Apocalypse Now

When it comes down to it, a bicycle may be the best vehicle.  No fuel required, easy to repair.

I have done a quick scan of what everyone has come up with.  The one car or type of car I have not seen listed is the early 1980's Mercedes and VW Turbo Diesels.  Those things run on anything and can put up with a ton of abuse.  Give me a 300TD and I can run it anywhere on anything.  Plus if there is an old McDonalds in the way I can get the French Fry Grease and make everyone that is not a  Zombie hungry!!! LOL

Appleseed said:

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Depends on what type of zombie you like. The ones in 28 Days Later were olympic athletes. 

A 401 CJ said:

Duke said:

A John Deere tractor from 1945-1965 or so is about as simple as it gets, mechanically, and will run forever. No electronics. It will handle gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, or propane with a flick of the ignition selector.

It will climb anything in low range and will cruise at 30-35 mph in high range.

Had a '56 and a '57.  Both 420's.  12 mph top speed.  

We had a late-'50s Model 40.  It would definitely move faster than 12 mph, even towing.  Not as fast OTR as a Farmall, but faster than you could sprint.

4 cylinder gas or diesel.  Perhaps wood fired steam if we are really out of fuel supply of any kind.

In block cam

NOT EFI.

Stick front and rear axles

3 speed gearbox

If you can start it with a crank handle even better cause batteries are going to be hard to come by in Zombie-World.

Carry two passengers inside and cargo area for stuff or more people

Pretty much takes me back to a 1940 or 50s pickup. Assuming that blacksmith technology still exist, they would be repairable and could  run on poor fuel or ethanol.

Whenever I think of this scenario, tires become the big obstacle. They require a pretty extended supply chain of materials and infrastructure to build even one tire. 

The Model T is also not a bad choice because if you must go back and start from the beginning, the Ford Model T WAS pretty much the beginning;so start with something proven. 

Top gear would say a Toyota pickup.....

probably not a bad choice for most of the world ,

A dual sport motorcycle might work well. You don't need roads, just kind of rough trails and the gas mileage is very good.

Mike924 said:

I have done a quick scan of what everyone has come up with.  The one car or type of car I have not seen listed is the early 1980's Mercedes and VW Turbo Diesels.  Those things run on anything and can put up with a ton of abuse.  Give me a 300TD and I can run it anywhere on anything.  Plus if there is an old McDonalds in the way I can get the French Fry Grease and make everyone that is not a  Zombie hungry!!! LOL

I used to know a guy who loved guys who ran M-B diesels on veggie oil.  The repair bills put his kids through college.  Yes, they will run on veggie oil, but the injection pumps don't like it long-term.

In theory, the 7.3 IDI in my E350 should be reliable ... once the previous owner's aftermarket alarm system that berks it is removed.  My long term plan is a Cummins 12V as I'd like to be able to measure 0-60 times with a stopwatch instead of a sun dial... 

This is actually unkillable and likely would run on crappy fuel for much longer then anything on the road. 

stuart in mn said:

When it comes down to it, a bicycle may be the best vehicle.  No fuel required, easy to repair.

This. No telling how long it would take to restore oil production and fuel distribution, so I would pick an option that won't need that infrastructure.

stuart in mn said:

When it comes down to it, a bicycle may be the best vehicle.  No fuel required, easy to repair.

The best vehicle is whatever your neighbors used to have.

In a true apocalyptic scenario, there will be a lot of vehicles that no longer have owners.  So the end result is whatever still runs that you have the keys for/can hotwire.