As you know from that video with the Russians off-roading – and breaking – a G-Class, venturing off the beaten path is pretty expensive if you gear yourself up with no-nonsense SUVs. However, who says off-roading cheap cars can’t be fun either?
Mat Watson of carwow makes a case for 100-pound hatchbacks, as in 100 pounds sterling, and front-wheel-drive as well as street tires. Picking up an econobox like the Peugeot 206 is relatively cheap in the United Kingdom if you’re not interested in the vehicle’s mileage or visuals; only the oily bits have to be OK to get on your way.
To be frank, the cars featured in the following video cost a little more than that. But even with a budget of 500 quid, you’re certain to find something along the likes of the Ford Focus or Honda Civic.
carwow insists they’ve spent “less than £600 on three second-hand hatchbacks to prove you don’t need to break the bank if you’re planning to leave the tarmac.” That’s an average of 200 pounds per car or about 250 U.S. dollars.
Also worthy of mentioning, street tires and front-wheel-drive as well as the ground clearance of a regular car don’t mix out on the trail. Or in the mud. Or whatever. It’s for this reason that Mat gets or gives help to get unstuck, and that’s fun in its own right because you don’t care if you nudge into your buddy’s rear bumper or vice versa.
If we would be dealing with a G 63 or the all-new Defender, well, you’d need a winch, another SUV with towing capability, or a tractor to get yourself out of the mud because rear bumpers for both of those utility vehicles are pretty darn expensive.
Turning our attention back to carwow's econoboxes, the Focus is the most powerful at 115 ponies but also the heaviest of the lot at 1,242 kilograms. The Peugeot is far lighter at 950 kilograms, yet torque isn’t the specialty of the French car’s 1.4-liter engine. Numbers don't tell the whole story, though, because all three cars get stuck at some point.
Rounding things off, the answer is yes; you can definitely off-road the hell out of a beater car if your expectations aren’t as high as they would be from a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. And as the trio in the following clip confirms, it’s a whole lot more exciting to off-road with friends.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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