6 Ex-Military Vehicles for Savvy Civilians

Your neighbor’s Audi will be hard to see over your tank.

America loves a truck. Always has. But with gas selling for $2 a gallon, now is the time to invest in something even bigger, something with a massive tires, a guttural growl, and the engine to back that growl up. Better to get an ex-military vehicle, a transporter with a story, than to get a quadcab with heated seats.

What happens to a general when he stops being a general? You send him to Palm Beach and he plays horseshoes until expiration. What happens to military truck when it’s obsolete? Often, they’re stripped of guns and markings and sent to auction. Eventually these cars and, yes, plains, make their way into online auctions, where they can be snatched up for pennies on the dollar (or ruble).

It’s a vast, olive-drab world, and we’ve sifted through it to find some of the best vehicles to watch for, from a Yankee-to-the-core Willys Jeep to a cool, communist-era Mig jet. As always, let your taste rule the day—it’s hard to go wrong with anything built military tough.