TEOTWAWKI further down the track.

[Timelord]

Yes 24mpg was painful. I wish I still had mine but the fuel cost was --- well I'd rather not think about it.... That was an accurate mpg figure by the way. If you get a good Surf or Hilux, then they are a superb well built bit of kit and then the fuel cost was just tolerable. Add on to this £400 of tyres and fast increasing premiums & more motorway miles per annum and the financial equation did not balance anymore. I still kept it because it was just such a good truck, but what finally did it for me was the inability to drive up a track in hard packed snow due to not being one of the rare gen2 Surfs fitted with the full locking diffs. It was sold within the week! What is the point in having a 4x4 prep truck that lets you down unexpectedly. It would have been better to have known that 3 of us would have had to walk up a snow covered mountain with our kit in advance. As it was we had a vehicle loads worth of expensive kit that we could not leave behind. We would have come with less stuff. imagine that in a SHTF scenario... At least with a basic car, I would have known I would have to walk some of the way and would have not got the vehicle stuck up the track either.. A valuable real world test it proved to be.. My old Landie or Jimny would have gone up and down with no bother at all. Permanent 4 wheel drive is also a lot safer and therefore better too. 30mpg if driven gently. Ahh, the good old days.. lol.

---

By the way, if fuel is scarce, you probably would not be doing much driving around anyway. Having a vehicle fit for tough conditions might be more advantageous than having a weaker but more economical one. Just how far would you expect to travel about in a SHTF or PSHTF scenario? Most travelling might be very localised and therefore a vehicle might not be needed or alternatively fuel use would be less and only when necessary. That is without the host of other factors of vehicle use in these scenarios. Regards, TL