What car - To drive around the world?
Discussion
Slightly different perhaps to the usual mundane What Car threads, hopefully this hasn't been posted before...
My missus actually asked me this last night while we were watching a repeat of the Top Gear India special last night, and it did get me thinking. If you were going to plan a journey by car all the way around the planet in a kind of supreme banger rally (though not necessarily in a banger), covering every kind of terrain you could imagine, from urban streets, through alpine roads, desert, jungle, rocky mountain passes and everything in between, what car would you use?
Some kind of 4x4 is the obvious choice but that is too easy, so for the sake of discussion, let's exclude 4x4s and limit the rules to regular cars/estates.
My considerations were thus:
Must be comfortable.
Must be interesting to drive on proper roads.
Must be reliable.
Must be cheap and easy to fix, anywhere in the world.
Must have a long range in the fuel tank.
Must be capable of running on low grade fuels with minor modifications.
Must be capable of tackling any terrain with only minor modifications.
My choice would probably be a Merc W124 diesel estate for its ability to run on pretty much anything. You can probably get parts for these anywhere in the world, it should be ultra reliable, relatively easy to fix if it goes wrong and pretty comfortable, but the downside is that it would probably a bit boring to drive along the better roads...
There is a bloke local to me who actually drove a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Australia, I believe it was based on a Landrover chassis though so that's cheating...
What would the adventurers of PH take? Is there a car that could be brilliant at everything?
My missus actually asked me this last night while we were watching a repeat of the Top Gear India special last night, and it did get me thinking. If you were going to plan a journey by car all the way around the planet in a kind of supreme banger rally (though not necessarily in a banger), covering every kind of terrain you could imagine, from urban streets, through alpine roads, desert, jungle, rocky mountain passes and everything in between, what car would you use?
Some kind of 4x4 is the obvious choice but that is too easy, so for the sake of discussion, let's exclude 4x4s and limit the rules to regular cars/estates.
My considerations were thus:
Must be comfortable.
Must be interesting to drive on proper roads.
Must be reliable.
Must be cheap and easy to fix, anywhere in the world.
Must have a long range in the fuel tank.
Must be capable of running on low grade fuels with minor modifications.
Must be capable of tackling any terrain with only minor modifications.
My choice would probably be a Merc W124 diesel estate for its ability to run on pretty much anything. You can probably get parts for these anywhere in the world, it should be ultra reliable, relatively easy to fix if it goes wrong and pretty comfortable, but the downside is that it would probably a bit boring to drive along the better roads...
There is a bloke local to me who actually drove a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Australia, I believe it was based on a Landrover chassis though so that's cheating...
What would the adventurers of PH take? Is there a car that could be brilliant at everything?
The problem with writing off 4x4s is that they're helpful for seeing a fair bit of the world. There's a guy on here who drove a 944 to Cape Town so that kind of thing is certainly possible. But while he did 12,000 miles, I did 23,000 in a Defender. I'll admit there were times I wanted a sportscar but I'd bet that for every occasion he thought "I'm glad I'm in a Porsche" there were a dozen I thought "thank f
k I'm in a landy".
However, given your criteria I'd suggest a 944
k I'm in a landy".However, given your criteria I'd suggest a 944
Kozy said:
Slightly different perhaps to the usual mundane What Car threads, hopefully this hasn't been posted before...
My missus actually asked me this last night while we were watching a repeat of the Top Gear India special last night, and it did get me thinking. If you were going to plan a journey by car all the way around the planet in a kind of supreme banger rally (though not necessarily in a banger), covering every kind of terrain you could imagine, from urban streets, through alpine roads, desert, jungle, rocky mountain passes and everything in between, what car would you use?
Some kind of 4x4 is the obvious choice but that is too easy, so for the sake of discussion, let's exclude 4x4s and limit the rules to regular cars/estates.
My considerations were thus:
Must be comfortable.
Must be interesting to drive on proper roads.
Must be reliable.
Must be cheap and easy to fix, anywhere in the world.
Must have a long range in the fuel tank.
Must be capable of running on low grade fuels with minor modifications.
Must be capable of tackling any terrain with only minor modifications.
My choice would probably be a Merc W124 diesel estate for its ability to run on pretty much anything. You can probably get parts for these anywhere in the world, it should be ultra reliable, relatively easy to fix if it goes wrong and pretty comfortable, but the downside is that it would probably a bit boring to drive along the better roads...
There is a bloke local to me who actually drove a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Australia, I believe it was based on a Landrover chassis though so that's cheating...
What would the adventurers of PH take? Is there a car that could be brilliant at everything?
Friend of mine bought an old Landcruiser specifically as a support car for motorcycling across Morocco via Europe. That was 2 years ago, he now drives it everywhere and loves it to bits.My missus actually asked me this last night while we were watching a repeat of the Top Gear India special last night, and it did get me thinking. If you were going to plan a journey by car all the way around the planet in a kind of supreme banger rally (though not necessarily in a banger), covering every kind of terrain you could imagine, from urban streets, through alpine roads, desert, jungle, rocky mountain passes and everything in between, what car would you use?
Some kind of 4x4 is the obvious choice but that is too easy, so for the sake of discussion, let's exclude 4x4s and limit the rules to regular cars/estates.
