Mongol challenge car choice

[meshking]

Not me, although I'd love to do something like that with a 2cv.

 

A colleague's son is doing the Mongol rally this week and has not bought their car yet... they have a maximum of £700 to spend.

 

Apparently, it must be less than 1 litre in engine size and be over 10 years old. The cars are brought back, no cars are left in Mongolia.  They have raised a significant amount of sponsorship (approaching £10k IIRC) but have little budget for the actual vehicle.

 

It's 10,000 miles - so the car must obviously get there (I get the impression that they are not too mechanically minded).  I've suggested something like:

 

 

or maybe some top class chod:

 

 

or maybe a Daewoo Matiz.

 

Are Yaris' as good as they are made out to be? Anything else in the price bracket that they should be considering?

[eddyramrod]

Isn't there oh, say, a 205 Diesel that should make the trip, for sale on here?

[Ghosty]

LHD Smart for ultimate lols.

Old Cinq/Panda?

 

Eddy - that's over a litre, Shirley?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A chap in my office did the Mongol rally in a Suzuki Alto, he reckoned it was the perfect car for the job sailing over bumps and land dunes where others struggled, due to it weighing f*** all. Driving to Mongolia defo gets my RESTECP unlike most of these wanky banger rally jobs where you drive to spain or whatever.

[Junkman]

It's all in the preparation, isn't it?

Good thing they start looking for a car this early.

 

Mongolia? I've been there, and pretty much everywhere between here and there at some point.

My WEPON of choice in this case would be a Morris Minor, because every village smith between Uttoexeter and Ulaanbaatar can fix it.

Except in France, of course.

[eddyramrod]

Eddy - that's over a litre, Shirley?

 

   I should read things properly, shouldn't I?  Of course it is.

 

 

 

 

[pandamonium]

Believe it or not, that is where this is going!!!!

 

Not in my hands I hasten to add!

[twosmoke300]

It's gotta be a yaris or bubble shape micra .

If you want to get there that is.

[meggersdog]

I would have suggested a Yaris Verso

But sadly they are all 1.3's

[Lacquer Peel]

One of those French micro cars with a diesel cement mixer engine.

[DSdriver]

Citroen AX -they did those in under 1 litre flavour. Light weight and bog simple. 

[trigger]

How about a Citroen AX?. There's some bloke on Facebook going on about having a 1.0 model with only 10000 miles from new, there was talk about £250 for it, it could be ideal.

[DSdriver]

It looks like trigger and I had the same idea at the same time. May the force be with you.

[Cavcraft]

 

 

It's all you'll ever need in a car. Just fill the boot with oil pressure switches and a 13mm spanner. And some oil.

[EssDeeWon]

Micra K11 1.0 16v if that was me. the GF had one last year and I actually didn't mind driving it about in Auto form too. Plus they tend to rock on forever and ever amen.

[dollywobbler]

I would suggest a Daihatsu Sirion, but I've driven mine several thousand miles on smooth roads, and don't want to do it again. The driving position of an AX would kill me. 205 is much better and you can get those with the 954cc lump. They have something approaching suspension too.

[hairnet]

nippa or micra

 

end

[RedSparrow]

Get a CityRover. They seem to be going for around the 10-12p mark now.

Or be sensible and get a Micra.

[meshking]

Great suggestions! Thanks very much!

 

Being a French car addict, I can't believe I didn't think of the 205 or the AX.

 

That City Rover seems like a nice car - bit like the Mahindra somethingorother I went in whilst in Mumbai a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately the engine is too large (were they all 1.4s)?

 

Didn't think about a lhd - that's a great call given that it'll be about 9800 miles on the wrong side of the road.  That should make it cheaper too...

 

there was talk of a bubble Micra, but then that changed to a classic mini. Then they realised that they couldn't pick one up that would do 10k miles for £500.

[twosmoke300]

Good God , I wouldn't trust a 1.0 Corsa to get the the end of the drive. 😃

[saucedoctor]

SillyRovers are all 1.4s indeed. What you need is a Metro HLE. Or one of those dreadful Fiesta Mk3s with the 999cc engine.

[meshking]

I was tempted to suggest a Pajero Junior, which seem to fit all requirements apart from cost.

 

Someone is taking an allegro estate, which they're allowed a bigger engine because it's a classic.

[Vince70]

How about a saxo or 106 I'm sure that the basic ones came with a 1.0 plus the added bonus is that the cars will be ELW models so you won't have to worry about the OMGFRENCHELECTRICS

 

It's a shame that early Clios came in at just over the 1.0 litre mark as that could of been a good contender.

[dollywobbler]

I was tempted to suggest a Pajero Junior, which seem to fit all requirements apart from cost.

 

Someone is taking an allegro estate, which they're allowed a bigger engine because it's a classic.

 

Pajero Junior is 1100cc. Pajero Mini is 660cc I think, but they're pretty rare over here. I'd love to see a line up of all the Pajeros.

[RedSparrow]

Oh yeah forgot about the engine size.

[Micrashed]

K11 Micra.

40-odd MPG

998cc donkey

Fairly bulletproof

 

Rust is their main enemy. Front crossmembers, rear sills, other than that Ive done 40K miles in mine and it refuses to die.

[ruffgeezer]

corsa b side.jpg

 

 

It's all you'll ever need in a car. Just fill the boot with oil pressure switches and a 13mm spanner. And some oil.

 

The front on that rides really high, I put new front springs on Ma Ruff's badermatic and it's still slung slower than a pissed snail.

[rml2345]

I'd suggest Yaris as they are quite hard to break but driving one to Mongolia will instead break the driver. 

Still... Japanese seems the way forward if they want to actually arrive, although that wouldn't be nearly as fun*. 

[willswitchengage]

Worth checking this - my flatmate and I deliberated doing this this year and when I researched it I thought they had relaxed the vehicle requirements.

 

The old rules were something like sub 1 litre and less than ten years old, not older! Which made it more challenging. Something to do with import/export duties.

[srad34]

Early Yaris 998cc = bulletproof cam-chain motoring......Just service it before you set off!