Whoops - I was completely unaware of that not-tagging thing. Sorry for spoiling then.
Muh feels 
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Well that ending was chock full of "aww"s, talk about living and dying with people who felt like close family. The dedication to context alone made this a great round, regardless of my own results.
In the end, the Komodo didnât just fly in advertising⊠But it was anybodyâs ballgame, and the variety of cars showed that.
Well, time to pick the books back up and learn a bit more. Hereâs hoping next CSR can teach me even more!
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Join the clubâŠthe queue is quite long! 
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Your entry was very, VERY well balanced. But that was also its downfall; it was balanced. It had no category in which it stood out positively, either. However, from the stats and overall build, I can envision that hundreds of thousands of that generation of Companion wagon were built and sold, as it was the very definition of a prudent choice in the era.
The Bogliq was so high on the list due to sheer reliability, cost of acquisition/ownership, and fuel economy, and despite its poor comfort. I envision it being kind of like the Mazda 323 of the day; nothing special to look at or talk about, but loved because it just⊠went. I was also happy to see the car in something OTHER than Bogliq Blue⊠lol
As someone speculated, the Komodoâs better fuel efficiency was a determining factory in its win over the ZAR, but there were others. Including almost a 9 point difference in comfort, in the Komodoâs favor (comfort was a 6th tier consideration, if it tells you how close the top few were together), and Eve loved the styling of the Komodo more, because it resembled her Ardent Chancellor (which was a big, luxury fastback). Its transmission was also better tuned, which is saying a lot considering I had almost instabinned it for being an outdated 4-speed manual.
For the Komodo, I was getting a whiff of Nissan T12 Stanza/Bluebird, only longer. The ZAR could have been a stand-in for a Maxima or Loyale wagon (The lines being closer to the former, the mechanicals being closer to the latter)
As a note, I had to laugh at the sheer number of manual lockers and 4/AWD entries. Either forest service roads are very different throughout the world, or yâall REALLY wanted Barry to do some serious trail blazing. I grew up on FS roads, with an '82 Subaru Leone (DL) 2WD 5-speed wagon. Never scraped or got stuck.
I suppose, in that sense, itâs fitting that the winner was a 2WD 4-speed non-locker. I didnât pick it for that; it just ended up being a merry coincidence.
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from almost getting instabinned to winning the roundâŠ
thatâs like starting from the pits in a race of 34 competitor to 1st place in 1 lap 
wtf
also a fastback won out of all the wagon⊠i also almost submitted to the 4x4 trend. ALMOST 
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This CSR had an outstanding story. It made for excellent reading. I canât wait for the next one.
Also, RIP Buck. He was such a good boy.
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I had planned the Boulevard Star in my lore for a while before this competition came up. And, to jump on the Tercel/Subaru/Prairie (Stanza wagon)/Honda Shuttle (Wagovan) bandwagon (the car is after all sort of a mix of all four of them), it was planned to first introduce a version with longitudinal FWD (like the Tercel 2wd) and later come out with an AWD version (was very easy to make from the 2wd Tercel due to the FWD layout, just add sort of a PTO on the FWD gearbox and an AE86 rear suspension, more or less). When this competition came up, I quickly started making the vehicle I already had planned in my head.
Since it turned out that it would very well fit into the price limit, I thought that the AWD version could be the one to go for, not necessary but at least yet another selling point. The âExtra Lowâ gear on the Tercel is nothing that is supported in the game so I replaced it with a somewhat unrealistic manual locker. But it turned into other problems. Being set in the 80s USA and with the wife asking for power steering, I felt that an automatic version was probably the most suitable one, and a cheap car in 1986 most likely still had a 3 speed. Then the lore friendly 1300cc engine turned out to be painfully slow in the now much heavier model with AWD and a energy sucking old school auto trans. Now, my company is set in a fictive asian country just because it is much easier to make up a story when everything can be made up, but it is quite a bit japan inspired, and in the 80s the japanese solution was to install a turbo on absolutely everything. So now I had a small and still slow (but not painfully slow) car that was drinking fuel at an alarming rate instead⊠On the other hand, it sounds very much like the Leone Turbo coupĂ© my aunt hadâŠ
So I guess that made it into a very unbalanced car for the round and that a FWD N/A manual version would have been much more sensibleâŠon the other hand, it probably was too progressive in the looks department anyway (once again, neither the Tercel, Subaru, Honda or Nissan would have won any beauty contests back then) for the old lady.
Not whining because I was instabinned, it simply wasnât what they were looking for, just a little background story behind my choices, which were wrong for this time. I try to engineer cars that are somewhat realistic for itâs era, and is staying true to the lore, itâs more fun for me that way. Some other people may enjoy tailoring vehicles for the contests and trying to make the perfect one and nothing wrong with that either. Just different kind of challenges, and the best part about the CSR is that it is so subjective just like when a real buyer is looking for a car. Feelings are as important as numbers, which may make wildcards the winners sometimes.
Iâm from northern Sweden myself so I know how much you can do with 2wd vehicles on really bad roads as long as you have a little bit of ground clearance (until some years ago, RWD Volvo 240s and 740s was what everyone and his aunt was driving here). With that said, I still drive a lifted 4WD Nissan 720 with M/T tires nowadays so I can get stuck even worse. 
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Didnât expect a runaway graduation ceremony. After all this may be Internet-based education, but itâs certainly not the Sonic speed clickbait-y kind!
A lot of our forest roads are in the level 1 to level 2, meaning maintenance is pretty sparce. I have scraped but not gotten stuck with my 2wd open diff little pickup with 28" tires, but I did have to take a run at a few of them. Level 3 and 4 you can usually take a sedan down as long as its not sloppy wet.
Knugcab
I had planned the Boulevard Star in my lore for a while before this competition came up. And, to jump on the Tercel/Subaru/Prairie (Stanza wagon)/Honda Shuttle (Wagovan) bandwagon (the car is after all sort of a mix of all four of them)
Thatâs where I was going too⊠If a Mercedes 180 E and a Tercel had a baby 
180E =cheaper version of the 190E for the Australian market, do I remember right?
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That was an excellent writeup, well done! The parts with Buck were probably my favorite. Also a bit surprised to see a fastback win; Iâd thought anything else than a wagon would be an insta-bin.
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I also counted on a wagon (which is why my submission was called âWagonâ, anywayâŠ) but it makes sense. The car is still useful, and the ultility requirements were not linked to having the most easy access to the cargo area. