real adventure rig, dude, the, the
ceiling's out of control, right?
Like, like what people do, um, everything from the kind of off-road van lifestyle stuff,
like a Mercedes Sprinter van that tops out at like 200,000.
You've got, you've got land cruisers that are outfitted with every piece of ARB merchandise,
even the air freshener.
Uh, it gets, it gets wild, right?
Uh, and then there's guys with like LR threes and stuff and LR twos that are just like crazy.
And I love that, but we're cheap.
Yes, we are.
That's, that's kind of, we're super thematic about being cheap.
So I think we tossed around 5,000 bucks.
Does that sound, does that sound doable?
Like honestly doable.
And I, and I'm not talking just building a truck.
I'm talking about something that can withstand you and I going on a moderate,
not mild, moderate off-road adventure.
Um, yeah, I, you know what?
It's funny.
It, it's a tight budget, but if you don't care as much about cool factor, yes.
Yep.
And, and, and if you don't care as much about like the showiness that comes with a
lot of overlanding stuff, right?
Like having your rooftop tent on the top of your SUV with the shovel, with the gas
cans, with the water and this and that all strapped to the side of it to go down
a couple of dirt trails twice a year.
And you keep that on your car and take all the MPG hits for it and all that.
Because it just like, it's butch and it's a look and it's actually a look.
I kind of like, I think it's cool, but it's also functional.
Some applications, it's totally functional, right?
It's functional, but if you never use it, is it functional?
Yeah, cause you don't have the use case.
It's like, it's, it's like an extra, it's like an even more masculine, like EDC,
like everyday carry guy kind of thing.
So if you don't get caught up in that and you're okay with like just pure function,
I think it's super doable.
Super, super doable.
I think, I think, right.
Like, and also, and I say that because like, if you get something where like the
paint's blasted and you just spend the time making it like mechanically pretty
tight and even like, you don't spend huge money on like, you know, you don't buy
the KO threes or whatever, like you just get the tires at work.
Right.
And you don't, the car, it already has no paint.
So like, oops, like I scraped the rockers on things to get up the trail.
Don't care.
Yeah.
Right.
And not like go full like shit box, but like, sure.
Yeah.
I think it's super, I think it's super doable.
Again, if you don't get caught up in, in the cool factor stuff, and it's easy to do.
Like there's always love to do this and oh, I want to put that on it.
And this cool skid plate and this, you know, this lift kid and that and like the
budget will prevent us from doing a lot of that, but I think it's still doable.
You're so right, dude.
It's a slippery slope.
It's scope creep.
It's all of that when you start like locking in for your overland build.
The thing for me, though, is like, sure, we'll find cheap ways to make it happen.
Right.
Cause that's what we do.
But like tires, lift kits, these things aren't cheap.
And if you're buying a stock vehicle and a minimum, we have to have some kind
of modicum of off road quality, quality tire.
And even if we get the cheap ones, like the Mucho Macho, whatever, they do have
cause what's higher does have an off road one.
I don't remember what it's called.
They're still cheaper than they're still cheaper than the like the traditional
like daily grind tire that they offer or all season.
So we're going to spend some money there.
We're, you know, also with all the drive overlanders, we have to make sure
the gearboxes are good.
These are things that fail over time.
If one of us fucks up and buys a truck where the low range gearbox is
fucked, we're out at $5,000 total, right?
So it's tricky.
I think this, I would, I would put the difficulty, the level of difficulty
on this challenge higher than the rally car challenge.
I think so.
I think so because it's, it's fraught with more potential, like
instant lose your fucking kind of pitfalls, right?
Like something breaks or you just get stuck forever or like you thought
that the thing was capable enough and it clearly isn't.
And so I think, I don't know, I'm curious because we, we've only very,
very, very, you and I loosely discuss this.
And so I'm curious to what your thoughts on how you would, how you're
thinking about how you're going to approach this and some of the vehicles
you've had in your mind that you're looking at, because it's, I've found
that if I, if I start looking around in the sub $5,000 price point,
there's kind of like an ocean of options out there.
There are.
Whether they're good or not, or will work or not, TBD.
Sure.
Yeah.
But there's a lot, like there's a lot between, you know, the late 80s
to the late 2000s.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That are heavily depreciated and have huge miles and they might be garbage,
but I promise you some of them aren't, right?
Sure.
Probably 30% of those are serviceable that are out there.
And, you know, for, for most people, it's hard to sell something that's
off-road capable and has 230,000 miles and has bad paint because somebody's
not going to buy it to take it off-road.
They're going to buy it to take the kids to school.
And it gets dog shit gas mileage and looks bad.
And so now it's super depreciated, but that's, that's where we come in.
That's where we swoop in and get the deal of a lifetime.
But like, what, what, what are you thinking about for this?
Yeah.
Oh, just generally, like even at large.
Dude, it's so like the first thing that comes to mind is tires.
I'm setting aside at least a thousand bucks, right?
It's probably maybe a little less than that, but still.
So that already puts me at four.
And you know, buying heavily depreciated off-roaders with high mileage, what else
needs to be done a shit ton of maintenance.
So I'm really aiming, and this is, this is where things get dicey, right?
We're saying 5,000, but I'm going in this thinking I need to be around three,
like right at or as close to three as possible, unless like they've already
have nice off-road tires on there.
Not going to happen for a lot of the stuff we're looking at, but realistically,
I'm aiming for that $3,000 price point, which kind of kates that list down
quite a fair bit to be brutally honest, right?
Yeah.
Like it does take a chunk out, but that's why I want to have a little comfort
because what I don't want, especially this time, it's not, it's not like on the
rally where I blew that heater core hose on the Volvo and had lots of people
to chip it and help.
It's going to be me and this fucking guy next to me, virtually right now, Frank.
And it's just going to be us possibly in the wilderness, probably down a trail
or something.
Sure.
I need to like really put a lot of effort into maintenance this time.
So $3,000.
Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Like it's hard to balance, right?
Cause we're both looking for something functional, but we're also, we like fun
stuff.
So we're going to try to out edge lured each other and picks up kind of fun and
exciting and different and weird.
And so like, because that's points, that's points in the way we grade our
vehicles.
You know, like there's, if, if I show up with a, I get a scream and deal on a,
like a Pajero mini or something like that.
If you can score that for that price.
Good Lord.
I mean, yeah, I mean, it would be, it'd be something terribly wrong with it.
Um, and maybe that's okay.
Right?
What's terribly wrong with it?
Oh no, a tree fell on the roof and they hammered it back into place until I
got it for two grand.
