Optioned SR5 in Tasmania $450

[Mattel]

This ones been for sale for a while on Gumtree and looks really nice for the price. sunroof, a/c and alloys. It's not mine but I hope it sells hate to see these things get scrapped.

c'mon USA you could get this shipped over for $1,000 and make overtaking really interesting for yourself driving on the right hand side of the road!


http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/new-norf ... 1029478375

[dlb]

i can't believe how awesome and plentiful the australian tercs seem to be. maybe i need to move.

[ARCHINSTL]

Nah - we go for Morris Minors from OZ and NEWZ. It is just amazing how many of these little beasties have wound up here from the Antipodes - and they continue to arrive. No salt, EZ to work on and, if so inclined, super easy to change to LHD.
I think your sports cars go to the UK and the Minors and similar Austins wind up here.
I was quite the Minor Nut (giggle) from 1959 until 1983, owning as many as 5 and three at a time. They taught me about CARS.
Tom M.

[Petros]

Not bad! I love those nice lightweight bumpers too. Tempting to go pick that one up...

Lets see, if I fly to down under with my tools, take the ferry over to south Africa, drive north to algeria and take the ferry to spain, than drive over the north pole through Canada, I can have here in no time at all! it would be quite a road trip as well.

[Mattel]

David, the crop seems to have thinned extensively in the last 5 years. As we don't get snow and ice that much the awesomeness of the wagons are not fully appreciated by many. I used to have 5 tercels within 1km radius of my house.. now I'm lucky to see 1 a month. Tasmania loves little wagons there. I think they sell more subarus than almost any other brands. Corolla 4wds though are still really popular around aus but not really looked after.

Petros! just head north (bypassing Vietnam as they don't allow RHD vehicles) and take a ferry from russia to alaska.. you'll be home for tea!

[Petros]

I have actually heard of people taking road trips across continents, I wonder how one would organize something like that. would it be reasonably cost effective to ferry a travel rig vehicle from one Continent to another?

[Mattel]

Petros, I saw a Subaru Forester Turbo with a rooftent on it's roof on my street in Melbourne. Had a closer look. It was registered in Ireland!
These guys pretty well drove a factory Forester around the world. Not a specialised unimog type vehicle. Quite impressive although they did have to get the rear shocks replaced for heavy duty versions in Thailand.

Heres a photo off their blog from Bolivia.




http://www.getjealous.com/subaroute

[dlb]

this pic from their travel blog is too cute.

http://www.getjealous.com/subaroute/pho ... icaro.html

holy crap, this list of their stops is unreal.

http://www.getjealous.com/subaroute/map

[irowiki]

I wonder what happened to them, they stopped updating in 2011?

[Gottolovem]

Just imagine if that speedo was in mph rather than kph we would have a ferrari killer on our hands

[Petros]

think a 30 year old Tercel4wd could make that same trip? It would be a blast to try. I wonder how much it cost to do a trip like that.

[dlb]

a tercel could definitely make that trip. guaranteed that subaru had lots of work done on it along the way. after the initial tune up and repairs, i bet the terc would only need as much work as the subaru or less.

[Petros]

It would be fun to set one up for such a trip, I know exactly what I would do to it. a complete mechanical make over, and a few tweaks here and there to reinforce the old chassis and some of the weak items. I wonder if it would be worth keeping the stock carb, or to install a weber and strip all that vac equipment off of it (it would be easy to carry a complete spare carb, along with a few other spares). How many miles would a trip like that be? 20,000 perhaps? 4 or 5 months including rest and sight seeing days. five oil changes or so, several air filters, but tires, brakes, belts and hoses should all handle a trip like that. hmmmm

[Mattel]

David, I went through their site pretty extensively back in the day and it seems that the shock absorbers were the only non service item they complained about breaking (probably due to all the extra weight). I think Subaru in Thailand did it for free.. as it is great publicity.

It was amazing that they didn't have any major sponsorship as well. I could imagine you could amortise the cost pretty well if you got some sponsors on board. It seems they weren't doing it for any reason than the travel itself. But you could imagine parts manufacturers, accessory dealers, fuel/oil even Toyota dealers along the way could perhaps be interested in such a journey.

It really depends how far you want to push it I guess. Back when the middle east was a little less troubled many australians and new zealanders drove VW beetles and kombi's back from the UK. slow and steady would win the race I think!