I am currently shopping on craigslist for a work vehicle. I live in a major US metropolis and do not own a car. In fact, I have gone for most of my adult life without a car, except for a brief stint with a compact fuel-efficient sedan that I loved for getting 38 mpg on my road trips.
I’ve perused the site and while there is a lot of information on little commuter vehicles, I haven’t been able to find anything that addresses my needs (dirtbag-mobile). I will be driving several thousand miles this summer and fall between field sites (I will be reimbursed for mileage). Most of the driving is on highways, but I need clearance to access the actual work sites and 4wd (I am ruefully aware that many of the vehicles I am looking at do not have a 4wd option, only awd) on some of the worst roads. I’m not yet sure if I will keep the vehicle after my field season is over, but my rest of the year lifestyle includes many trips to the mountains for kayaking/climbing/skiing/mountain biking/backpacking and to the coast for surfing (of course car-pooling as much as possible). Basically I lead a very active lifestyle that entails hauling around large amounts of gear and people. Often I am camping in inclement weather (5m+ annual precip). I would like to have a vehicle that can sleep two comfortably (one person being 6’3”). I will not be driving this vehicle at all when I am home in the city as I find parking and traffic heinous, and love to ride my bike.
I will probably be living out of my vehicle for at least 2.5 months (away from home this entire time) this summer, working and visiting friends/family. I want to be able to carry a couple surfboards (one over 8’ long), a ton of climbing gear, cooking equipment, a bicycle or two. I want to be as organized as possible and I do not want to have to unload stuff every night in order to be able to sleep. I have done these trips before in tent and small car and also slept in an outback, but that is inconvenient, as I had to unload everything each night. I want to be able to keep a low profile, and potentially sleep in parking lots, the side of the road, and in front of friends’ houses. My limited height makes roof items difficult to access and one cannot drive in parking garages/forests without scrape-age, also I’d like to be able to hide all my toys inside when I leave my vehicle unattended. I have been looking a lot at minivans and would like to build some kind of sleeping platform with drawers. I am also looking at older 4runners. Since I figure that I can’t “have it all” I’m not being a huge stickler for fuel economy (as much as I would be if I were looking for just a passenger car, say), but obviously want to the rig to be as economical and environmentally friendly as possible, oh yeah, and reliable! It just doesn’t make sense to spend more on the purchase price to save at the pump if it will take you longer than the life of the vehicle to recoup that cost, na’ mean?
Oh, a little about me: I save about 60% of my earnings and am generally very resourceful. I’ve never purchased a vehicle so am rightfully cautious. I am used to relying on public transit and ridesharing, but there is just no way to do that for the places I need to go right now. I am stoked to have this job, it is pretty much the most awesome thing I could be doing, and the pay doesn’t suck either.
So, what would you buy? BTW, the vehicles I am looking at are in the 4-5k range and I can write-off the purchase price.
Thank you very much!