Like, okay, put a roof rack up there.
You can't see it anymore.
Done.
Um, so there's ways to do it.
And, and you said balance, which I think is the right word because a lot of.
There's a lot of stuff that I'm looking at where I go, okay, for maybe $2,500, I
can get something that, you know, needs maintenance and can do most of what we're
looking to do probably in stock form, but would greatly benefit from, you know,
chunkier tires or like a gentle lift kit or, um, you know, some, some, some of the
cheap flashy stuff that you can do, right?
Like in an L, like a used LED light bar.
We've got to do some marketplace.
Yeah, some of that shit, right?
Yeah.
Or, and, and maybe you've got to do a timing belt service and, um, and, and, and some,
some heavier maintenance stuff, right?
Mm hmm.
And it's $2,500.
Or what if I find something that is more capable out of the box has a lot is more
well maintained, maybe it's ugly, right?
And that's why it's only $4,500.
But now I'm, and, and maybe it's got good tires on it.
Maybe they're not like super chunky mud terrains, but maybe they're like solid
all terrain ATs.
Yep.
Yep.
You know, um, something, something like that.
But now you're flying close to the sun, right?
Now maybe you think, Hey, I'm set up out of the box.
I got $500 to do, you know, to, to, to buy the, the used light bar and, and,
and whatever.
But if you get it and then all of a sudden you're like, Oh shit, like this
needs a rear diff mount or this thing, it turns out it's got a leaky air strut or
whatever.
Are you, am I selling the, the, the second row seats to be able to.
Get money back to get it trail ready.
So that's, that's the balance.
And I keep going, I keep waffling back and forth because there's some stuff,
you know, um, there's some stuff that you can get cheap.
Um, and you know, you're going to have to put work into it, but then you know,
you're going to be good on the other end.
Right.
And there's other stuff that's a little pricier.
So I don't know.
I keep waffling back on, back and forth on kind of how I want to approach it.
Like what's your guy?
Dude, it's tough.
I, it's for me personally, and this is just my frugality in life is I always
want to come in low with my initial investment.
That way I have the room to play.
Cause even if the vehicle isn't as robust from the factory, that money, the
aftermarket for most of these trucks, depending on how obscure you go, right?
Uh, is there to bring it up to that level it needs to be.
And the beauty of this is like, we are kind of doing like an overlight
overland kind of build it.
We're not building rock crawlers.
So these vehicles can't just be cool to take through a muddy like pit or over
some bumps, these things have to drive to wherever we're going.
And I think we should bake in a little, little bit of a road trip section.
Cause I think that's not the best thing about overlanding is your vehicle has
to safely and comfortably somewhat get you to the location.
So yeah, so I have a location.
I have a thought.
Hear me out.
Okay, let's hear it.
Um, so I Alaska.
Not a dead horse.
We're going to Prudhoe Bay.
Let's fucking go.
Yeah.
Now that I've had my viceectomy, I want to go to Prudhoe.
No, um, this guy has no fear.
He's going to be free-skiing the whole time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, no, but somewhere between here and Prudhoe Bay is, um, uh, Lassen.
So if you go like Lassen National Forest, which is God, what is that from here?
About four and a half hour drive.
Oh, um, north.
Uh huh.
But so the last time I went up there, I have got, I've got some good friends
of mine, they've got a cabin up there and I'm not talking about like, let's go
invade their cabin, although that could be fun.
Um, it's, my God, I can't even remember the name of the town.
There's like a little, there's a bunch of, like it's, there's a ton of just BLM
land out there and that's Bureau, Bureau of Land Management, not Black Lives Matters.
Um, I don't know if they have their own sovereign nation yet, but give it time.
Give it time.
Um, I feel like there's a Liberia joke in there that I'm not going to make because
it's, I almost said Wakanda forever, but I, I, I also backed off.
Yeah.
Backed off.
Fair enough.
Um, we're not going to make it four hours, but continue BLM and I support
both types of BLM, but the BLM I'm talking about the Bureau of Land Management.
Um, there's a ton of just BLM land out there with some really cool trails.
And I actually took the lifted Sienna out there and got it through some really
hairy stuff.
Nice.
And then got to like this like huge granite staircase that was just like, nope,
that's not going to work, but I think we can build, we can show up with things
that could do that.
Um, in something that isn't the lifted mini van.
Yeah.
Um, and you can just like out, it could be a land land, like you're just allowed
to kind of like, as long as you clean up after yourself, you can just kind of
can't wherever there's a bunch of like, you know, like alpine lakes and stuff
up there.
Um, and there are other people that go up there.
So if we could catastrophically wreck our shit, you know, we might have to
sit there for 12 hours, but somebody will come by and we can get bailed out.
So, um, that's where I've been thinking about doing something like this.
Um, and that would have a great transit section.
Um, it's up by like Butte Meadows and up there.
Okay.
Um, do you have any, what have you been looking at?
Dude, I've been looking at a lot.
I've got a lot of like, I ping pong back and forth.
Oh, this would be perfect.
Oh, but then like, I'm very shiny object.
I keep like finding other things.
Like what have, what have you been, what have you been like lightly shopping for?
So I don't want to, I don't want to like, no, I haven't picked up anything yet.
Usually that's the case.
I bought two.
Um, which one?
No, we were going to XTERRA land for a while.
I sent you a few XTERRAs.
I think XTERRA is still a very strong candidate just because it's, it's modern
enough, it's fucking capable enough.
Yeah, the market, I think they're at, here's the thing though, Frank,
I've been paying attention.
I pay attention to some like, you know, topical stuff about cars.
New XTERRA looks fucking sick.
That's coming out.
Have you seen pictures of this thing?
I've seen like one.
I saw it pretty dope.
Yeah, dude.
So they're like, it's straight up body on frame, hardcore off-road or super boxy.
Yeah.
Like kind of what we're talking about fucking Nissan doing.
Dude, can we just say that we did our saving Nissan talk kind of bled through?
So I picked up on it, man.
But anyway, XTERRA is coming back, which we could see a rising, you know, rising
water raises all ships kind of deal if we do buy XTERRAs.
So we can get out of them without losing their entire lives.
I like XTERRAs.
I like XTERRAs.
I do want a manual.
They are fetching a premium.
I've been, I've been looking at that.
I'm okay with an auto for off-same.
You know, a lot of the extreme majority of stuff that's out there is going to be
automatic only it is and on for an off-roader.
I'm pretty I'm I'm take it either way.
Honestly, I'm sure there's some there's some funness and funness.
