What car - for the end of the world?

[Scrumper]

The EU bailout has failed. 'Occupy' protesters have taken over every city; a Labour/Green Party coalition has won the election, closed all the airports and banned smiling. Your employer has gone bankrupt, your house is worth nothing, inflation has nuked your savings and nobody is delivering beer to your local (which has closed.) It's time to leave, but this is no time for a high-maintenance M3. You need some practical wheels to flee the rioting hordes. What will you be throwing tin cans and a tent into when the st goes down? Explain your working.

[Scrumper]

peterperkins said:

You also need something that can run on hooch or melted down bodies/animals or veg oil or the crudest of fuels as petrol/diesel will be one of the first things to be used up. In fact a steam powered vehicle might be your best bet, the steam lorry/bus that runs around Whitby might be a good choice.

Good suggestion. Some people converted petrol cars to steam power during WW2 so that might be the way to go in the very long term.

I was thinking an old diesel car for your reasons too. Any simple pre-common rail engine should be able to burn basically anything (less to get clagged up). Gas turbine would be even better, but not so easy to find. Something like this:

chazola said:

my Merc W124 diesel estate- it's solid, low key, I can fit loads in it and it runs fine on vegetable oil I can loot from corner shops and supermarkets once all the petrol stations have run dry.

Which is one of my favourites so far. It's discreet - far more so than a pickup which is the sort of thing everyone will want - it's very easy to maintain and will run forever. It might need 4WD though, so:

Snowboy said:

Assuming it's a vehicle we need to source ourselves from the local area, without resorting to excessive violence.

I'm going for a Toyota Hilux.
Either the Surf (estate) imported version or a twin cab pick up.

I'd probably prefer my 15 year old 3L 3rd gen Surf – it has less tricky electrics than a modern one and can run on pretty much any sort of liquid fuel.

This is also a great suggestion, as was the Nissan Patrol.

VR6 Turbo said:

also does the OP know something we don't?

Not now I've shared it all with you

This is a vehicle which has to serve you and your immediate family for 'a while.' You're going to be on the move a fair bit. The sea might be your eventual escape but you've got to find a vessel, round up your crew (I think the naked blonde comes as standard on anything over 50') and provision the boat, all of which might take a few weeks. Zombies are not part of this scenario, which is good in one way but does mean that the population is about the same as it is now. Competition for resources will be fierce.