Oh, it's a dinky toy!
There was a time when there were things called 4WD - 'sporting limited utility'
had bugger all to do with it. They were big and truckish and made by people
like Land Rover and Toyota and Nissan and International and thirsty or diesel
and not very comfy. And no, recent Jeeps don't count - tiny inside, like jacked
up station wagons. Real 4WD were ugly and painted refrigerator white or
greeny-browny and you could bash out a panel and respray it from a can and
there was room for fence posts and fishing rods and bags of cement in the back
and a big dog or two or even, on occasion, a goat. They weren't Midnite Black
or Sparkle Puce and didn't have mag wheels or DVD players or anything 'fancy
gadget' that could go wrong in the middle of bloody nowhere where you couldn't
fix it with a hammer, pliers and a knife. A real bloke could even cook on the
engine with a bit of foil and the right attitude and a decent appetite.
Today I was in the National Park near here to knock off some shots with the
Fuji X-Pro, driving my beat up old Nissan pickup (D21) which is painted
refrigerator white plus a fair covering of last week's mud even though it's 2WD
and found myself stuck behind a couple of those dinky SUV fake 4WD's which
were being driven vewy vewy slowly by families who were desperately scared not
to scratch the metallic duco that they'd paid extra for while cursing myself
for forgetting that it's the first week of the school holiday when they let the
idiots out to play with their silly little new toys on real bloke's roads just
because they think that they're 4WDs. Which they aren't.
The only proper comfy 4WD was the old Range Rover which was white (usually) and
had big armchair seats but had clever suspension and exterior body panels of
aluminium which you could remove with a screwdriver and pliers and replace or
bash out if you wished.
It's all gone to crap I tell you.
You've been driving one of those Grob things for too long.
Andrew Fildes (who has had to strip a Land Cruiser starter motor in the middle
of abso-bloody-lutely nowhere).
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
On 01/04/2012, at 3:53 PM, Chris Barker wrote:
> Well, against the advice of my sons, and to the (muted) derision of one or
> two colleagues, I have ordered a 170hp 4x4 SUV. But in case anyone thinks
> that I have lost my environmental marbles, it's only a little Škoda Yeti. I
> have wanted one for several years, pretty well since they were first
> produced. The fuel consumption should be about the same as my BMW 320d
> touring, but it will be more fun to drive . . .
--
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