Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's to buy 1986 Suzuki Samurai

I have a chance this vehicle for $1400.

It has a fresh paint job, new seats, stero cd and small lift.

Owner claims it runs great; however it is not regesterd for the street only off road.

I would use it for hunting chukar etc rather than an UTV.

How can I go wrong?

Price out some parts..In a nutshell thats the only wrong.

They have a good reputation, but it's still 24 years old. Dealers and parts aren't located on every corner, either.

I have owned two of them. Fun as heck vehicle.
Here's some reading for you:
http://www.puresuzuki.com/samurai2.htm
http://www2.izook.com/
http://www.rocky-road.com/suzuki.html

How handy are you at working on vehicles yourself? Unless your prepared to be foreever tinkering with it, its not the vehicle for you...

Not sure what the climate is like where you are, but also check it carefully for rust as the older Suzuki's suffered badly from it...

If you get a good one and you're willing to work on it, you'll have an excellent off-roader...

I have a Suzuki Jimny, and on the whole, I am very pleased with it, but it has its limitation, lack of space beig the main one for hunting...As I stalk mostly our small Roe and Muntjac, its not a major issue, but it wouldn't be my first choice to hunt elk with!

I'd make sure he has the title, or at least have it checked to make sure it's not stolen...other that that, I'd take one of those over a UTV any day...

Parts are much easier to find for a Bronco II or an S10 Blazer.

$1400 doesn't buy much these days. I would be concerned about it becoming a $$ pit to fix this and fix that. Of course, I could be wrong, but I'm getting flash-backs of my 1987 Merkur XR4-Ti experience, not a good thing!

JEff

Parts and mechanical ability..Anything can be fixed or adapted to if a person has the know how..I like 'em myself but one has to remember each time he takes a step up from a 300 ATV to the 400 and so on and UTV's,he is gaining weight and size.

The old CJ's are one of my favorite rigs but it's to big in most cases where I roam unless you stick only to roads.$1400 is a good price but makes me wonder why so cheap?

Jayco

Is there such a thing as a 24 year old, $1400, SUV without issues?

JEff

Have to say $1400 would be on the expensive side over here for a 24 year old Suzuki and it would have to be in mint condition.

A vehicle in more average condition would be lucky to make $800, but i guess thats because they were far more common over here and probably suffered more from rust in our climate..

Reliablity is the key with any 4x4.My buddy was looking at using his Grand Vitara,the word he got back was" carry a spare ECM"('puter)at $1000.He soon sold that car.

No computers on a Sammy of that vintage, nor on the later Jimny for that matter.

Over here, a lot of folks build their off roaders off Vitara's (original model) but they have IFS which is a disadvantage compared to the live beam axels on the Sammy and Jimny..

The late model Vits did appear with a diesel engine though and that is a big plus over the previous petrol engined Suzuki's. In fact, I really wish they'd offered the Jimny with a small diesel, say a 1.9TD as that would be a huge improvement for off road use...

We don't see any smaller diesels here,except for a pair of M-Bs and the VW.They have to pass air-care and the cost of meeting the regs per unit means unless gas prices really climb ,we won't be,either.The 2011 rules are tougher.