Cars - how do I make a good purchase decision?

[HomeEconHelp]

Hi there,

Background: I know nothing about prepping/survivial/cars.

I would like to buy a car that I can use as emergency shelter. Unfortunately, I know nothing about vehicles. Where would I find out how to make a good purchase decision?

I am looking to buy something that has enough space in the back to sleep two people. I would have a camp cooker and battery powered fridge. As this is more of an emergency vehicle, I am hoping to not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars.

Edit: If you know a lot about cars, feel free to give me a list of 5-10 facts to learn about cars to start me off. I am good at learning facts because I have a list of principles relating to reasoning and logic that I "apply" to learning facts. Essentially I always improve my skill in logic/reasoning when I learn a new fact.

 

[dademoss]

I'd look for either a van or a truck with a cap on the bed.

Good luck with not spending a lot of bucks, you mostly get what you pay for.

 

[Magpie]

I'm changing my car this week, and will dearly miss my old one. Its a station wagon 7 seater and all the seats come out, so I've used it to camp. I'm small and could live in it quite easily, husband is 6'2 may have a few more issues. It's running really well, but old - 2007 - I've had it for thirteen years - and costing more to keep on the road. If I had to live in it - yep, but I wouldn't want to for a long time. Definitely get a van you can stand up in, and depending where you are, I'd get something that could hold a water tank. Over here, people do up old ambulances as campers. Would you be looking to convert it so it would run on cooking oil or something so you wouldn't be reliant on petrol?

 

[Wingnut]

Buy a used van or VW bus and convert it into a camper, unless it's already a camper. If it doesn't have a poptop, install a large roof rack, as those can haul a lot of gear. Outfit the rig with plenty of field gear, and store enough propane & 5-gallon jerry jugs of water to keep ya going in the field for a week or two. I saw plenty of nice rigs back in the day, used by surfers in Baja or rock climbers in various outdoor venues nationwide... even in my Olds or Camry, I could live in the field for a week or more at a time, just tent camping and stocking the vehicle with enough food & water to last.

Honestly, if your budget is a big concern, you might wanna rethink how you use your current rig... add a roof rack and a hitch for a cargo carrier, and you can carry plenty of gear, water, etc. Yes, hitches are made for sedans, I have one on my Camry, lol. In my own small circle of hardcore outdoor athletes (rock climbers, dirt bikers, et al), I'm actually known as a guy who can live out of a vehicle quite comfortably... the trick is to increase your outdoor living space by setting up a fire ring (using native stone), rigging some shade (tarp, awning or beach umbrella), and using comfy camp chairs.

Sure, RVs are nice, but they're heller expensive to buy, maintain & operate. Think of a smaller rig as your very own "tiny home" in the field. Choosing a good spot to camp is also crucial... I like shady spots if they're available, with a moderate breeze to help keep things cool. If you're in some northern latitude, that might not be such a concern: here in the high desert, shade is good. BTW, when I was young, my entire family (11 people) would tour Europe every summer, car camping in a VW bus with a full-length roof rack, and we had a blast, living like kings in the field on the cheap, lol.

It's all in your mindset... and some careful planning, lol. You might do better to rerig & outfit your current vehicle. A bulletproof tent is also nice, buy one favored by mountaineers, or beef up the rigging on a decent tent... line or rope always comes in handy in the field (you can hang gear or laundry off it too, lol). A sturdy folding table & camp chairs under an awning or overhead tarp, a field kitchen set up on the table or on some level boulder... it's not that difficult to make oneself comfortable in the field. I've been doing it for over half a century now... it gets easier over time.

A few pics of how I roll in the field, lol... that last pic is actually my yard in Show Low, but you get the idea.

 

[Wingnut]

Over here, people do up old ambulances as campers.

