Civilian vehicles?

[Graebarde]

Originally Posted by Jason

I find it easy to imagine the remaining military units in the U.S. making use of several types of civilian vehicles where/when possible. 4x4 trucks and SUV's, Semi-tractor trailers, medium moving-style trucks, tow-trucks & other general-utility trucks, and armored cars would be appropriated and used as needed.

It seems like many local commanders would use civilian vehicles to conduct patrols, harboring their remaining military vehicles for attack/counter-attack or bug-out scenarios. Many new vehicles may be KO'd by EMP or other hazards, but if thier utility is high enough, (like civilain armored cars) there are mechanics capable of replacing modern engines and transmissions with older salvaged models.

In most rural areas, many farms will have several old cars or trucks overgrown with weeds. Savvy farmers will be able to get these vehicles running over time. In fact, I have seen some enourmous salvage lots in the rural midwest filled with thousands and thousands of rusting old junkers. In T2K I could see these junk yards being the sight of some commerce as mechanics cobble together whatever they are able to get running.

Also, despite the EMP and nuclear apocolypse some very rare cases of new or near-new civilian vehicles will survive. It is things like this that make RPG's cool. Imagine the PC's negotiating with a local warlord who rolls up in a cherry 1999 Corvette looking for all the world like it just rolled off the show room floor. Yeah.

The only thing I would change here is the year of the Vette. I would think the last production year for the vehicles would be 1997 at the very newist, since production shifted to war type assembly lines I doubt Vette's would make the cut for continued production. Surely the nukes of TDM in 97 would put an end to them.