That's a word funness and some added novelty for having a manual and potential
like if you score a good deal on something that's a manual, there's
a potential better resale on the other end if you play your cards right.
So there's that, but like, I'm not beholden and reliability.
If this thing, if those XTERRAs had a jack-o fucking CVT in it, right?
But they don't have a good auto gearbox.
Well, yeah.
Well, unless you get a screaming deal on a second gen XTERRA and then you
get cool migration through the shitty welds and the radiator, we can barely
afford the first gen, dude.
So I'll take that.
I think I've looked at the XTERRAs.
There's the usual candidates there.
I loved I loved my first gen Trooper, but I don't think it's the vehicle
for a road trip, something about the 120 horsepower, top speed of 50 miles per hour.
Might be a little troublesome.
Same with like a Suzuki Samurai, you cannot afford for that price point.
I think our trackers and sidekicks are fair game.
Those are cool trucks to get, but they're they're getting hard to pinch under five.
And there's there and here's another thing.
And I'm glad that you mentioned those that kind of run of vehicles, right?
Because I think there is.
There's for the overlanding thing, there's value in having something big.
Sure, because you can you can just sleep in it and you can have a bunch of gear
and lots of gear, a bunch of shit.
But then there's also a different set of advantages for having something small.
Trails, right.
Like a real tight wheelbase is great.
Something narrow is great.
And and, you know, potential fuel economy gains in the transit section.
Great.
So I go back and forth on like, how do I want to kind of structure this?
And I've been leading mentally more into the big side of things.
Yeah, same.
But then at XTERRA, which would be it's kind of like that's a midsize today,
though, isn't a midsize today.
Yeah, XTERRA. Yeah.
Right. I think XTERRA is kind of the right size.
It is. It is.
But what was a pathfinder?
Like a first or second gen pathfinder?
Same same form factor, really.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm good with that kind of stuff.
Monteros are good.
V6 Monteros are pretty nice.
What else do we usually traffic in?
And now you could be silly.
Go a little crazy.
We've been known to do this.
You could score a rough LR3.
I've been looking at those a lot.
You know, I have to.
I've been looking at those a lot.
I must pull the trigger on a few of those.
There's a few for like mid to high threes.
I know.
With big miles with like 200 K.
And you're like, because that's that.
See, like that is the exact example of stuff
where I'm looking at, like, how far, how, how close to the sun
do I want to fly as far as out of the box capability?
You know, the V8s are reliable.
The LR3. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Those LR3s are probably the most reliable
range Rover Land Rover ever made.
Yeah. Because the LR4 is just eight.
The timing chain guides, like commonly.
Yeah. Those five.
And the LR4s are too expensive for what we're doing.
But you can get like a 200,000 mile bad paint LR3
for like 3,500 bucks. Yeah. Yeah.
And just hope nothing breaks.
Nothing electrical breaks. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Well, it's electrical.
Like, oh, the headlights don't work.
Like, OK. My gauge cluster goes out.
It's fine. Whatever. Is it running?
Is it knocking? Descendant?
Because those are really capable on the trail.
And so nice, like, very comfy for the ride, right?
Yeah. Your transit section will be cake.
Yeah. Like, if you if you can buy the right one, that's a big if.
If you can buy the right one, say you spend four.
I mean, you kind of can just spend tires and go
if it's the right one.
But and then, you know, like, oh, by the way, I did look it up.
There are Muchumacho Cosmo tires.
They do make. Oh, they do make their own brand of mud terrains.
They're called mud kickers.
OK. You can get some mud kickers. Cool.
Yeah. So so good to know.
But yeah, the LR3s are interesting.
Like, I do find the HSEs with like the locking diffs
and everything do ask for a premium for people selling them.
They seem to know that.
But, ah, dude, this is.
But if something breaks on that, it's you're out.
If you buy a four thousand dollar LR3 and you need to put,
like, anything serious mechanically into it, right?
Parts are still super pricey on those, by the way.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that's the crux.
eBay motors for the win for like a lot of shit, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, I'm not ruining it, dude.
Look, I'm not ruining it out.
I got a bunch of them saved and I'm with you.
They're right there.
But we probably have the same one saved.
Yeah, of course we do.
And they're at the higher end of the price thing.
So like, oh, you hope you're like, oh, it runs great.
It's my daily. It's just on, you know, it's on, like,
it's been parked for, like, three years.
And like, oh, that's not a daily.
That's one that was just like runs great.
Everything's perfect. It just needs cats.
And I'm like, what the like? God damn it.
It's got a big, can't be totaled. Yeah.
Yeah. That's that's at least four thousand dollars.
Cool. Yeah.
They're like three grand.
I was, oh, that's doable.
It's like, oh, it needs cats.
Like that's the place we can overland
without catalytic converters, but whatever.
Yeah. That'd be hard.
It's a registration part.
It's interesting.
So the, I saw our next terror where it was like,
oh, transmission's bad.
It just needs a trans.
And I'm like, well, you're selling it for like five hundred
dollars cheaper than one with a working trans.
I'm probably going to hard pass on that.
But thank you. Yeah.
You. OK.
So we can just kind of all these back and forth
because I've seen a lot of different stuff that would work.
You know what are shockingly, maybe not shockingly,
but in my mind, shockingly inexpensive
and would either be really good or really awful for this.
Give me a hint.
Yeah. Domestic.
Foreign. What are we talking?
Foreign. Large, small, quite large.
Oh, oh, Japanese and old, old Sequoia.
Maybe I got an old beater.
No, but yes.
Yes. That's what I'm talking about here.
And actually, I have, I have a line on a decent one of those,
but we'll get to that in a minute.
Yep.
Um, first gen, Infinity QX 56.
They're so fucking cheap.
That's what I mean.
There are reasons that would work like I could probably get.
And then I'm looking, I'm like, oh, bro,
I can get one that like smells like like shake
and and and and bong water for like thirty eight hundred dollars.
You can.
I don't know how good that would be on a trail.
I don't. Those are our mod is correct.
Like, yeah, those ones were just our modest,
which were not as good as the Pathfinder for off roadiness,
but yeah, robust.
Almost like a like a suburban somewhere
size wise between a suburban and a Tahoe.
Oh, that's a big boy.
Your suspension is going to be fuckered.
Yeah, but like it was intriguing.
I was like, oh, this would be like a fun, weird thing.
That would be cool.
I did look at I love the passports and rodeos.
I think those are kind of fun.
Yeah, those are kind of like those are kind of like first gen Pathfinder size,
which I actually love because it's like to me,
that size vehicle is perfect for trail bombing.
