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BangShift Question Of The Day: Why Not Build For Your Own Needs?


BangShift Question Of The Day: Why Not Build For Your Own Needs?

When I got out of the Army in 2010, I had a bit of a nest egg set up and I was in the market for what would be my first brand-new, off the showroom floor car. I wanted one that I could say I knew the full history of, the only one I was willing to take the depreciation hit on. I first chose a 2010 Dodge Challenger R/T Classic in triple black. That experiment lasted a week before I learned two lessons: one, that a dealership is a course study in screwing someone over, and two, just how fast the phrase “call his commanding officer” will be thrown out once I show the thinnest sign of rage. With the Challenger out of my life as fast as it entered, I decided to go for my next target, one I had been praying would make it to the U.S. market: the Holden Ute, disguised as the Pontiac G8 ST. I had money ready. Not just a deposit…I could’ve paid just about the whole thing off in one shot if I was so inclined. And then, just when I was ready and things looked promising, GM did what GM does and Pontiac got tossed into the trash compactor. Well…crap.

To date, I still want a true ute. Not a pickup truck that I wouldn’t begin to test unless I was hauling a car home on a trailer, but a ute. We own a truck. We don’t need two. What I do need is some bed space for odd-sized objects and the occasional large car part that won’t fit in a trunk pass-through. There was a lot of joking about cutting up the Cadillac limo KOTH car from a couple years ago and making it a super-long pickup truck. Truth be told, I considered it. If the car itself hadn’t been such a rotted pile, I might have broken out the sawzall. I’ve looked at Smyth kits before, closely at the conversion kit that turns a 2005-2010 Dodge Charger into a pickup truck closely, and recently they announced a way to convert a WJ Grand Cherokee into a two-door pickup truck that looks rather enticing.

It’s an honest question that’s been asked and acted upon before. Think about old Ford cars converted into tractors and Duesenbergs converted into tow trucks. So, with that in mind, here’s today’s question: why aren’t you building a vehicle to suit your needs instead of plonking down a wad of cash on yet another vehicle?


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2 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: Why Not Build For Your Own Needs?

  1. Jason Covert

    I\’ve said that for years now. I hate buying over priced stuff from dealers. It just makes sense to me to build exactly what I want.

  2. KCR

    The one built from a Magnum. Now why wouldn’t Mopar have built something like that. Who tells these car companies what will sell and what wont? some of the stuff they don’t do is wild.

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