Month: July 2025

In a random rant about modern cars the other day, Reader JQ made this observation in Comments:

“I’m finding that the lottery dream car is typically a pre-1970 offering with few if any electronics other than an analog radio.”

And another thing:  there have been a number of stories and articles about the potential dangers and chaos after an EMP attack — against which a car with no electronic doodads would be immune.  Here’s a decent list of stuff which might survive, but I’m going to concentrate on the cars only.

• Toyota 4×4 Trucks 1985-and earlier
• American-made pre-1980 trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles
• Dune Buggy and similar kit cars (e.g. Caterham/Lotus Seven)
• Pre-1980 Jeep and Land Rover

There’s a huge overlap between these, and the type of car specified by JQ.

And to the surprise of absolutely nobody who has ever pulled up a chair on this here back porch of mine, I am completely on the same side.  To me, simple beats complexity when it comes to cars, and although I will freely admit to being an Olde Phartte with a certain degree of technophobia, I don’t think the principle is altogether wrong.

The list of must-haves (but more specifically must-not-haves) would probably exclude most of today’s car models.

So allow me to suggest a two-part list:  the first part would be to satisfy a need for simplicity (which I touched on before, here), and the second to address a post-EMP apocalypse.  There can be some overlap, of course.

If you know enough about cars to be able to fix them yourself, the list of “simple” (i.e. pre-electronic) cars is practically endless, especially if you’d like to derive some actual pleasure from driving the thing.

One of the features you’d have to do without is electronic fuel injection, i.e. carburetors are mandatory, which keeps your date range pretty much to pre-1972.

Sticking with Murkin cars (because parts for older Euro cars like Mercedes might be difficult to come by), my top 3 (and 3a) would be the following:

1967 AC Cobra

1965 Ford Mustang

1963 Chevy Corvette C1

And the 3(a):

1956 Porsche 356 replica (w/ VW engine)

(I know, it’s furrin — but VW parts and spares are as common as GM stuff nowadays, and the simpler “crate” VW engines are practically bulletproof anyway.)

In the second category — we’re talking about post-SHTF survival here, where your vehicle might actually need to be able to do some work — here are my top 3 (plus non-Murkin) choices:

1966 Ford F100

(I’ve always had a soft spot for these good ol’ boys, sue me.)

1948 Willys Jeep M38

You can get one of these, fully restored without mods, for under $30k.  Cool factor is off the charts, and transistors hadn’t even been invented back then.

1965 Chevy El Camino

These are regarded as kinda déclassé  nowadays, but I like them anyway.

And my not-so-token 3(a) Euro option:

1970 VW Panel Van

I’ve spoken before of “Fred”, my old Brazilian-made VW.  It had no creature comfort fiddle-faddle, no seatbelts even, and it withstood the travails of carrying practically all our band gear and three passengers, without complaint, for over 170,000 miles.  Had it not been thus punished, it might not even have needed a new clutch at 80,000.

It’s actually my #1 choice, over all the others, and if I could somehow resurrect Fred as taken off the showroom floor, I’d be the happiest man in Christendom.  (I’d have to leave Texas, though, because no a/c…)

And an afterthought (3b):

1968 Toyota HiLux

Argue with this choice, I dare ya.

Your ideas in Comments, please.