Owner: Jeff and Harley Hall

Location: Southern Pines, North Carolina

Found on: Craigslist

Purchase price: $3,500

Years owned: Three

Jeff: While I was deployed in Afghanistan, I got subpoenaed to Italy to testify at a court-­martial hearing for a soldier who deserted. The trial got delayed so I was there a month. My wife came over.

Harley: We'd been looking for a Land Rover Defender, and saw one at an auto shop outside Verona. We bought it right there, figuring we could ship it back.

J: But the guy at the port said it would never clear U.S. customs—the engine had some new parts that disqualified it from the 25-year rule that lets you import vehicles over that age. When I got home, I looked for a different truck. We found the Jeep and bought it as a temporary grocery-getter until the Defender arrived. Years later, the Defender is still in Italy and we have the Wagoneer.

Jillian Clark

H: I drive it five days a week. Around town, taking the kids to school. Everything works, and it's actually reliable. Maybe some small thing goes wrong once a month.

J: I'm not a mechanic, but everything on it is simple. I can usually fix it myself. I'll go to the parts shop and ask for a fuel pump. They'll say, "Sorry this is so expensive"—then it'll be $37. On our BMW wagon, it's $1,000 every time something goes wrong.

H: It's good that we usually don't need to go too far, though, just because of the mileage. We figured it out, and it gets six—six miles per gallon.

J: If I drove it to work, it would cost $20 in gas.

H: But everyone loves it. Since we bought it, I find a note on the windshield at least once every few months. I have all these Post-it notes in a drawer in the house, all people offering to buy it.

Jillian Clark

This story appears in the December 2016/January 2017 issue of Popular Mechanics.

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