You know, they're not too wide.
Wheelbase isn't too long to make it like high center.
And they're reliable.
They're pretty robust, pretty reliable.
And I think they look cool.
Yeah. And yeah.
That, hold on, let me mentally count.
Is it somewhere between third and fourth gen Pathfinder?
I'm not up to it, but it's like the like the 2005.
And up, I guess, like a third or a thousand third gen.
Yeah, because that second gen was really like,
I feel like it got in 2000, it became the third gen,
but it was really the updated.
Whatever they call it, the R are 51.
I don't remember. And I like those.
I like those second gen's.
No, the second gen's are great.
And you can get one of those.
They're not as capable as something like the XTERRA.
Sure. Not nor is that third gen.
But you can get those third gen's with the four liter,
like the VQ, the VQ 40.
Also, like really inexpensive.
I know. And it's a little bigger than something like an XTERRA.
But they're cheaper than a second gen XTERRA.
And so you can get one for thirty five hundred bucks with big miles.
That might be that might be an interesting play, too.
I don't know. Is an interesting play.
Are you ruling out like S10 Blazers and Bronco Ts for this exercise?
No. And they're kind of fun.
And maybe this maybe this would be a either a second mission
if we accomplished the first one or or maybe it's maybe we can work this
into our adventure.
But my kid really wants to go on on a on an overlanding camping adventure.
Yeah. And if if if if we we both were bringing children in tow,
I think something something's a little bigger than a Bronco to.
Right. Would be advantageous.
However, you're looking at holding on to this piece of crap rig.
I like it. No, but I'd like to like if I get like to the other end of summer
and then sell it and then take it on.
You are ambitious, my friend.
You're ambitious for five or five months.
But like I can.
I can see where I don't know,
because I thought about like two door SUVs, like what's on your tour.
No, they're so good looking.
You know, I feel about that.
Well, then you can go like first gen F Finder and silly stuff like that,
like the Bronco to blazer you get in two door explore.
I've been looking at Explorer Sports because they're cheap.
Any gen. Yep. Two door Explorer.
I love the Explorer Sports.
And you get a manual and you get a four liter Mazda.
I've been looking. I've been looking.
I found one in SoCal, but it's a little too rough.
Early CRX RAV4, two door manuals.
Probably going to be a little too price creepy there.
But if you can buy a rough one, that would be killer.
Yeah, two car donation.
I think I said you a photo car donation has a first gen
Explorer Sport. Yeah, that was pretty killer.
I think it's 87,000 miles on it.
Damn, probably should bring that one back.
Did they donate it because it's stuck in four high?
Oh, but I looked and it's not an uncommon thing.
There's just like it's just like a motorized actuator that fails
and rock auto has got one for like one hundred and fifty bucks.
You saying we should rescue that bad boy?
Maybe. I don't know. Maybe I overland it.
I don't know.
Maybe it's too nice to overland because it's it's nice.
It's green over green over beige.
So you mentioned there was a just for a second.
It was like thirty five or thirty eight hundred bucks.
It was a four door teal RAV4 manual.
Four by four that popped up just for a millisecond.
Sold that same day before I could message the guy like it popped up.
And I'm like, I got a message that later and then because it was so cheap.
I think they said the the rear main seal was leaking, which is kind of a dick.
But sometimes people are wrong when they said it was a manual.
Yes. Yeah, so great.
You're doing a clutch too.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
But I mean, you don't ever see like the manual RAV4s and Cervys are always super pricey.
This thing was like thirty eight hundred bucks.
And I'm talking like had a hundred and four thousand miles.
So low mileage.
It was teal with the crazy nice interior.
I know I was like and then like, of course,
they probably got destroyed with messages, right?
You know, it is.
You've probably seen it because we're our algorithms, I assume, are pretty similar.
Just like a hub, right.
I've heard it sounds like that.
So yeah, so I've heard what sounds like that.
I don't know. Whatever we're talking about, bro.
The god damn it.
Hold on. You reset the brain space here.
No, I'm sorry.
There is a two door, of course, it's two door,
but it's like an O one.
I think it's O one or O two.
Isuzu Amigo. Yep.
It says twelve thousand miles.
I'm assuming it's more than that one twenty.
I'm assuming they left it off, but it looks really clean.
They're asking like thirty six hundred bucks.
Four by four. Only two.
There's I. Yeah, four by five.
It says four by four.
There's like hardly any description and only two photos.
But it looks really clean.
And I'm like, oh, I love this thing.
Sick and amigo.
Dude, my old man had one growing up
manual with the cloth top.
And it was like, I thought it was hell, yes.
Who was the vehicle?
This one's got the hard top on it.
Oh, yeah, it's still cool.
But the yeah, it's like a silver over three two tone.
Yeah, you could unzip the windows and shit.
And it was just like it looked at the time.
It looked so good when it came out.
Yeah, so that would be.
But like, I think I want something a little bit bigger than that.
Hmm.
What else have you been and you said, Montero?
That's my short list.
They're like you can get a third gen Montero.
Yep.
I think facelift on those was oh three.
And with the facelift, you got the three eight,
which is nice, nice little power.
You get like an extra 20 horse or something.
Power.
I don't really care about too much on this adventure.
No, just get enough to maintain highway speeds.
Right. That's that's the big thing.
But yeah, like those fucking mudwappers on there.
Well, like that's the thing.
Those third gen Monteros are so like probably the most amount of capable
that you can get for your money.
But sure, even more like.
I would say they're more probably more capable than an exterra.
Really? Yeah.
The tires, I think they've got more ground clearance out of the box.
The tires are bigger.
The wheelbase is longer, which is tough.
They're heavier.
They're certainly heavier.
Yep.
But the I know the Limited's.
They all came with center locking diff,
but I know the the Limited's came with rear.
Rear locker, but it's like a rear LSD.
Yep, which what did they call that hit a name for it?
I can't remember the top of my head.
Yeah, my feck. No, I don't know.
My peck.
Yeah, OPEC.
I mean, they get terrible gas mileage.
So my true peck.
But no, they those are
like in a lot of ways in my mind, that's the right answer.
But we never I never choose the right answer.
So I don't know if a great one comes along.
What else have you been looking at, though?
I mean, that's we're running out of territory here, man.
Accurate SLXs aren't coming up too often.
Yeah, I've been looking at the second gen trooper.
So same. Yeah, good, good truck.
Those are good trucks.
Dude, the quality of life improvements of a first gen versus second gen trooper
is like near infinite.
Oh, it's just to be just to be terribly clear.
