Looking to buy a samurai

[j0shman]

I'm looking to buy a car or something with 4wheel drive that gets good or decent gas mileage. I live in New England so ice and snow become a problem. I like the samurai and it looks small enough that it gets decent gas mileage plus there are some unmaintained roads i'm looking to explore. Nothing serious, i can't afford it fixing anything big on it. I thought this would be the best place to ask what kind of problems are common on these samurais and how solid the engine is. I'm mostly going to be using it to commute with the confidence of 4wheel drive in the snow. What should i look for in buying a samurai?

[lostsamurai]

The thing about Samurais that most people dont understand is they are 20 years old, they are not comfortable, no power steering, no ac, no fuel inj, no power windows, no power locks.... its like restoring an old classis car dont get me wrong ive owned several and love them i also own a couple 2 door geo trackers now they are great for all around reliable fun, fuel injection, power steer, ac, better fuel milaege, smoother ride, newer more reliable engines and still pretty afordable, i have a samurai with about 8k invested and a tracker that i bought for 2000 bucks and the samurai barely beats the tracker off road plus the tracker is still street legal and is my commuter car just my .2 cents

[j0shman]

thanks, that helps a lot. No power steering and it's carbuerated, the geo tracker sounds like a better pic for my needs, although the "samurai" is a cooler name:)

[lostsamurai]

you can still call it whatever you want i named mine "the lostsamurai" and now the name has stuck as my own alot of my close friends actually call me lost for short:rockon2:

[Toyzuki]

You may also want to think about wheelbase and track width. I drive my sami year around and even with studs in the winter it doesnt take much for the ars end to pass up the front end. Also weight, I dont think it weighs enough for the studs to actually bite.

X2 on the trackick option but still a 4 cyl first gen 4runner would probably be better with simular MPG but longer and a little heavier.

Just my $0.02