It all starts with an idea. Right?
Well, not always! After all, you may have already read the“About us” story and how we came to start this blog. It all started somehow in 2023, on a “men’s vacation” during the so-called Carbage Run. In a nutshell: we drive several thousand kilometers through various countries in 5 days. And all in a “scrap car”, which at the time was not allowed to cost more than €500. We saw a lot during this time: People, countries, cities and nature. One memorable experience was the DN66a in Romania, which is not really suitable for normal cars. So while we were worried about our cars, we didn’t get enough time to admire nature and the landscape. At the end of the “road”, we were delighted to have returned to civilization in our then Golf 4 Variant without any significant damage. But we soon laughed about what we had experienced and wished we were back in this special corner of nature. However, this is only possible with an off-road vehicle – and the idea was born.
But which one comes into question – after all, we don’t want to spend huge sums on a “fun car”. G-Class would be nice. A quick look at the price tag – okay, that’s probably out. At the time of writing, the cheapest ready-to-drive G-Class was at least €15,000. We more or less set ourselves a budget of up to €5,000. But it soon became clear: that’s probably not going to happen! Our criteria were:
- Valid inspection (HU/AU)
- Permanent or selectable all-wheel drive
- Reduction gearbox
- Air conditioning (indispensable at 35° outside temperature!)
- preferably not over 200,000 km mileage
- within a radius of 200km
- Little to no rust
Rust in particular, but also the air conditioning system, were often criteria that ruled out many potential candidates. But we soon found two interesting cars, not even far away. A Suzuki Jimny and a Suzuki Grand Vitara. The Jimny was extremely over budget, but had only covered 50,000 km. The Vitara – actually also a little over budget, but justifiable with pain – had just under 160,000 km on the clock. Both had relatively little rust. The Jimny scored points with modern LED lighting, LED lightbar, roof basket and underbody sealing. The Vitara, on the other hand, was more interesting in terms of price, had a slightly more comfortable interior and already had AT tires. The Jimny is certainly a great off-road car. But we mustn’t forget that we will also be driving many thousands of kilometers on European, country and federal roads as well as necessarily on the freeway. The Vitara therefore combines both comfort and off-road capability. That’s why we chose the Suzuki Grand Vitara 2.0 TD Limited Edition (FT / 1st generation) in February 2024.
Fresh HU/AU was at the start, but there was still a lot to do:
- Engine oil change
- Gearbox oil change
- Differential gear oil change
- Transfer case oil change
- Glow plug check, replacement if necessary
- Starter motor check (turns too slowly when starting, brushes possibly worn?)
- Underbody cleaning
- Rust removal and conversion
- Underbody sealing
- New spare wheel (the old one was still original from 2004)
- Underride guard for engine and gearbox
In June 2024, all of the above points were ticked off (except for the glow plugs, which were so seized up that one was torn off – but that’s another story). Many thanks at this point to Sergej, who carried out the repair and overhaul completely on his own (as we have no idea about this 🫣).
