so take the honda civic, apart from rust in the first few years that vehicle has rocked, loved my three.....so did the toyota tercel, wwaaaaahh hated that car but....they were all competitive with the other carmaker's low budget models.

yeah, caravan, oh well, but exploder and the like way worse than their chevy or dodge counterparts, i would have to disagree, ford is by far the worst, the chevs are the worst designs (never forget how my suburban roof slope and gutter leaked straight into the open window, haha), how my dodge collected sand in its quarter panels and bumpers to rot and sucked the exhaust fumes into the back doors.....compared to them the ford's have always LOOKED the best....but have always been the poorer choice in my experience.....esp in 4x4's and small cars.....but i am sure we can go around this one for a few years.

in the end i would recommend to buy Japanese if you can afford it or Korean. As a base for a pop top i don't think you could beat an odyssey with a GTRV-like rooftop and modular insides are overrated. you can insert a propane portable fridge and build something from plywood easily to accommodate the surf gear to avoid putting all the stuff on the roof. Whatever, i am sure we will see a variety of cool versions in time to come.....when gas hits $10/gallon. iN the meantime i will enjoy my limited lifespan luxxxxxxury of the kusshine

Well said Kus ... It's true, my humble Toyota mini van serves me well ... I could always tow a trailer if I need all the fluff.

I concurr JL, my oddyssey, is my windsurfing vehicle and my work truck, although i have removed the second row of seats, just four bolts to put them back in though, the third row is still where it belongs under the floor, i was tempted to remove it too to give me some more storage room etc, the vehicle is bomb proof reliable and with full limo tint you cannot see into the cargo area unless you have a flashlight and look in the windscreen, the 2.2 litre 4 is also bomb proof used in the CRV , Accord and other models although it has more torque from longer intake runners, it can run all day at well over a hundred miles an hour due to it's slippery shape, i have the deluxe version, no leather but all of the other bells and whistles and it being a 7 passenger with the beefed up suspension and 4 wheel discs. What most people don't know, well all the kids with there souped up civics do, a civic drive train can handle over 300 hp without failing, go figure, yes i had one, just switched the aircleaner to a K+N and bosch +4's the quickest cheapest power boost you can do to any vehicle, when i sold the civic which I had for 11 years, it was a 91 cx made in japan, all you need to do is look at the vin # if it starts with Jh it's made in japan. We left toronto on april 18th 92 on a sunday afternoon arrived whitehorse 5700km.s later wed evening, then to alaska, then to here for 3 weeks, then to Barstow California, vegas and back to here, after that we went back to vegas again in 1999 to visit an old friend and sailing, i left vegas at 11am on the friday of the memorial day weekend with a board on the roof, i caught the 3pm saturday coho home to here, hows that? yup average about 90mph all the way with a 5 hour snooze at shasta river, it was bomb proof too and the guy who has it now loves it, sleeping in it was interesting feet on the dash on the passenger side. So yes, hondas have a dual personality, tractor + race car + totally reliable, Toyotas are great too. And if i need a new vehicle, even if i won the lottery, it would be a honda or Acura of some sort. Just a short aside, Renault owns Nissan, GM own saburu i believe etc, Honda saw the future, they are still Honda owned by Honda no one else.

Those older hondas and toyotas built their reputation of reliability for one major reason, they were running de-tuned overbuilt 4 pingers, that simply didn't beat themselves to death. Check out the size of a stock exhaust pipe of an 80's civic, you ain't squeezing much out of that. Obviously an engine operating low on its theoretical threshold is going to last a lot longer than one producing its maximum out put. The American vehicles tuned their motors somewhere in the middle, and thus reliability suffered. But that is the trade off, 80 vs 120 hp.

