I had a '55 Zephyr once. It was great for off road stuff, but it wasn't really fit for the kind of highway driving we have here. The Zephyr never complained about being driven through sandbanks, logging roads or creekbeds, even when a garage attendant once marvelled at the sandpile I was carrying around in its engine compartment. But the poor thing had a weird automatic transmission that down shifted, everytime you touched the the gas, especially on the highway. It made the daily trip to work noisy, jerky and very slow.

I did a bit of off roading a couple of weeks ago. I figured my Subaru Legacy GT Wagon should finally be fully tested to determine it's capabilities. The Sub and I did really well on a couple of overgrown rutted roads, but when I was being guided over one particularly bad stretch, keeping my side on the hump in the middle, they failed to disclose that there was a rather solid stump hidden in the salal on the shoulder.

I think my Sunday fun expedition is going to cost me about $2000 for a new bumper and some other broken bits. Ouch! That's about 10 times as much as I paid to buy whole cars in my youth. In the meantime I have some rope tied onto the wheel well lining to keep it from rubbing on the tire. I really am regressing, but in the old days the rope was usually used to keep the door tied shut.