It's like a farm implement to like a luxury cruising vehicle, which is cool,
because I love the farm implement of the first gen.
Trust me, that's the looks too are better.
But yeah, the second gen huge step up in luxury and power, mechanical advancement.
Well, that's like a lot.
But what I'm finding with a lot of this is
a lot of people like the farm implement thing for doing what we're doing.
Yep. And I do, too, in a perfect world, give me the farm implement.
Yep. Same. That is like, you know, that is the first gen is
who trooper or early Montero or first raider for runner.
Dodge raider, first gen pathfinder is even a little nicer than those.
But the market appreciates those a lot better, too.
Exactly. There's a lot more people that appreciate that.
So kind of where the sweet spot is, is like the first, like the more newer stuff
that doesn't have that same farm implement kitchiness
and feel and hipsterness to them.
Like the third gen Montero and that's that first gen XTERRA.
Second, third gen pathfinders. Yep.
Another one, I've been, you know, like your your what it does.
WJ, Grand Cherokees.
I was going to say, yeah, no, no looking at the Cherokees or what?
You know what? I you know what?
I just started looking at today and is absolutely a contender to the point
we're like. And again, I say I waffle back and forth.
So what I say is front runner right now will be completely different tomorrow.
OK. But one thing that I've been looking at is my mental front runner right now.
You know how cheap you can get a fully equipped
Jeep commander for, dude, very, you know, how sick.
Very, how sick were those when they first came out?
They had an issue this thing.
Well, they have a few. Well, it's got a heavy.
That's the issue. Yeah, they got one that's like not ticking ticking away.
They're so nice looking. They're so good.
I remember when those came out and it was like.
God, were they cool like in every way?
I think every walk of life appreciated those and then they disappeared.
Yeah, yeah. God, they're nice.
Yeah, like there's a there's a couple.
There's a couple I saw in marketplace here locally that are like.
Out of the box turnkey ready like, well, this one's been lifted
and has like is overland built for like under five grand done.
And I'm like, it's they look so cool.
They were so sick.
So they were polarizing when they came out because they were boxy.
They were kind of clunky looking, but now boxy is beautiful again.
I don't. There's got to be a reason they're not appreciating.
Frank, I'm not trying to point any fingers.
I think they're forgotten about.
I'm not. Yeah.
I think we have some Chrysler reliability baked in, of course.
The heavy, right? Yeah.
I'm a huge fan of rebuilding hemmies. That's cool.
I can get that motor bill by a cam and get some new, you know,
oh, my God, some new lifters.
But anyway, there's a reason, but agreed.
That's a cool truck.
That's a very.
Oh, and that would be a comfy ride.
If you got a sorted one, the road part would be Gourmet.
That's my main living.
And they're pretty they're pretty capable out of the box.
Like, you know, lots of what we're going to do.
You know, we're not going to we're not going to conquer the Rubicon
unless we are, I don't know, but.
Well, we got somewhere.
And those are sick.
And, you know, before we ran out of time, like.
You mentioned early Sequoia.
Yep. Yep.
There is.
You can you can find big time milers.
Not big timers.
That's that's everybody gets a roll on everybody.
Everybody gets a roll on what that's different.
Thank you for clarifying. Yeah.
Although I promise you the big timers had a perhaps Birdman,
maybe little Wayne had a a come a brand new
chief commander limited period, but they had to have someone like twenty eighths.
Those sick.
Sequoias, yeah, you can get you can get a you can get a beat up miler
for just under five.
Yeah, like just like forty five hundred dollars.
There is one at my car donation guys got in and it's been sitting there.
Nobody wants it because it has two hundred and sixty five thousand miles.
Nothing.
It's an O five, which is the first year.
The VVTI VVTI and the five speed auto.
So it's the one you want.
You see FV power.
Right. And it's fully decked out.
So it's a limited four wheel drive as all the options.
Leather, all the bells and whistles, tattered leather.
The leather is actually not too bad.
Now, it is disgusting like it needs a it needs like seven details.
The paint on the bumpers are chewed up.
They ran a car fax.
There's some service records in it.
No accidents. OK.
But you pop the engine bay.
There's no recording of a timing belt ever being done on the car fax.
There's no sticker anywhere in the engine bay.
So it needs that can't be true.
But I mean, it could be.
It could.
I'm assuming it is.
Got a TI to use these.
So you have to do a timing belt.
You absolutely do.
Um, the valve covers are leaking pretty good.
I could I and but it's been sitting and nobody's got nobody's buying it.
I could probably I could probably in in good conscious buy it for four.
OK.
Oh, boy.
But then I have to do myself because only the budget would allow it.
Yep. Timing belt, water pump, valve covers,
which is fairly fairly straightforward on a ZFE.
Yeah, it's not too bad.
But it's time.
Yeah, it's a few hundred bucks to.
And then and then also, you know, the tires on it are in decent shape,
but they're just like Michelin latitude.
Just not going to retire, not going to cut it, which like.
Can try and probably be OK.
I can't afford a winch in my budget, dude.
Don't don't do it.
Yeah, what's cheaper?
I buy a winch versus.
Right. Good Lord.
So I don't know.
It's it's gray with it's like dark gray with gray leather.
They installed like DVD players in the back and like there's like mystery
switches in the dash that are for God's.
Fun. Yeah, probably exhaust get out.
I don't know. I don't I don't know.
But that's in the running.
So the sequoias are great.
I'm sure like we're up against it for time.
I'm sure we missed anything.
Guys, listeners, if we're missing anything obvious or you have any good
pointers on like vehicles, we should be looking at that.
We didn't name.
Dude, let us know because I'm Lincoln aviator.
Yeah, no.
Maybe maybe mercury mountaineer.
You're just naming the same vehicle, dude.
I mean, point is point is in the right direction.
And let us let us know what we're missing out on and where we should go with this.
And I know we have an obligation to be kind of goofy and off color with our choices.
So ML 430 X 90 and you have to sleep in it.
So yes, yes, with your legs hanging out the bed you made.
You must sleep in it.
Good Lord.
But that's a fun one, man.
I'm actually looking forward to that.
We'll have to put a timeline to it soon before you find the perfect vehicle.
Well, here's the thing with the timeline.
You got the leg up here because you already sold your previous
challenge car for huge coin and I'm sitting on mine just out here in the driveway.
And in a couple of days, I'm going to put it on a lift.
I'm going to poke around the rear suspension and get that thing sorted
and and you need to move it or the registration is up in April.
So I got to get it sorted between here and there.
Save that talk for PCP, my friend.
That's that's a proper PCP.
