BODACIOUS BEATERS and Road-going Derelicts: LONE RAIDER

Phil Coconis
by Phil Coconis

Cue up Rossini’s William Tell Overture, folks, ‘cause the Lone Raider RIDES AGAIN!!

I enjoyed Murilee’s Junkyard Find’s feature last week, on this very example of Mitsubishi/Chrysler joint venture off-roadness. One of the things it motivated me to do was to check out the model that’s been seen tooling around my Eastern Sierra hangout.

Initially, I assumed it was a Montero, due to the well-documented scarcity of the Dodge version. Finding it parked close to my coffee stop allowed for a closer inspection, which revealed what you see right here in this entry of Bodacious Beaters.

Trimmed out in the color scheme of the famous NFL team—and definitely not the high-line optioned-out modelthis example looks to be straight, functional and original. Looks like it gets pressed into tow duty once in a while, even! Not sure why the owner has left the remaining lower body side molding adhesive behind—all the original pieces having gone the way of all similar cladding on vehicles from this period. That the metallic silver paint is still in decent shape is practically a miracle, as the Oxidation Gods are typically hard on such finishes.

Couldn’t get a read on the odometer, but overall, I’d say the mileage was probably on the low side. More than likely, it gets used only for around town driving (its popular around here to have a vehicle just for this purpose).

I doubt these short wheelbase boonie-bashers make for very comfortable long-distance transportation; but haven’t personally experienced touring in one. Comments?

All things considered, if the maintenance is kept up with, and barring any other catastrophic event, this Raider should be ridin’ for some time to come. HI-HO SILVER! AWAAYYY!

Expertly collected and commented by Phil Coconis, this is one of many BODACIOUS BEATERS and road-going derelicts, an assemblage of the still driveable near-dead.

Phil has written features and columns for a number of automotive periodicals and web-based information companies. He has run a successful Auto Repair Business in the past for many years (See “Memoirs of an Independent Repair Shop Owner” on this TTAC site). He can be contacted through this very site, or http://www.linkedin.com/

Phil Coconis
Phil Coconis

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  • TonyJZX TonyJZX on Dec 10, 2012

    basically a Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun whatever outside of the US extremely common like the cockroach like all diamond stars of that age, ate valve stems and put out blue smoke

  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Dec 11, 2012

    I don't think this is a beater/near dead at all, it looks perfectly serviceable, and it's obviously been maintained over all those years.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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