BABS was the first car I bought and is very much part of the family. BABS is a 1994 Toyota Hilux 4×4 double-cab with the 22R 2.4 litre petrol engine and solid front axle (the 4×4 model and later generations adopted independent front-suspension).
I bought it in 2001 with something like 140,000km on the odometer, one careful owner who had retired to the south African Cape and taken the car with him. This meant I had to go and collect it: a 5 day adventure over Botswana’s Independence Day public holiday.
Since then BABS has worked hard and now sits on 520,000km and, after a period of semi-retirement, has become active again serving our farm development needs.