My considerations were thus:
Must be comfortable.
Must be interesting to drive on proper roads.
Must be reliable.
Must be cheap and easy to fix, anywhere in the world.
Must have a long range in the fuel tank.
Must be capable of running on low grade fuels with minor modifications.
Must be capable of tackling any terrain with only minor modifications.
My choice would probably be a Merc W124 diesel estate for its ability to run on pretty much anything. You can probably get parts for these anywhere in the world, it should be ultra reliable, relatively easy to fix if it goes wrong and pretty comfortable, but the downside is that it would probably a bit boring to drive along the better roads...
There is a bloke local to me who actually drove a replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Australia, I believe it was based on a Landrover chassis though so that's cheating...
What would the adventurers of PH take? Is there a car that could be brilliant at everything?
Edited to add: oops sorry, should have read your post properly ! Above if you can disconnect the rear wheel from the drivettrain
Edited by DeadMeat_UK on Wednesday 2nd May 13:41
Triumph Man said:
Volkswagen Passat 1.9 tdi 110/Audi A4 with the same engine. is reasonably comfy, simple mechanical fuel pump, can run on stty diesel/veg oil. Will also be ok on decent roads. Not a road rocket, but will eat up the miles happily.
'Good' choice though it may be, that engine bores me to death on a trip to the shops, let alone a journey around the world! tty diesel/veg oil. Will also be ok on decent roads. Not a road rocket, but will eat up the miles happily. Kozy said:
'Good' choice though it may be, that engine bores me to death on a trip to the shops, let alone a journey around the world!
Ah yes but anything more interesting might not last the trip! Which would arguably be more boring... Although you have mentioned the W124 3.0 diesel, so yeah, suppose you can get more interesting. I'll nominate my old Volvo...
1999 2.5TDi estate finished in assorted shades of red with a good few dents which I like to think makes it better at cutting through the air... like a golf ball. I bought it as a stop gap and as a tool for taking slabs to the dump last May with 120,000 miles and it's just tripped 151,000 miles as we speak. Total costs in that time, excluding fuel and tax stands me at a whopping £317.00 although that includes four tyres at £220. So really... £97 for 30,000 miles. It does 45 - 50mpg on a run so that's quates to a 700 mile and more range assuming you can get a bank loan to cover the cost of a full tank.
Ok so it looks like a bag of st and isn't exactly going to be threatening the mighty 330d anytime soon in terms of refinement, power and scoring points at the gold club but give it its due, it's put up with some serious abuse. It's surviving trail by excitable dog, trial by excitable 5yr old, trial by water when it swam in the North Sea, trail by sand and even had a go at off roading. Removing the undertray on a particualry challenging track only made it lighter so it's all good. It also proved to be very useful tool for clearing a building plot of small saplings... basically point, aim, charge. It's also particulary good for standing on to see over high things. Makes a great rudmentary workbench and with the seats folded flat, it's bigger than my first flat.
Plus it's amazingly brilliant at annoying the other half...
1999 2.5TDi estate finished in assorted shades of red with a good few dents which I like to think makes it better at cutting through the air... like a golf ball. I bought it as a stop gap and as a tool for taking slabs to the dump last May with 120,000 miles and it's just tripped 151,000 miles as we speak. Total costs in that time, excluding fuel and tax stands me at a whopping £317.00 although that includes four tyres at £220. So really... £97 for 30,000 miles. It does 45 - 50mpg on a run so that's quates to a 700 mile and more range assuming you can get a bank loan to cover the cost of a full tank.
Ok so it looks like a bag of s
t and isn't exactly going to be threatening the mighty 330d anytime soon in terms of refinement, power and scoring points at the gold club but give it its due, it's put up with some serious abuse. It's surviving trail by excitable dog, trial by excitable 5yr old, trial by water when it swam in the North Sea, trail by sand and even had a go at off roading. Removing the undertray on a particualry challenging track only made it lighter so it's all good. It also proved to be very useful tool for clearing a building plot of small saplings... basically point, aim, charge. It's also particulary good for standing on to see over high things. Makes a great rudmentary workbench and with the seats folded flat, it's bigger than my first flat. Plus it's amazingly brilliant at annoying the other half...
diesels pretty hard to get in a lot of places (most of central africa, for example - its not impossible but no-where near as widespread as petrol) so that'd immediately strike any DERV from my list.
I'd suggest a beetle. They were made in such vast volumes with such little difference in engineering that *some* of them should be anywhere. simple to run and fix, not the fastest, but fairly easy to raise ride hight if needed.
personally, I took a volvo 360 across the sahara to banjul. Only needed a little raising at the rear (to compensate for the additional 100l of liquids plus all our luggage in there) and the roof lopped off for extra tan.
Surf Wagon by 5lab, on Flickr
I'd suggest a beetle. They were made in such vast volumes with such little difference in engineering that *some* of them should be anywhere. simple to run and fix, not the fastest, but fairly easy to raise ride hight if needed.
personally, I took a volvo 360 across the sahara to banjul. Only needed a little raising at the rear (to compensate for the additional 100l of liquids plus all our luggage in there) and the roof lopped off for extra tan.
Surf Wagon by 5lab, on Flickr
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