Suggestions for a winter car/van/truck

[GEJ]

We all know how the AWD'ers feel about their vans for winter.But let's say I was looking for a winter car/van/truck,so I could put away for the winter my Astro's and save them from the salt here in wonderful NYS.Guess what I am talking about is something that would start all the time with a great heater that I could buy cheaply.What would you guys suggest???.

[CaptSquid]

A used Unimog Ambulance. Available on-line, definitely 4x4 (they'll back up over a 3' high vertical wall), can tow a train, got a heater that'll bake bread....

[Fire Cakes]

Dumb cluck.....................you are on an ASV board......................buy a freaken AWD van. They can be bought cheap and they will go through any snow that you need to get through...........................


Were you blonde before you lost all your hair?

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Were you blonde before you lost all your hair?

Now THAT'S funny right there!

But yeah I gotta agree with Lynne...if you want the ultimate winter vehicle, get an AWD Astro or Safari. You can't stop them in the snow!

[97CargoCrawler]

Electric scooter. Drive it through deep puddles for extra warmth. Gets great gas mileage.

[GEJ]

I didn't say I picked a number out of no where and thought $500 was a good price for a winter ride.

Hum-maybe a old Chevy wagon.

[Kabey's Van]

Hey GEJ,
If your looking for something cheap and disposable get a Honda Civic. They have a blast furnace for a heater, there front wheel drive and you can beat the hell out of it and it keeps on going.
I had one in Calgary for a couple of years and that little car didn't owe me any. That's -40C winters.
Peter

[ihatemybike]

I'm working on getting Grumpy ready for driving on the fresh snow days. I still have less than $500 wrapped up into the vehicle itself.

[GEJ]

Hey GEJ,
If your looking for something cheap and disposable get a Honda Civic. They have a blast furnace for a heater, there front wheel drive and you can beat the hell out of it and it keeps on going.
I had one in Calgary for a couple of years and that little car didn't owe me any. That's -40C winters.
Peter

Yeah Peter-I had a Honda Civic in my past.I should say my live-in-girlfriend had one which I drove all the time.What brought it to the end was a very expensive brake job and the shock/strut towers rotting out.But it still was running strong.I went on ebay to kind of gage pricing and found over 600 of them for sale with the whole first page having a starting bid at $200 or less.Got me thinking why so many with everyone wanting to save gas is there so many for sale and if there is a yr that is better than another given what I want to spend.The one I drove was a stick shift hatchback.

[GEJ]

A used Unimog Ambulance. Available on-line, definitely 4x4 (they'll back up over a 3' high vertical wall), can tow a train, got a heater that'll bake bread....

Mike-I looked it up on ebay,found two of them, and all through it seems alittle large for wheeling,it does seem like the altimate wheeler.The other one,starting bid was in the mid $5,000's and this one is valued in the mid $50,000's.Alittle more than I surely want to spend.But for a common interest item,here is the ebay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Tru ... 06.c0.m245

[GEJ]

Dumb cluck.....................you are on an ASV board......................buy a freaken AWD van. They can be bought cheap and they will go through any snow that you need to get through...........................


Were you blonde before you lost all your hair?

:-k :-k I know-I know,the price of gas went down.......but still....

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Hey GEJ....you posted absolutely NO specs as to what you wanted to spend, what kind of mileage you wanted or anything else! All you asked for was something that started and had a great heater....sounds like an AWD Astro or Safari fits the bill. Plus you can find them cheap if you look around.

[Kabey's Van]

Hey GEJ,
I can't remember what year my Civic was, but I think it was a mid to late 80's 2 door hatchback.
It was so rotted you could see daylight out the back when you looked in the rearview. LOL
I blacked out all the windows so you couldn't see me.
I ended up having it towed away for scrap from my driveway, but it was still running.
Towing company gave me $100. I think I only paid $400 for it in the first place.
There are some pretty good deals for ASV's and you would have a good source of parts when your done with it, if that's the route you want to go.
I haven't been though a winter with my 2wd Astro yet but I keep having visions of trying to get up a hill while I yell at my Newfs "Move to the back, I need more traction".

[Cobra]

we've been through many winters in a 2wd stro only ever got stuck once in an ice covered parking lot and our tires were pretty worn down at that point as long as we had a decent set of tires we managed with only a little slippage

[tbhager94]

may i suggest a ford tempo they do come in awd and a 5 spd and if ya look really hard you might find a deisel.