I've met surfers who converted an old hearse into a camping & surfing rig, lol... not sure if I'd wanna sleep in the hearse, probably give me the willies, knowing that a bunch of dead people had been lying in there, but the surfers didn't care, lol. Moi, I'd rig a tent and sleep outside the haunted hearse, lol.

 

[FarmOR]

1) vehicle research: I usually start with carsurvey.org. And then Google for "problems". Another excellent data base is the government website nhtsa. You can look at not only recalls, but complaints that lead to investigation and possibly recall.

2) YouTube. Vehicle repair videos. Gives you idea on how well the engineering was done.

3) mechanics. If you know any? Or know someone that knows one?

4) auctions? Farm and estate auctions often have RV that go relatively cheap. Normally? But as late, things have been abnormal? The Fed really screwed the pooch on half of their mandate. You know? The stable prices part...

 

[Cascadian]

Go camping and ask questions to those in your area. Getting good advice from here probably isn't all that relevant.

 

[Spikedriver]

There isn't an excellent option. One thing you can do if you're handy, is find an old box truck. I had a coworker that bought an old box truck with around 200k miles, like a small delivery truck. It had a 6 cylinder diesel engine. He insulated the box and built a frame for a single bed with drawers under the mattress. He put in a drain with the bottom of a shower, 32"x32", and took bucket baths. For food he had an icebox and cooked on a fire. Small solar charger for electronics, or could use an inverter. I'm not sure what it cost him, but maintenance for that vehicle could be costly with diesel engine repairs and heavy duty brakes, transmission, suspension, etc.

Another coworker bought a used, low mileage Chrysler minivan and pimped it out. The entire roof is a solar panel. He removed all the seats except the driver & front passenger and put a sofa in it. It has a hitch receiver with an extended length cargo carrier on it, and a watertight metal box chained down to it. That box has a tiny generator that provides heat. It also can apparently run a microwave and a 12v fridge. All the windows behind the front seats are covered with foil backed insulation. A van like that might be what you're looking for, but it is an "on road only" option. And Chrysler vehicles aren't really known for their reliability, so cheaper one with a lot of miles might be problematic...

 

[Tootsie]

Old school buses, especially the smaller ones, might be an idea. Around here they are well maintained and kept safe. When they get to a certain mileage, the school district auctions them off cheaply. Some have new tires on them. They are built tough.

 

[Tootsie]

Old school buses, especially the smaller ones, might be an idea. Around here they are well maintained and kept safe. When they get to a certain mileage, the school district auctions them off cheaply. Some have new tires on them. They are built tough.

There’s an auction site that tells of municipal auctions near you.

 

[joel]

 

[Aerindel]

First off, don't let anyone convince you 2WD is acceptable. It's not. I could go into detail, but hopefully this is obvious. There is no SHTF where 2wd is acceptable....at all.

Second, nothing newer than 2005, preferably, nothing newer than 2000. Ideal is about 95.

That was about the last period where cars had the advantages of EFI but where still not too complicated to fix.

Vans are better, but HARD to find in 4wd. Since 4WD is non-negotiable, this probably means looking at a truck, with a canopy or camper back.

The other option is a RV trailer. In my neck of the woods, older RV trailers often go for $500-1000.

That being said, trailed anything significantly reduces manurvability, flexibility in SHTF so keep that in mind. You get major bonuses with a trailer, but major problems so balance those out with your needs.

Don't be afraid of high milage Toyotas if not rusted. Say, a toyota Tundra, V8, with 300k on it can be had pretty cheap, but may still have hundreds of thousands of more miles left on it.

Be your own mechanic. The biggest hurdle to fixing ANYTHING is not skill, or tools, its bravery.

 

[SoJer]

@OP, yeah, it'll be pretty difficult to find one, but.. Keep eyes peeled for a 4WD Sprinter Van - HUGE capacity, Great as a 'BOV', and pre-2005 models are fairly-easy to work on / get parts for.. But, you'll, in Any case, likely need to figure on at LEAST $10K, even for one that was 'mid-life', ~250-300K miles on it.

