Well, how to tell this story? It is a parental quandary, sort of, and in another way, its none of my concern. But what's it all about? Its about my youngest son- that boy Noah and his automotive quandaries. Some background; he is 23, done with school at Utah State, he didn't even bother to check to see if he had any passing grades, which means he didn't have any. He is working at a Toyota & Honda dealership in Logan, as a lube tech- the lowest rung of the automotive technician ladder.
He's got a promise to get a technician position/promotion sometime later in the winter or spring. He also is still driving "Lumpy"; the 1990 Geo Tracker that I bought 7 years ago and that he has been driving as a daily driver while also off-road abusing the little beast for the past 5 years. It is pretty rough and in spite of his abuse, it keeps on starting everyday, so he keeps driving it.
But he wants to replace Lumpy. Its not quite as off-road capable as he believes is required for the level of "wheeling" that he wants to do. Its also not very pleasant as a street vehicle during the winter months. He also has a promise from the credit union where he has been banking some of his paycheck for several weeks, to fix him up with a loan for another vehicle of his choosing. So he has the urge to buy some new vehicle and a promise of more money than he has ever needed, close at hand.
He has talked about buying a used Mazda Miata or a Toyota MR2 sports car. Either one of those cars could be a great choice, affordable, reliable, and well supported by online communities of fans. Either of these cars are pretty watertight, have functioning heaters and come in a variety of power levels. He's also pretty keen to have a motorcycle, maybe a Suzuki SV650, to hear him talk.
But yesterday he brought home a Suzuki Samurai that he wants to buy. He found it on Craigslist and he is in love. He's in love with a purple hardtop 1988 Samurai that has been modified with a Toyota engine, transmission, and axles. It has (very) big tires, big springs, fenders cut away to clear the tires and a welded on, exoskeleton roll cage that blocks the rear door making it unusable. Its not street legal because the tires stick out too far and requires some kind of fender flares that will have to be fabricated to cover the tires to stay out of John Law's scrutiny. There is no heater, no defroster ducts and the snow drips in through the vents below the windshield straight into the cab. The rear axle has been welded so the tires squirm and chirp going around corners on pavement. The bottom of the doors is close to 3 feet off the ground to give you an idea how tall this crate is!
It probably is a terrific rock crawler or trail runner and it seems to have been put together by somebody who knew what they were doing- except for the rear door being blocked by the roll cage and spare tire carrier. All the welds I could see appear neatly done and I didn't see any terrible shortcuts in the construction. But it would be a terrible vehicle on the street. Noah's initial thought that the hardtop would be warmer in the winter than his convertible Tracker was pretty quickly disabused once he figured out that the truck had no heater core or even blocks on the open vents leaking in! The welded rear axle makes cornering an exercise in equipment and tire wear as well as being right close to dangerous in any kind of slippery traction circumstance.
He wants to buy this Samurai so he can do more off-roading than he presently can do with the Tracker, even though the Tracker has proven itself capable of 80% or more of the trails he has access to. He thinks the Sammy would be 100% capable if it just had a winch added to the front and an expedition grade roof rack to put gear in since the back of the truck is blocked. He thinks he can reconfigure the exoskelton to gain access to the rear door, if he could just get access to a tubing bender and a welder... The fuel tank filler tube needs to be protected from damage that could be caused by the rear tire.
He lives in one room of a rented apartment, has no garage or carport working space, would still need a reliable daily driver car and probably would need a truck and trailer to move the purple beast to the trails he wants to conquer since its not street legal. Or he needs to make it street legal and then pay for plates and insurance for more than one vehicle. And he wants me to co-sign for a loan if that will get him a better rate at the credit union.
Not too surprisingly, I said no. We talked about this for a couple hours yesterday and I don't think I dissuaded him from buying this Samurai. I tried a number of different tactics, offered suggestions about buying a reliable street car or truck and then using the Tracker for off-roading, fixing it up to make it a little more trail worthy. I tried to get him to consider just how much time, or how many weekends he would be free to go wheeling or whether he would be working, either to pay the rent, (and the truck payment) or to fix the parts that invariably fall off of rigs that get used off road regularly.
I'm pretty certain I didn't convince him to keep looking...
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