I’m crying FOUL on the Lada. You can’t buy those in the US and I believe the stipulation was that it had to be a vehicle available in the US market. Otherwise I would have nominated the Land Rover Defender. It’s just as easy for DIY as the Wrangler.

I’ve never owned an American car in my life - I’m an Australian. I’m not talking about crap Aussie made cars either. I’m talking from personal experience from two Isuzus, a Mazda 3 and a Kia that suffered some sort of issue with EFI components or at least one sensor before 100,000 miles. All made this century and all…

Yes, but you won’t be overtaking much in a stock Type 2 of this vintage. 😀

Not chess. But close. Minis vs Beetles instead of Noughts and Crosses.

No, the Fuel Injection systems rarely last the lifetime of the car. Unless you consider a lifetime is ten years! The injectors clog. Pressure regulators go out of spec. Air flow meters stick. Throttle position sensors stop working properly. Wiring harnesses get oil into them because some idiot designed them so the…

I agree with most of what you are saying. The mechanical parts in modern cars do last longer without being opened up. They are safer and more efficient. There were a lot of really crap cars made in the past, especially in the 70’s and 80’s. But I think you are overlooking what causes modern cars (say MY2000 onwards)…

Not really, it’s not a legal requirement to make it RHD in either country. It makes it a little less valuable being LHD, but it would still find a buyer at that price.

US. I converted the figures from Litres per 100km to US MPG.

Thanks for the explanation. It’s all very interesting. Diesel in Australia is generally cheaper than petrol. Hence the desire for Diesels with high mpg, especially when towing. You will laugh at this. In some state my Pathfinder is illegal for a newly licenced driver to pilot. This is because it has a turbo engine.…

Buy it. Ship it to Australia or the UK. Then sell it for double the asking price within a week. Easy!

OK. I stand corrected. I thought most pickups in the US were almost all petrol (gas) engines and the big Diesels were saved for huge trucks. In Australia probably 50% of full chassis 4x4’s and maybe 70% of pickups are Diesels. It’s quite common to tweak the modern diesels for more grunt. My one modern car is a 2009…

It’s great to see Americans waking up to the potential in Diesels. I am impressed at the power this baby achieved. Probably does 35 miles to the gallon too.

They were excited when the offer was higher than you expected. They also took a long time to come back with an offer. Maybe one of the ex-military guys did a back-room deal. Maybe you just deprived a hopeful Vet if his Hummer dreams!

Buyers of used Range Rovers and similar cars who complain when it’s unreliable and costs a fortune to keep running. It was cheap because it was unreliable. Either live with it or get rid of it. Or just write Jalop articles about Carmax warranty.

It’s a disease. 😊

Go and build one and prove it.

VL Commodore doing a smoky burnout? About normal for any Saturday night in Melbourne. Probably the same in Auckland too.

Perfect.

So true.

Just work out to covert it to LHD yourself. Plenty of people have converted the Kombi to RHD. It’s lego. Not hard!