That's true. OK, well, anyways,
should we play a game?
We should. We should.
All right, I want to introduce this one.
Yeah, I'm going to pull something especially nasty.
Oh, OK. Well, while Chadwick fishes around in his corner.
Oh, by the way, real quick, you didn't shout out the game behind you.
You got you got a game.
So we have a Sega Dreamcast title called Speed Devils.
It's not a super well known.
It's an arcade racing game that is none of its real.
And they're just all fictional cars.
A good good Mitsubishi FTO.
Good call. So in the game, you're racing and there's like crazy things.
There's like a dinosaur chasing you at one point.
There's tornadoes.
Remember the old arcade style race?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's just like losing games.
It's just so fun, dude.
So I'm a huge sim guy.
I love like sim racing, but I also love this kind of fun arcadey stuff.
So shout out Sega Dreamcast.
Sega Dreamcast.
Good call, man. All right.
You queue it up and then we're just going to play a game,
which if for the uninitiated, which is probably none of you.
But just in case.
Yeah, so this is what we're doing.
Chadwick has found a print advertisement from some sort of magazine.
Maybe a newspaper.
We have no newspaper yet.
We haven't. And what he's going to do is he's going to find this ad.
It's going to be for a car.
It's going to be from somewhere between the 80s and 90s to the mid 2000s.
And he's going to read the type copy from that ad.
He's going to mentally redact out anything super overly identifying.
And then there will be incumbent upon me within three guesses,
within 10 minutes to figure out the make model in approximate year
of the vehicle in question.
I'm ready. Play along at home.
It's a lot of fun. Chadwick, what you got for me?
Yeah, this is a good one.
Single page spread.
Top 40 percent of the advertisement is a side profile of the car
moving through a wet road, is what it looks like in the vehicles in Silver
to stop your mind's eye from wandering too far off the city.
Spends.
Finally. God damn it again.
Didn't even start the clock.
So here we go, my friend.
Oh, it also shows this weird shot.
I don't know why it feels like it shouldn't be included.
It's just the shot across the passenger and driver seat.
Oh, sure. OK.
Nothing remarkable, but just that shot.
Just so you know, and you know this shot because as someone that photographs now
equipped, it's your standard to your shot.
Yeah, too. Wow.
So here we go.
Compared to the top three import sedans,
blank puts you in the driver's seat with more room, period, more power, period.
OK, let me let me get this dialed in, buddy.
More room than the top three import sedans.
It says it breaks this down and itemized categories.
The the the the print is not that well
sorted or clear.
So bear with me.
Squint, baby.
The blank sedan shown has
we're going to get very technical.
Fourteen cubic feet more total room.
Then here come some competitors.
You know how we like to do this Toyota Corolla.
Ten more than Nissan Sentra.
Eight more than Honda Accord based on EPA ratings
for blank models.
That's the year I'm not going to give it away yet.
Wait, Corolla, Sentra and Accord, not Civic, whatever.
That's fine.
Kerry, I know, right?
Trust me.
The year is important.
Blank Coupe.
So this car comes in other body shapes,
equals or beats Corolla, Sentra and Honda Prelude Coupe in room.
Blank wagon.
We have a wagon, too.
Wow. Beats.
This is getting out of hand.
Beats the top selling import wagon by a comfortable margin.
Eleven cubic feet more room for passengers.
Five more for cargo.
It doesn't say what it's compared to, but it just says that it has more.
Our hatchbacks, a winner, too, with more total room than Corolla, Sentra
and Accord hatchbacks.
OK, so there's some timeline hints, right?
Like when those cars had hatchbacks.
Yeah, more power than the top three imports.
Now we're going to talk power.
Blank's high compression prove it to two liter engine outpowers the three
top selling imports based on SEA net rated horsepower.
So just so you know that, coupled with Blank's front wheel drive and available
five speed, its performance, even you can feel, Frank, plus electronic fuel injection.
Blank has it.
Accord doesn't, Corolla doesn't, Sentra doesn't.
And then it's lower prices.
And it says the year.
That's right.
Based on a comparison of manufacturer's suggested retail prices for blank blank
years, Cabel, almost said it.
Calamari is looking at the food.
That's the food on the passenger seat.
Prices are actually lower than last year.
Level of equipment will vary.
See your blank dealer now.
Drive the proof that blank.
That's the country of origin.
Sales leader is taking charge.
Fuck, Frank, go ahead.
Well, before you absolutely eviscerated on dick and balls similarly to my
urologist did, roughly 10 days ago.
I was thinking, okay.
When you first started, like first off, yeah, and right out of the gate, this had
to have been a, this is a domestic manufacturer.
Clearly.
Yep.
Even though they mentioned only Japanese cars, this is going to be a U S manufacturer.
Sure.
Then you said to leader.
So in my head, I was like, okay, sedan, wagon, hatchback and then with a hatchback
component in there, this, this has got to be an escort.
But then you went to leader.
Yep.
Which escort was no sir.
You had the one nine and they wouldn't have said high compression.
They would have said high output because that's that's how they, that's how they rolled.
But otherwise that was a pretty tight.
So when you said two leaders, okay, we get the, we get the gears turning.
But also that eliminates Chrysler because the K cars were two, two or two, five, depending
on the turbocharged flavoring.
And they didn't talk about turbocharged.
So that kind of left GM, right?
Because you had in the J body stuff, you had the two leader and some stuff, you had a two,
two or two, five depending on, depending on what was going on.
But in the two leaders, which would have been competing, competing, he said, we have words
tonight, exactly with the, the centra and the Corolla that came in a wagon and the
prelude queue, mind you, and I've sold, I've, I've got some serious seed time in a, in a
two leader automatic wagon of one of these.
So this has got to be, this has got to be a GM J body, which, which, of which there are
many of which starts with the word I almost said, right?
Yeah.
So there's the Cavalier, there's the Simeron, which didn't come out in a wagon or a coop
or a hatchback didn't come, you know, the Pontiac sunbird, which had like the one eight
turbo and some other stuff.
So yeah, this is all me just like time-filling and we're up against talking
circles, talking circles about what is a gosh, I'm going to say 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier.
You got the car right 83 is early, early, early, early.
Yeah, early, early.
Because you know what you're right?
Because I think 83 was when they, because 82, I believe was carbureted.
And then 83, they went to fuel injection injection in the, the two leader.
So.
So yeah, good.
I'm sure I helped you a little bit by reading it, but you're right.
Processed a little bit of the reason I wanted to do this ad was two big reasons,
dude, we haven't done a Cavalier yet, which is fucking, I'm serious.
