For a vehicle, I ended up with a 1999 Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck. It’s rather tattered around the edges but the 2.5 liter turbo diesel engine runs strong. She’s a right hand drive with a 5-speed manual transmission that I had to learn to shift with my left hand. Subi’s a four-door with a short bed and four-wheel drive. The four doors are great because they also double as a changing booth for the after work swim. In a sense, it’s the perfect car for the roads of Antigua, which are rough and will make a newer car feel old very quickly.
Subi’s four-wheel drive and high clearance enable me to explore some remote places on the island such as Body Ponds, a rich watershed in the interior of the island and Savannah Beach, a beautiful sandy patch with good waves that is always deserted. These places and many others yet to be explored are only accessible with a vehicle like Subi.
The truck was not road ready and for the price, that was ok with me. With help from some friends here, I found a reliable mechanic who got her running well for a very reasonable fee. Subi passed inspection at the Transportation Board with flying colors even though one taillight was patched up with tape and she tends to belch out a bit of smoke from her diesel engine. High on character and emissions too! A new set of injector tips will help with the smoke issue but I’ve been told that all Mitsubishi diesels have the same problem.
I spent some time cleaning the engine compartment, scraping off stick-on graphics from the previous owner and sprucing up the interior with new, matching seat covers. The CD player works, it has tinted windows and can fit five adults inside and 6 outside. She gets about 22 miles to the US gallon but this may not be accurate because of the several conversions required. Namely, the odometer is in kilometers, the pumps at the gas station give you Imperial Gallons, you pay for fuel in EC dollars and you drive on the left side of the road!
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