That said (and @Aerindel, feel free to chew me out if ya think this recommendation is off..) I have long-heard great things about Subaru Outbacks.. My Ex-Biz Partner (2006-2010 era) Swore-by his Y2K one, and My Son also got a 2000 AWD (he's up in Northern CA, so 'winter-weather' Is a consideration) with something like ~50k miles on it (a veritable Baby..) for about $5500. and Loves it. No Problem to 'sleep 2' in the back, once seats are folded-down, and maintenance is... "Achievable".

I don't Own one, so can't say from Personal experience, but.. I can't think of Anyone I've ever known with one, that was like 'OMG, it was Horrible!', etc.. Always heard the Opposite. "YMMV"..

jd

 

[Spikedriver]

@OP, yeah, it'll be pretty difficult to find one, but.. Keep eyes peeled for a 4WD Sprinter Van - HUGE capacity, Great as a 'BOV', and pre-2005 models are fairly-easy to work on / get parts for.. But, you'll, in Any case, likely need to figure on at LEAST $10K, even for one that was 'mid-life', ~250-300K miles on it.

That said (and @Aerindel, feel free to chew me out if ya think this recommendation is off..) I have long-heard great things about Subaru Outbacks.. My Ex-Biz Partner (2006-2010 era) Swore-by his Y2K one, and My Son also got a 2000 AWD (he's up in Northern CA, so 'winter-weather' Is a consideration) with something like ~50k miles on it (a veritable Baby..) for about $5500. and Loves it. No Problem to 'sleep 2' in the back, once seats are folded-down, and maintenance is... "Achievable".

I don't Own one, so can't say from Personal experience, but.. I can't think of Anyone I've ever known with one, that was like 'OMG, it was Horrible!', etc.. Always heard the Opposite. "YMMV"..

jd

With the Subies you want a manual transmission, or a model old enough to have a regular automatic trans and NOT a CVT. They do regularly run to 300k miles - I've known plenty of people who ran them that long. But the newer ones with CVT transmissions will often blow that trans by 150K.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Unless you are capable of completely rebuilding an older vehicle; engine, transmission, transfer case, differentials, brakes, hubs, etc, etc. I'd stay away from an older vehicle, and certainly nothing over 100,000 miles. There's a good chance that you'd be buying someone else's headache.
I've been buying only new vehicles since 1984 and have had excellent luck with every one of my vehicles. I bought my F250 new in 1997 and I've had zero repairs on it, it still has the original brakes and shocks. Same goes for my 2007 Jeep Rubicon and the wife's Grand Cherokee. Zero repairs.
I take care of my vehicles and keep up on regularly scheduled maintenance and oil changes.
Personally I wouldn't recommend buying anything in 2 wheel drive or all wheel drive. A 4 wheel drive pickup with a topper or pop-up camper could be a good choice. Everything I own is 4 wheel drive, including my tractor, atvs, side by side etc.

 

[Wingnut]

Meh, I've taken 2WD vehicles into places where many lifted disco trucks wouldn't go... the key is having experience in navigating rutted & rocky dirt roads in a 2WD vehicle. Yeah, sometimes we had to get out and push the goldurned rig, or jack it up and throw down some scrap wood as "ramps" to get out of a hole, but still, we made it to our destination. Even in the Olds, I'd make it out to remote camping areas where few lifted disco trucks (i.e. 4WD mall crawlers) were in sight. Soft sand could be problematic, my motto when hitting patches of deep sand was: "MASH ON IT!!!"

Somehow this discussion reminds me of the time I drove my Olds into Canyon Sin Nombre (Canyon Without A Name) in Anza-Borrego, and found myself a sweet camping spot in a desert cove. I set up camp, and as the afternoon waned, I changed into some baggy Cabela slacks and a clean white long-sleeved T-shirt. No sooner had I made this change, I heard a clash of gears down the canyon... round the nearest bend came the San Diego Hummer Club (or some such ridiculous organization), a column of lifted Hummers with light racks, Baja racks, whip antennas, the whole nine yards...