We haven't done a Cavalier yet.
I think there's something wrong with our list because there's a lot of cars that
I'm pretty sure we've done and I didn't see on the list.
Believe it or not, we haven't.
I go back, I went back and listed through all our episodes and I listened to
hear the quiz.
So the fact is it harkens back.
I think when Doug was here, we talked about a little bit too, is how every
automaker, they didn't just have a car.
It wasn't just like, uh, that's a sedan or that's a coupe.
They had the Cavalier scoop sedan wagon, off-road utility vehicle, rocket ship,
biplane, that's every automaker, whatever they were doing this.
Every automaker was, they had their car name because the name was recognizable.
It had cache and just had a body style for every use case, which I, I think
it's fucking cool.
I think in 83 that you could go get a Cavalier wagon, hatchback, coupe or
sedan is brilliant.
What is available today?
That is available in many, like more than two body styles.
I'm trying to think of stuff that's like, what even is available in like two?
CTSV wagon back in the day was a more recent one.
But I mean, like now, like today, dude, what now does it matter?
We all have plug-in appliances and I guess you have like, what, maybe an R1S and
R1T, I guess.
But like, what is, like what is even available right now?
That's, the Civic isn't even a coupe and a sedan anymore.
No, right, right.
And they were one of the last holdouts.
I don't, is there anything?
Can BMW doesn't have a wagon anymore?
Do they, or do they for a diesel?
They don't have diesels.
Because that was pretty recent.
Diesel's dead.
You could get a three series, obviously, coupe, sedan or diesel relatively recently.
But that's the thing, though, because of the coupes.
I mean, here's the thing, like BMW and a lot of the German manufacturers
made it really dumb because they're like, we're going to separate our coupes
and sedans.
So we're going to have the three series are going to be the sedan.
And then the four series are going to be the coupes.
But then you get the four series Grand Coupe and then the GT, which is like a
lifted, like it gets all one.
The GT's are the cord, what's it called?
The Crosstor, the Crosstor.
It is a Crosstor, right?
Um, God, I want to take a soft.
I kind of want to do a soft rotor for our adventure, but I kind of don't.
Anyways, oh, I don't want to do it either.
That that that XC 70 that I sent you.
Oh, yeah, dude, that'd be cool.
Yeah.
But OK, yeah.
So yeah, Chevy, Chevy Cavalier.
Good job, man.
You did it.
Chevrolet is taking charge.
1983, 83.
You got there, man.
Right. A little bit of a little bit of just a pinch, but how about some PCP, man?
What have you been? What have you been up to?
Turning wrenches, Frank?
Um, sort of.
I I I turned a credit card.
That counts.
So I had a I had a I had a situation.
Oh, the daily, the CT 200, the the beer CT 200 H.
You son of a bitch.
Did you water pump it?
No, no, water pumps actually in a box, like right over here at the replacement.
It's half the battle right there.
Yeah, it's ready to go.
Um, a proper asin pump, mind you.
Good, good, good, man.
But no, no, um, I lost the tire.
My driver's rear tire had had had myself a little blowout on the freeway.
I caught it, right?
I heard it.
It was like, that's a weird noise.
And so, you know, I come from the left rear.
So I a little shimmy.
Yeah. And I felt a wiggle.
I was like, tire.
But I was I was like the exit to my house.
So I pull off the freeway, like on the exit.
And I look, I'm like, oh, yeah, it's it's done, done.
And so I had the tires.
There's the ones that were on the car when I bought it.
The fronts are like 20, 21.
Now, 20, 22, day-coded.
OK, not bad.
Pilot sport all seasons.
Oh, and the rear's 20, 21 day-coded.
Laufins.
I was going to say Laufin.
You should have Laufin.
Good man.
So what was great was like the front would stick.
And so like in the rain or anything like I can get it to oversteer,
which you should be able to do in a CT 200 age.
It's not recommended.
No, but kind of fun and just dumb.
Yeah. So the fronts were, you know, I've got.
Forty thousand miles on those tires almost.
OK, they were basically new on the car when I got them.
But, you know, it's like that's a lot of miles on a front wheel drive car
on those tires and then the rear sort of Laufins.
So I got tires.
I bit the bullet, though.
And instead of getting a set of four Laufins or land spiders,
Michelin, Lynx, high efficiency.
Copia, whatever.
No, I did tires.
I bought a full set of four pilot sport all seasons.
Oh, very nice.
So PS4 AS is good.
They're not they're not like the the, you know, whatever.
But for a daily for this car specifically.
Good tire. It's a lot of tire.
So I spent more money than I wanted to.
But that car's been really good to me.
That's what they do.
I spent I expensed huge mileage on that car and got money back for it.
So the cars paid for itself a few times over.
And also basically all of the tire pressure sensors were dead.
So I did those two set of four tires, all new pressure sensors.
I've never done an alignment on this car since I've owned it
for the 40,000 miles or whatever.
I've had it. Good tires.
You should now.
So good tires, four wheel line alignment, mountain balance,
pressure sensors.
So what, $1,200 later?
Nice, dude.
Not nice, but nice, right?
Yeah, that's great.
And and look, yeah, you said the car's been nice to you.
So I'm going to take care of it.
Water pump in the box.
Comment with standing.
Yes, they are great cars.
I've owned two of them.
I'm I am all we never celebrate our dailies.
And that's because our dailies are not newsworthy most of the time.
Right. Because we have fucking dead, not reliable dailies.
And that's the best part of having those cars for a day.
Yeah, yeah, I just turned 202,000 miles on it.
OK, and, you know, it the only side effect of this
is that now means I'm kind of pot committed
to sticking with it for a while.
And I'm putting another 20,000 miles on it,
which it will do without breaking a sweat.
It's just do I want to do that?
Or do I want to, as we've talked about a bunch of times
and we've had a whole episode dedicated to it?
I don't know. We did one of the episodes ago.
Is life too short for having a boarding daily?
And should I get something more fun?
And so this at least temporarily stays that good.
I mean, kind of good, because it gives me more money
to spend on shipbox overlanders.
But that's it. That's exactly why.
But yeah, that's that's kind of all I've done.
How about you killer, man?
So my CT is not too far behind yours.
I got 184 on mine.
So we're pretty high mileage guys.
Mine's been working great, too.
For me, I talked about the GeoTracker,
how like it's having this, it's not quite idling, right?
It's not running, right?
Something's a little off.
And I thought to go, well, let me get my timing light out.
Let me do ignition timing.
But it kept in the back of my head was like,
what if I fucked up the timing belt?
