I know I like to blog about dream car garages. I even do "attainable" posts. How realistic though, because honestly with the current times I honestly doubt I'd be able to save enough money, or earn enough to afford a car loan, to get a brand new car.
So here's something different. It's still a two-car garage but I'll be very realistic. Our 2024 Toyota Wigo G will be the first car since we already own it. So what would the second one be?
Obviously I have to look for a used car. If you're lucky you can find a decent one in the used car dealers or on Facebook Marketplace, I guess. Now what would I want for a second car?
My first thought was an MPV, which means it can haul people and a bit of cargo, or cargo and a bit of people. Then because of the recent flooding even with only monsoon rains, my priorities shifted to something else.
Maybe the second car should be an older, reliable SUV that you can install a snorkel. Like a 1st gen Vitara, or a 1st or 2nd gen Pajero. Unfortunately, an automatic transmission is still the preferred choice since between my wife and I, I'm the only one who can drive stick. And if I send my daughter to driving school it would be useless to have her learn stick when we don't have any manual transmission vehicles.
Now what would the point of the second car be? It would be our coding car and our bad weather car. Bad weather because the ground clearance should be higher than the Wigo, and sudden heavy rains should not make us worry if the car would be able to pass through flash floods. Now I'm not talking about waist deep floods or worse. Maybe ankle to knee deep if push comes to shove.
That's why I thought of the Vitara and Pajero, two capable off-roaders that have decent ride height. And they won't look out-of-sorts with snorkels on either. Plus if they are automatics with 4x4, I can probably take them off-roading once in a while.
Anyway, the old gen 1 or 2 Pajeros do have the MPV-ish capacity of being 5-to-7 seaters, and both could carry cargo as well. The Vitara not as much.
The big question with my current ideal choices for a second car is maintenance. Would these cost a lot to keep running and reliable? Would the vehicle I find (if I do end up buying one) be in good condition?
Fuel economy isn't really an issue here since my plan is still for the Wigo to be the daily driver, and for the second car to only be used when the Wigo is number coding. Unless it's raining bad.
Out.
