We can't blame the love boat people on this one

[agilis]

Virtually any Jeep you'd rent almost anywhere is the cheaper 2WD version. True 4WD Jeeps cost a small fortune to rent because they know what people are going to try to do with them. I don't know of any national rental company that rents true 4WD Jeeps... Have to go with local boutique/specialty car rentals to get one.

Perhaps almost anywhere, but not in Dominica, at least not the last time I was there a few years ago. I've always rented a 4 wheel drive Japanese SUV for about the same amount as a regular car during the dozen or so trips I've made to that wonderful island with its very bad roads.. Never a Jeep because Jeeps are mechanically inferior to almost anything out there. Most renters wanted a 2 wheel drive automatic shift because they had never learned to drive in the full sense of the word. One of the last times I rented a 4 wheel drive SUV in Dominica they at first brought around a two wheel drive auto shift. I refused to go near the thing. The rental agent at the airport told me that Americans could not drive a stick shift, and besides, I was already in my 70s at the time. Eventually he had a 4 WD brought up and got into the passenger seat. "Let me see how you go", he said. I drove around for a few minutes until he was satisfied. He was gracious enough to apologize, and gave me q 10% discount for my trouble.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Back when I was a goofy surfer kid, I got my 69 Galaxy 500 stuck in the sand way down the beach from Port Aransas, Texas. ( I think I was around 19 years old.) I was off in the boonies looking for a magical sandbar break with my surfboard.

If you know what a 69 Galaxy 500 was like, you know it's not for the beach. It isn't hard to imagine one stuck in the sand.

A guy in a giant monster truck pulls up (looks like Grave Digger, towering over me.) The driver says he'll pull me out for $25 dollars. It had taken all my fast food earnings to buy gas from Corpus Christi to Port Aransas and I told him I had zero cash.
So he asks if I have any weed. Which I didn't.
So then, he starts looking at my surfboard leaning against the car. That was not an option. I would have abandoned my car to keep my surfboard.
"Ok, he says. "See you around." then drives away.


Eventually, a family in a large truck with a camper shell pulled me out.

If you're going to be traveling on a remote beach, always have cash, weed or a surfboard.

We had a big snowstorm about 10 years ago. While I was out joyriding... I pulled a few people out of ditches for free. I like helping people and I got a kick out of it. After the first recovery...I just left the D-ring and strap connected to my hitch and tossed the strap in the cab (Toyota Land Cruiser).

I knew one guy that made a business out of It. I think he made about $200. To each his own.

 

[DandyDon]

The rental agent at the airport told me that Americans could not drive a stick shift

How funny. I was hauling cattle in a bob-tail truck with a stick when I was 12. Got my license at 14. The year they increased the minimum age to 16 was rough on a couple of high school classes.

I think the jeep I drove in the Marines was WWII surplus.

 

[agilis]

How funny. I was hauling cattle in a bob-tail truck with a stick when I was 12. Got my license at 14. The year they increased the minimum age to 16 was rough on a couple of high school classes.

I think the jeep I drove in the Marines was WWII surplus.

 

[agilis]

That WW2 style jeep was a completely different vehicle, nothing like what is currently comercially sold as a jeep except for the evocative grill style. Many years ago the Army held a training exercize in the Fort Dix/McGuire AF base area which is mostly pine barrens and which merges imperceptibly into huge state forests that are also featureless pine woods with few roads especially back then, and those that did exist were sandy tracts. Easy to get lost, with an occasional fatality.

The army parachute dropped several jeeps, some partially disassembled. One disappeared, gone for a couple of years until someone ratted out the Piney who had found it and was happily using it, a gift from heaven, we all agreed. Everyone had the good sense to not charge the poor guy with any legal offence.

 

[kelemvor]

I have heard that the Jeeps for rent on Cozumel have all had their 4WD disabled to discourage renters from doing this kind of stupid... stuff.

Last time we rented a car in Coz the sales guy was trying to push what he claimed was a 4wd jeep. We didn't go for it but that was the big "selling point" he was trying to make.

There is another reason to drive a jeep other than off-roading. For those that want to do it, you can take all that canvas off in 2 or 3 minutes and you've got a vehicle that's more open than a convertible. The doors lift off easily, too. You end up with basically a flat vehicle that has seats for 4 (or 5, uncomfortably) and a windshield ant that's about it. I'm not a jeep or convertable guy but I have a friend who is. I've helped her replace the canvas on her jeep a few times so I'm more familiar with the process than I'd like to be.

Jeeps might be a good solution to that car breaker inner problem they've got over in bonaire.

 

[Darnold9999]

Owned a Jeep Sahara. Wonderful vehicle for off road - handled like a brick on the road. Traded it in for a BMW Z3 - terrible vehicle for off road and handles like a go cart on the road. Kept the Jeep three years, the Z3 is 23 years old and I still have it. Have an old pickup for playing off road.

The old army jeeps were a different thing. We managed to almost roll one one night on a training exercise. Scared the cr*p out of us. Rolling a soft top vehicle is not a good idea!

 

[kelemvor]

Owned a Jeep Sahara. Wonderful vehicle for off road - handled like a brick on the road. Traded it in for a BMW Z3 - terrible vehicle for off road and handles like a go cart on the road. Kept the Jeep three years, the Z3 is 23 years old and I still have it. Have an old pickup for playing off road.

The old army jeeps were a different thing. We managed to almost roll one one night on a training exercise. Scared the cr*p out of us. Rolling a soft top vehicle is not a good idea!

Two words: roll bars

Army jeeps don't have them? Seems short sighted.

 

[agilis]

Last time we rented a car in Coz the sales guy was trying to push what he claimed was a 4wd jeep. We didn't go for it but that was the big "selling point" he was trying to make.

There is another reason to drive a jeep other than off-roading. For those that want to do it, you can take all that canvas off in 2 or 3 minutes and you've got a vehicle that's more open than a convertible. The doors lift off easily, too. You end up with basically a flat vehicle that has seats for 4 (or 5, uncomfortably) and a windshield ant that's about it. I'm not a jeep or convertable guy but I have a friend who is. I've helped her replace the canvas on her jeep a few times so I'm more familiar with the process than I'd like to be.

Jeeps might be a good solution to that car breaker inner problem they've got over in bonaire.

You make an interesting point, but I've driven all sorts of vehicles in hot steamy tropical areas, and not just in connection with vacations. Air conditioning is infinitely better. No comparison. I've spent more time than I wanted to in places where even the breeze was hot and sticky and cloudy with insects, unpleasant even when zipping along and pure hell when you were not.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

How funny. I was hauling cattle in a bob-tail truck with a stick when I was 12. Got my license at 14. The year they increased the minimum age to 16 was rough on a couple of high school classes.

I think the jeep I drove in the Marines was WWII surplus.

Many, if not most Americans these days can’t operate a vehicle with a manual transmission. Sure...there are exceptions (most that started driving before automatic transmissions were the norm), but give it 10 or 20 years...I bet the percentage will be down to single digits.

Heck...of those that can “drive stick,” a lot of folks rev the engine to 2,000+ RPM prior to letting the clutch out. That’s a lot of the Harley peeps in my area. So I’m guessing that might be what the guy was getting at...there’s smoothly operating a clutch and manual transmission and then there’s “if you can’t find it, grind it.” Many folks fall into the latter camp.

Two words: roll bars

Army jeeps don't have them? Seems short sighted.

Safety was not a big consideration for much of anything back in those days.