Well, I gotta tell ya, it was downright hilarious... as each disco Hummer passed me, they looked over to see some GQ @$$hole leaning against the hood of an Oldsmobile, sporting shades and drinking a cold beer, lol. The Olds was in a location where NO Oldsmobile had any right to be, and as each decked-out Hummer passed, I could practically hear the driver and passenger(s) thinking to themselves: "Gee, I guess we didn't need this overpriced piece of junk after all!" The egos were deflated like a punctured tire: 'PSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!' One of the funniest moments in a long life of field adventures...

To top it off, the following morning as I was breaking camp, a park ranger rounded a bend from the opposite direction, saw my Olds, and came roaring up to ask me, "ARE YOU OKAY? ARE YOU STUCK?" Sweeping my arm toward the Olds in my best Ricardo Montalban impersonation, I replied: "IT'S AN OLDSMOBILE!!! WHEN IN DOUBT, MASH ON IT!!!" The ranger, now realizing that I was just some @$$hole trucker out having a good time in the field, shook his head and drove on to save the world for democracy, lol. That was a hilarious 4-day trip, I had a good time on that one...

 

[Patchouli]

You can't hardly touch a VW microbus, they are going for very high dollars cuz all these funky kids with money want to re-do them. Vanagons are still high priced too. just sayin'

 

[Mountain trapper]

I can guarantee that no 2 wheel drive vehicle would ever make it up my road in winter. Just getting around most of my property in summer requires 4 wheel drive.
I don't know anything about these lifted "disco" trucks. Don't see them around here, but everyone has 4 wheel drive though.
I'm getting ready to drop down in to a deep canyon right now with my atv to work on the fence. It's hard to get back out even in 4wd. I use chains a lot around here too.

 

[Weedygarden]

I wish you the best. I know that vehicles have increased greatly in price in the past couple years. One thing that I recommend is to find a competent and reliable mechanic or shop. The shop I go to has a head mechanic who has been there for more than 20 years and several who work under him. He is honest and reliable. This shop has a computer to analyze vehicles systems. When I needed a new radiator cap, they hooked my car up and analyzed my cooling system. Did I pay for that? Oh yes.
When I was looking at purchasing a car, I had the car owner meet me at my mechanic's shop. I paid, they looked the car over. Getting this done can cost $200, more or less, depending on the shop. My shop charges $50 for this service because they get lots of business as a result.
I recommend getting a foreign car such as a Nissan, Toyota or Subaru. You can put 300,000 miles on them, or more.

 

[Aerindel]

A note on Subaru's.

I've got a bunch....literally a fleet of them, from 97, to 2005.
They are cheap to buy, cheap to fix, cheap to drive AWD, and with a lot of cargo capacity. For a car. With a headgasket repair at 150K and timing belts every 30K, they will happily go 300K. And new engines are not hard to get and drop in even at that point.

At 285lbs, you can do it with two strong guys.

I wouldn't want to live out of one, if I could afford not to. But that being said, their front seats are designed to lean all the way back, and make a continuous bed with the rear seats. But they just aren't that big....and there is no privacy inside one.

But for cheap AWD, there is nothing better.

 

[Aerindel]

I can guarantee that no 2 wheel drive vehicle would ever make it up my road in winter. Just getting around most of my property in summer requires 4 wheel drive.

Indeed. Although people who only have 2WD, often say how its just a matter of skill.....you never find people with 4WD, who tell you they wish they had 2WD because they've never needed 4WD.

 

[Weedygarden]

The guy I know who restores VW buses and vans replaces the VW engine with Subaru engines.

 

[Spikedriver]

A note on Subaru's.