What if it's not interference?
What if I'm off just by like half?
Like a half a tooth or whatever it is, it can happen, right?
It happens to the best of us.
I've done a million time about jobs,
but you can always have a mistake.
What you don't want to do is like, say,
nah, fuck it, it's impossible that I messed it up
and then try to diagnose and shoot around that.
When you have a known possible issue,
it's one of the biggest mistakes you can make
because then you're looking at parts.
You're looking at adjusting sensors.
You could do the ignition timing.
You could do all that.
Like, whoa, I've got a fucking 32 decrease of advance
to try and make up for the, yeah.
It's, you gotta be like logical with this stuff, right?
Like it would be easy to go in there
and just do the ignition timing, right?
That's the easy, less effort.
Or I could be the compulsive guy I am
and expose the timing belt again, just the triple check.
And I sent you photos, my timing marks
when I get cylinder four to top dense center,
which you do on the side kicks and trackers.
Not one.
Perfect, dead nuts, perfect.
You saw the marks, right?
There's two marks on the, yeah.
There's one on obviously the cam,
one on the crank on the oil.
It's on the oil pump, perfect.
So I just wanted to put that at ease
because like what if the tensioner slipped a little bit?
It could be a lot of things, right?
Because you're timing to go slightly off.
And if you're off by half a tooth,
you'll have a rough idle, but the car still runs.
So I have ruled that out, Frank.
So peace of mind there.
It sucks to do all that
because I pulled a radiator and all that fun shit.
You know me, Mr. Timing Belt.
But now I'm going to get in there.
I'm going to put it back together
now that I know that's a known good thing,
not a known issue.
I'm going to go ahead and just do the timing light,
make sure everything's good.
They're probably adjusting the ignition timing a little bit
and try to get that idle where it needs to be.
You think it could be something as simple
as just like chasing like an intake leak or a...
No, no vacuum leaks.
Because here's the thing,
usually you get a little bit of surge
when there's like unmetered air or something like that.
And I'm having no issue.
It's just rough.
It's like, it's not timed right.
There's no misfire or anything like that.
So usually when I've,
my experience with these kind of vehicles
that are similar advantage of this
is when you have a rough idle like that,
it could be a TPS, but it could,
it's probably going to be that ignition timing
is a little fuckered.
And I'll just,
what I'll do is I'll hook up my light,
play with the distributor.
You got that little bit of play.
Fondle it if you will.
Yeah, fondle it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Grab it right by the...
The base.
The distributor pussy.
And twist it nicely.
I heard if you're famous, they let you, but you know.
Yeah, you get a...
Dude, I think that's the answer.
Then you end up in like an email list
and there's an island.
I don't know.
Yeah, I was going to say,
there's quite a few names out there.
I've heard.
But yeah, that's the plan.
So at least I ruled that out.
It's a pain in the dick labor wise,
but at least I'm there, peace of mind.
Question.
So I had a thought.
If we go to...
Epstein, Ireland.
No, but if I log, sort of,
if I log into our podcast email,
which please send us emails,
we will, we never check our email,
but please send us emails,
apapodinfo at gmail.com.
But if I send an email to J-E,
is it J-E Vacation at gmail.com?
With Jeffrey Epstein's email address?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I, from our podcast, Gmail,
if I send an email to that email address,
does that make us technically,
does that then technically put us in the Epstein files?
I think you can only get in there.
Like our podcast becomes...
No, because I think you can only get in there once.
So we're pretty good.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we're all ready.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, okay.
We're not supposed to mention that.
We'll just do a flight log.
Yeah, the whole thing.
And this is a log.
Fair and based.
Let me shut this down before
Frank spells any more secrets.
Thanks guys for joining us again.
APA podcast, not as deep as it used to go though.
APA podcast, another pointless automotive podcast.
Thanks for listening.
Rate the podcast, leave some comments on the YouTube,
jump in there.
We definitely forgot some cheap overland possibilities
or anything wild and crazy that we missed.
Let us know.
Cause I think that'd be super fun to play around with.
But yeah, check us out, YouTube, subscribe.
Every episode goes on there.
She's, you can follow me auto obscure garage,
mostly on YouTube for your rescues,
restorations and reviews.
Frank, working the good folks while you...
Oh boy, you shouldn't.
But if you want to, I take pictures of cars.
I do that mostly via the Instagram thing.
That's going to be the photographer's garage.
So check me out there.
Otherwise, like just check me out here.
Keep doing it.
We are, we're, yeah, we're talking dumb car stuff.
This is like our chat with an eyes catalyst
to discuss all the dumb car stuff in our lives
and catch up about it.
And then also if you decide you want to fund our terrible
beer drinking activities,
we do this aggressively and monthly over on our Patreon.
So we do have a Patreon.
Just go to patreon.com slash APA pod.
We do our monthly late night confidential,
really deep dive, unfettered nonsense episodes over there.
It's one a month.
Give us like five bucks a month.
It's a good time.
You can send us nasty grams there too.
And yeah, otherwise we'll just see you here.
And yeah, just put up with us.
Thank you.
As always, take care guys.
Bye.
Peace.
About this episode
The hosts kick off with a candid and humorous chat about a recent vasectomy experience before diving into their main topic: planning a budget-friendly overland vehicle build. They discuss the challenges and excitement of creating a capable off-road rig on a $5,000 budget, emphasizing practicality over flashy gear. The conversation covers the pitfalls of overlanding, the importance of reliable components like tires and gearboxes, and the appeal of a no-frills, functional adventure vehicle. Their banter blends personal stories with automotive passion, setting the stage for a new, affordable overland challenge.
all season tires
ARB
Carfax
cat S
cheap car challenge
Chrysler
CVT
daily driver
depreciation
EPA ratings
Acura SLX
Cadillac CTS-V
Chevrolet S-10 Blazer
Ford Bronco
Ford Explorer
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Honda Prelude
Honda S2000
Infiniti QX56
Jeep Commander
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Land Rover Range Rover
Lincoln Navigator
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Mercury Mountaineer
Nissan Pathfinder
Nissan Sentra
Nissan XTerra
Rivian R1S
Rivian R1T
Suzuki Samurai
Suzuki X-90
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota RAV4
Volvo XC70
Original notes
Fresh off the heels of their wildly unsuccessful "Cheap Rally Car" challenge, the boys begin to explore the ill-planned idea of having a "cheap overland" challenge. What could possibly go wrong this time?
Another Pointless Automotive Podcast
Frank Harrington IV and Chadwick Atkinson
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67:48