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We are never going back to the days of carbs, mech fuel pumps run off the cam, and standing in the engine bay while working on the car's engine. But what can I buy new or slightly used that isn't a death trap, and can most likely be repaired at home with a decent set of hand tools and a jack if something goes wrong? No removing the front end bodywork to get to a windshield washer pump (Subaru), no jacking the engine off its mounts to get to an alternator (Mazda), no disassembling the engine bay to replace a sensor (VW). And for f**k's sake, no turbo or hybrid anything (Ford).

We are never going back to the days of carbs, mech fuel pumps run off the cam, and standing in the engine bay while working on the car's engine. But what can I buy new or slightly used that isn't a death trap, and can most likely be repaired at home with a decent set of hand tools and a jack if something goes wrong? No removing the front end bodywork to get to a windshield washer pump (Subaru), no jacking the engine off its mounts to get to an alternator (Mazda), no disassembling the engine bay to replace a sensor (VW). And for f**k's sake, no turbo or hybrid anything (Ford).

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Anything with a 1993 or before 6.5 liter diesel engine would be my vote.

Mine has 330K miles on it, there is no electronics at all - the glowplugs are triggered by a switch on my dash, the injection pump is 100% mechanical, so the fucker will survive an EMF blast to boot. The military uses these blocks in hummers- simple to manufacture and repair. They are also still in production for this purpose.

Bonus: The old fuckers will run on anything to include frying oils (newer diesel designs won't do this easily)... not saying that I do it, but you could, in theory, easily obtain kerosene or "offroad only diesel fuel", which has no highway tax added to it, and it will run just fine. Diesel also stores better longterm than gas will, and happens to also run the generator for my house and tractor. Building a fuel dyke at home is a must if you intend to have any autonomy during a crisis.