I've got a bunch....literally a fleet of them, from 97, to 2005.
They are cheap to buy, cheap to fix, cheap to drive AWD, and with a lot of cargo capacity. For a car. With a headgasket repair at 150K and timing belts every 30K, they will happily go 300K. And new engines are not hard to get and drop in even at that point.

At 285lbs, you can do it with two strong guys.

I wouldn't want to live out of one, if I could afford not to. But that being said, their front seats are designed to lean all the way back, and make a continuous bed with the rear seats. But they just aren't that big....and there is no privacy inside one.

But for cheap AWD, there is nothing better.

You have the older kind with a real transmission, with actual gears in them. If I could find a 2006-2012 Forester with low miles, I'd probably buy one for a bang around vehicle. Any Subie made after about 2012 has a CVT though. When that CVT blows, and it will blow, the driver is looking at 8 grand to fix it.

I hate CVT transmissions...

 

[Aerindel]

You have the older kind with a real transmission, with actual gears in them. If I could find a 2006-2012 Forester with low miles, I'd probably buy one for a bang around vehicle. Any Subie made after about 2012 has a CVT though. When that CVT blows, and it will blow, the driver is looking at 8 grand to fix it.

I hate CVT transmissions...

Yeah, I would never want a new one. But luckily, you can fix the old ones forever.

 

[winds-of-change]

A note on Subaru's.

I've got a bunch....literally a fleet of them, from 97, to 2005.
They are cheap to buy, cheap to fix, cheap to drive AWD, and with a lot of cargo capacity. For a car. With a headgasket repair at 150K and timing belts every 30K, they will happily go 300K. And new engines are not hard to get and drop in even at that point.

At 285lbs, you can do it with two strong guys.

I wouldn't want to live out of one, if I could afford not to. But that being said, their front seats are designed to lean all the way back, and make a continuous bed with the rear seats. But they just aren't that big....and there is no privacy inside one.

But for cheap AWD, there is nothing better.

I am a dedicated Subaru owner. I have an orange 2013 Crosstrek. Hubby as a blue 2018 Impreza. We really like them.

 

[montanabill]

Here in montana subaru's maintain a elevated price even used. Not the best deal for the money for a used vehical. The last really good ones were the pushrod engine. I can buy another CRV honda like the older one we have for less than a subaru and not have to replace the cam belt every year. Or the head gaskets. or the engine.

 

[Aerindel]

Here in montana subaru's maintain a elevated price even used. Not the best deal for the money for a used vehical. The last really good ones were the pushrod engine. I can buy another CRV honda like the older one we have for less than a subaru and not have to replace the cam belt every year. Or the head gaskets. or the engine.

Not a bad choice either...but honestly....in my part of MT subarus are WAY cheaper and easier to find than CRV's. Thats why I've got so many of them. You an almost get them for free over here, with a few problems that are easily fixed.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Indeed. Although people who only have 2WD, often say how its just a matter of skill.....you never find people-oriented fence. with 4WD, who tell you they wish they had 2WD because they've never needed 4WD.

A couple days ago I drove my 4 wheel drive atv down an old logging/mining road to the bottom of a canyon to repair some fence. Couldn't drive back out, too steep. My side by side with tracks couldn't pull it. Ended up taking 2 winches and a long tow strap to get up the hill. 2 wheel drives have their place; on the pavement.

 

[Aerindel]

2 wheel drives have their place; on the pavement.

I've seen plenty of them stuck on pavement. Flat pavement.

But 'stuck' aside......I use the 4WD on my truck in the summer, and dry pavement....when I trying to pull out on the highway in traffic and I want to actually MOVE when I step on the gas, not burn rubber.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Something else to consider when buying a vehicle, AWD is not the same as 4 wheel drive. Most car salesmen will try convincing a buyer that they're the same. Many cheap "throw-away" vehicles are AWD. Spend the extra $$ and get a real 4 wheel drive. I guess, if most of your driving is on city streets it doesn't really matter.