Car for the Water or Boat for the Road?

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Is it a boat or a car? or a boat-car? or a car-boat? Well, it’s registered as an Amphijeep, so maybe car-boat, primarily a car that can moonlight as a boat. But this is no shed-built experiment by your mad inventor uncle. No, this was a kit made by someone else’s mad uncle in England, specifically Tim Dutton, the kit car king. So this is a properly working, actual all terrain vehicle. And it could be yours. Read on...

Anyone who’s done a bit of off-roading will know of the capabilities of the wee Suzuki Samurai/Jimny. It’s a remarkable performer on tough terrain and will frequently show up more expensive 4WD beasts when the going gets tough. But there is one situation it can’t handle, and that’s a large, deep body of water, such as a lake. This missing string to its bow was addressed by British kit car maker Dutton. They combined a Suzuki Samurai/Jimny with a boat hull and came up with the Commander, or the Amphijeep, in this case. Now the little Suzuki really could go anywhere.

This car seems to have been assembled here in NZ and registered in 2005. It is fully road legal, and if those are, indeed, rod holders on the roof, it’s also ready for the open water too. 

If you really want to be able to go anywhere in just one vehicle, then this could be a clever purchase. With an auction estimate of $8000 - $12000 it may well sell for roughly the cost of a non-amphibious old Suzuki Jimny. And with 70% of planet Earth’s surface covered in water, that’s a whole lot more Samurai/Jimny for no more money.

More details here.