by You need an adequately selected car if you like to travel and often visit remote areas. It will become a reliable partner on your trip and help you survive in the most extreme situations. When choosing such a vehicle, you must consider many essential aspects and small nuances. To ensure you do not miss anything and can find the ideal option, we have compiled an optimal buyer’s checklist for you. We have included only the most essential steps for buying a good survival car.
Determine your budget
When buying a survival car, you first need to determine the amount you are willing to spend. In this case, it is essential to measure your needs against your financial capabilities and make a choice based on your available budget. It should be remembered that vehicles adapted for survival will always cost a little more than regular models designed for traveling around the city and its suburbs.
People who can spend as much as they want on a survival car are best off choosing new models. These cars will be filled with modern technologies and can be as helpful as possible during trips to remote areas. Travelers with limited financial capabilities should look for cheaper but no less high-quality options. The best place to do this is at the Houston salvage cars auction and other similar online platforms. You can find many suitable models that will become indispensable assistants during dangerous and difficult trips there.
Choose the type of vehicle
Not all available vehicles can be used as a survival car. In this regard, choosing the right type of car suitable for driving in complex and sometimes extreme conditions is essential. In this situation, the most obvious solution would be to buy an SUV. It will allow you to drive on well-prepared roads and off-road. In addition, an SUV will almost always have high ground clearance, a powerful engine and a roomy trunk. The first feature will help avoid damage to the chassis in places where repairs will be impossible, the second guarantees the ability to overcome sections of the road with an incline, and the third will allow you to take everything you need to survive in areas remote from civilization.
Pickups can be considered as an alternative to SUVs. They also have excellent off-road capabilities and have plenty of space for transporting cargo. The latter feature will allow you to take large equipment like winches to pull out a stuck car and other valuable devices. Apart from SUVs and pickups, there are no good options for a survival car. The only exception is when the trip to remote areas is guaranteed to occur on a paved road. In this case, you can buy any other type of vehicle.
Assess the off-road capabilities of the vehicle
In most cases, a survival car is understood as a vehicle that will perform well on any surface. If you are looking for such a model, pay attention to its off-road capabilities. Study the car’s characteristics and highlight several vital parameters to evaluate them. The main one is all-wheel drive. A trip over rough terrain away from paved roads will not be the most challenging task if available. All-wheel-drive models also cope well with sand, mud and snow.
To evaluate the off-road capabilities of a car, you should also find out the ground clearance. The higher it is, the lower the risk of damage to the bottom and chassis of the vehicle by stones, stumps and other similar obstacles. And, of course, for the model in question to be used as a survival car, it must be equipped with a powerful engine. Its presence will help cope with a trip on a steep slope, make it possible to get out of mud or sand and much more.
Check for the availability of various safety systems
In cases where you are going to remote areas, it is essential to have the safest car possible. It is necessary to protect the driver and passengers from various troubles and injuries, which during such trips can be extremely dangerous (due to the impossibility of receiving qualified medical care). Car safety is achieved in a variety of ways. Most often, this happens through modern systems that help drivers cope with various situations and avoid mistakes while driving.
Among the most essential options a survival car should be equipped with, it is necessary to highlight ABS, ESP and ASR. The first is designed to prevent wheel locking during braking and maintain control of the vehicle; the second is to avoid skidding and lateral sliding, which can lead to loss of control over the car, and the third is to prevent wheel slippage when driving on tricky surfaces (for example, on mud or ice). In addition to the listed systems, a survival car should have many others. Their presence will ensure excellent safety and avoid various troubles, which can be extremely dangerous in remote areas.
Assess the ability to operate the vehicle in extreme conditions
For trips through unfamiliar terrain far from large settlements, you must choose cars that can effectively cope with their tasks in extreme operating conditions. To find such vehicles, you should evaluate the model’s capabilities in question in advance and study experts’ opinions on this issue.
First, you should pay attention to the strength of the car’s structure. It should be as high as possible since the vehicle will withstand rough handling only in this case and will not be afraid of minor contact with surrounding objects (for example, with small stones, tree branches, etc.). In addition, the survival car should be equipped with additional protective elements. They will protect the most vulnerable parts of the vehicle’s structure (for example, the chassis) from harmful external influences and help complete the journey.
Check for the availability of everything necessary for survival
For a survival car to be truly such, it must have several essential features. First of all, this concerns tires. You will need high-cross-country tires for trips to remote places without paved or dirt roads. They will provide better traction when you drive on mud, water, snow, and rocks. In addition, their presence will improve the car’s handling and help avoid accidents.
All survival cars must be equipped with a large fuel tank. This will give you the maximum possible gasoline or diesel fuel supply, critically important when traveling to remote areas. Continuing with this topic, a survival car should also be economical. This will help reduce fuel consumption and make traveling longer without refueling possible.
The car in which you will travel to remote areas should have enough space to safely transport a variety of devices and equipment necessary for survival. Most often, such a place is a variety of built-in boxes (for example, in the back of the chair) and containers hidden under the seats. In the case of pickups, you can also count on a compartment protected from moisture and other external influences, which is under the cargo compartment of such a car. And, of course, survival vehicles must have emergency communication means. Their presence will make it possible, in the event of an emergency, to call for help from rescuers.
Buying a survival car is the main task of drivers who like to travel to areas remote from civilization. To complete it, you need to consider many important aspects and expert recommendations and use a step-by-step guide to choosing such a vehicle. In our article, we have collected all the above and compiled a buyer’s checklist for you. Guided by it, you will find what you are looking for and will be able to survive even the most extreme trips.