What do you drive now ? Nanmoo, over rated vw's that have premature oil burning etc, my 91 cx pushed 92 jhp stock (the Si of the same year 112jhp and those are the most famous Si's to this day the power to weight thing), my CX a 5 speed with the aircleaner plug upgrade would smoke it's tires when shifted into second 100 klicks in second then rushing all the way to 130km in 3rd and from there? Oh yes you are correct about the dodge/chrysler vans, i could have bought a new one of them for what i paid for my 7 year old honda at that time. Relax man, i drove for a living for 14 years and we had our mechanics in the basement, we supplied the vehicles that drove our canadian primeministers around in toronto, i ran the civilian contingent of said motorcades amongst other things from 1980 -1987 and then went back to do it again for someone else, i know vehicles very very well, in those days i drove renault 5's hopped up of course, Ansa exhaust etc well i owned 3 of them a 77 an 80 and an 85 convertible that did toronto to cape hatteras north carolina, back seat removed of course, in 16 hours every time and rene arnoux was my hero, then i switched to honda. sorry, we actually have a supercar factory on our little island located in chemainus bc called www.super7cars.com and former formula 1 drivers own some of the vehicles made there, Niki Lauda for one..any one want to send me one for christmas?..Smiles. remember old men know it all, so please stop..chuckles and a wink>

I second Voodoo man. I had a '93 CX hatchback that I took to Nitinat quite a few times. Riding solo you could easily tip the seat back and carry all your stuff inside even though it was a 2 door hatch. -Put roof racks on the top and you could move to Kingston for a year along with your windsurfing gear (like I did). Very cheap to drive and decent clearance for exploring logging roads and driving in the snow.

Yes it's tough to sleep in but possible if you have to.

It sat very wide on the road and handled like a real sports car. If you wanted a rocket ship that your grandmother could drive, then it was possible to unbolt your engine, change some axles and bolt back in an Acura engine with enough power to edge out some pretty expensive sports cars in a 0 to 60.

Mine was totalled in 2002 during a snow storm between here and Ucluelet. I'm getting a little misty eyed now.

Smart Car still rules, just filled er' up after ~400 km for a cool $16... and just like Saulman describes, passenger seat goes completely flat, fits a wave board, three sails, a boom and two masts inside!

What about one of these? Good price, zero emissions and practical. And it has an optional towing package for the windsurf gear. Limited speed though, so it would take 7hrs to get to CB and the battery only lasts 3hrs...hmmm, at least it would work around town:
http://www.cruzincooler.ca/products.html

nice work Dave, what a killer rig


These guys are apparently making a longer range 4 door, 4 passenger one next year. http://www.zenncars.com/

Still lovin' the Prius 5.5 years into it, and with full lay-flat seats/rear seats on the hatch back it was comfortable to sleep in on the Florence Jetty! Easily fits two boards and bicycle inside with balance in car-topper. But I SOOO wish Toyota would bring the Estima Hybrid Minivan over here from Japan/Malaysia (40 mpg average reported economy, believable as it has a 2.2 L gas plant with Lexus-based hybrid system). That would be the PERFECT windsurfing vehicle!

Tired of your ride: http://cliffyourride.autotrader.ca/

Astro vans rule! I have a EXT. It's the longer version. I picked it up for $1000 4 years ago. It now has over 430,000 k on it and she still purs like a kitten! The last owner took it to South America and back and then used it for a work truck. He is a Carpenter like me and I have been using it to haul tools for the last 4 years. A LOT OF TOOLS! I just started hauling a trailer with it as of the end of summer last year. I have one of those sport racks on the top for extra storage. For a time I lived in the van and had a single air mattress, 10" dual sliding compound miter saw, Pancake compressor 400' of hose 3 different nailers, 4 piece cordless kit, skill saw, 4 tool boxes, 400' of cords, 3 pieces of luggage, a trek 6500 XC bike, 143 legend Board, 2 ballictic kites, a hq montana 2 9.5, 2 mountianboards, 12m OR one kite, A power inverter with a Computer, And I could still knock boots in it. but that only happened twice, ok once and the girl was obviously hosed to no end! But the point is you can't do that in a frickin Delica! ASTRO VANS RULE! Oh ya Parts are dirt cheap! and to be honest the only thing you'll need is a new rad $100 and a new exhaust $120 and some rubber. And if your van looks as bad as mine does. It's like camo for cool stuff. no criminals will ever think there is good stuff in it. Cheap on gas for the size as well!

Now this is a sweeet looking ride!!
http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/11053875

I think everyone would agree that this, although impractical for carrying windsurfers, is the best of them all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4cw565 ... r_embedded#