New bug out vehicle. 2025 Suzuki Jimny 4x4.

[Moab]

And will seriously consider removing the interior and applying sound deadening to much of the body.

I saw some videos about this as I was considering it for my car, but the labor/cost to dbl reduction ratio didn't seem worth it. See if you can youtube it. It's was something like 8hrs labor, 400 dollars materials, to get 5 dbl reduction.

Or why they made the buying process so brutally lengthy and ridiculously difficult.

Didn't you say something about the dealers having sort of a monopoly?

Sound deadener works. For sure. But I never considered paying to have it down. I posted a thread in here about sound deadening my Jeep. It was long with pics and tons of info. 

It was worth it for my Jeep. Or any car without good sound deadening from the factory. But especially my Jeep because it has a soft top. And no sound deadening at all. Just thin carpet in a bare tub. This car is similar. Alot of bare metal on the sides around the windows. And in the back. 

I didn't do any db tests. (Although 5db sounds like a lot.) I went from not being to here or understand lyrics on the freeway. To being able to hear a lyrics and a speakerphone call just fine. It made a big difference. 

There are cheaper products available now too. Noico in Amazon was quite good shortly after I need mine maybe 6 or 7 years ago. But alot if overseas products I would look into today.

It does add weight. And I used an additional heat shield. Which you might consider in FL. www.carinsulation.com it's very lightweight and blocks 97% of radient heat. It's popular in hot rod circles for firewalls.

What kind of car do you have?

Actually dealerships here will compete with other dealers. They are franchises. But some auto groups own more than one dealership. But that wasn't the issue. I wasn't negotiating for anything. I got the same offer from 5 different dealerships. And took the price, discount, and inclusions everyone else was offering. Well aware of the cultural differences I went way out of my way to be nice, respectful and chose my language carefully. It was also almost intirely by email. 

This dealership made getting the very simple one page dealership sales documents incredibly difficult. At no seemingly advantage to thém. Only two or three documents matter by Phillipine law. A sales order and a sales invoice. And both are one page. Include hardly any legal notices. And mostly just show vin, price, discount, inclusions and delivery date. 

But this dealer spent 7 days giving the same sales order as I had gotten in 45 minutes from another dealer. It started out as an estimate. Sent from a sales consultants Gmail account. And was missing half if the key info. Like delivery date. Or vin. Every couple days it would improve in tiny increments. But the title would change. Or the date would be removed. Or language would be added like "price subject to change". That completely negated the document. 

It was a f ing nightmare. Thank God for AI. It understand Filapino, Phillipines consumer law, and can read and analyze any document you screenshot and upload. 

But it was brutal. It went on everyday for two weeks. I still don't understand why. They ended up giving me the clear documents I had been asking for. But I never do business with that dealer again. They were the only one with the color I wanted. And other dealers had waiting lists from 2 weeks to 5 months.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

I like it but there are no micro SUVs in the US. The Amigo, Tracker, etc are all gone. You can get a baby Bronco or a Jeep, neither are that small. The Jeep rollbar is set right behind my head so that is a no go. I looked at the baby Broncos and they aren't bad. 

This is why the ATV market is so huge in the US. It is your only option for a good off road vehicle.