My first car was a Nissan altima, I pulled apart to get running. I wanted to go off road at a friend's property, there's not much difficult terrain, like bouldering or anything, just bumpy and filled with potholes that catch cars every time they hosted large events.

I put a 2in lift kit on it, and after becoming confident it won't get stuck at my friends house, I got a winch that I could store in the trunk, an extra scissor jack, took that fucker to the woods and tried a few trails popular with jeeps and Subarus.

It's crazy what kind of stuff you can get up to if you don't care a ton about the car you're driving. Eventually put the extra stuff in my pickup, and that car slowly got used less and less until it blew a gasket into cyl 5 and I decided I didn't want to pull the entire engine apart a second time.

So has my Audi A6 Allroad, bone stock. Actually, I think I took my Chrysler 300M to places no shiny new grand cherokee will ever be taken and that's a low fwd sedan. People used to ask me if it's been lowered and I told them it was just the factory handling package.

Stock jeeps, besides the wrangler and that pickup thingy maybe, aren't much good off road anyway. Which is fine because nobody who buys a brand new vehicle goes off roading with it usually. The Grenadier folks may be an exception.

You sound like me - my 20 year old "toy truck" has been offroad lots more that most of those garage queens (and looks it).

I don't look to go off road, sometimes it's just necessary to get somewhere like a neat campsite, and it can do it.

Also more than 90% of pickup trucks.

my 08 outback with no lift and my old 99 tercel base model have been more off-road than 80% of vehicles that people bought because they might need to drive down a maintained gravel road to a parking lot to start a hike

I have a mk5 rabbit that has been places other 4wd cars with a lich can’t, cuz I’ve hit the mud and my might car slid forward while they lurched into the mud.

To be fair I’ve also had to be yanked out by many a winch, either way … little rabbit loves a trail.

Unironically this is just me with arch linux

Btw

My parents bought a Chrysler/ Stellantis product to tow their camper after I told them to buy literally anything else. Unsurprisingly it's a heap of shit.

The engine has a plastic oil cooler - sits in the engine valley, it cracked and leaked oil everywhere at 40k miles. Their plastic intake manifold leaks and sometimes when you start the shitbox there is a strong odor of gasoline 60k. The plastic valve covers leak 70k. Needed an entire front accessory/pulley assembly because the water pump was leaking - made of......plastic 80k. Shocks and struts are shot and causing tread cupping on the tires - 90k. In addition to this, when i drive it around I notice a few things - it's loud as shit. The engine sounds like it has shit timing or a flat cam or something. Exterior noise is terrible you hear everything. It shifts like an automatic from the 80s and it has 27 gears so it shifts constantly. I'm so sad for them but Dad got a great "deal" on it, I wonder why.

I've got an '11 and have never had any problems.

"Just Empty Every Pocket," or "Just Expect Every Problem."

Like the Alfa Romeo loyalists in Europe. I'll admit the 156 and 159 series are still nice looking automobiles, but they are rolling junk.

Honestly, never had a problem with mine for 7 years of abuse, significant offroad included. Daily driving city mileage, shit roads, off-road nonsense, salt air, beach driving... Thing was a blast. Went all over the country, did the national parks, overlanded in extremely remote areas.

Then the rocker arms gave out and I had a kid. So no more jeep. Edit: oh, and the dog we rescued ended up being 120 lbs. So a bit more room was kinda needed

The 4runner is almost as fun though. Almost.

If you don't "look the part" then people will judge harshly regardless of how (in)capable you are at something.

Goes for a lot of things in life.

Because you're not, in fact, a pavement princess.

I never clean mine or have bothered fixing panel damages and paint scrapes. But I take the time to oil and fluid change every 5000 kms lol

It wasn't made to be pretty, it was made to be reliable and capable.

It's almost 100% off-roading but gets used as a back up car when the much more efficient and sensible one isn't available.

Glorified hatchbacks with a lift-kit and a cult.

The rubicons do have a good kit and package for off roading, they are rarely used for that when new these days. Locking differentials and thick metal skid plates for example are typically an off road specific feature.

I had a 1998 Jeep Wrangler. I'm 6 ft 6 in and and 255 lb. I fit in that pretty well. The box style cabin was very open and easy to get in and out of. Maybe it's different with the newer ones. I haven't tried one yet

Well you just got me to listen to a guy rant in his basement bar for 25 minutes

They're fun to drive, they just break incredibly easy in weird spots. Like the seatbelt holder/guide? Why would that break. We don't own one, but have rented a few of them when we go to Hawaii.

I fucking hate people who display the ducks. I always just give mine to my kid.

Their mom rides what?

The tj ended production in 2006 and the last manual model had an impressive low gear. The 6 speed tranmission had a lower 1st gear than the 5 speed, and also somehow a lower 6th gear than the 5 speeds 5th.

The last TJ was 2006 but yeah everything after that hurts my soul.

I have an 11 and it bangs, never had any problems with it either.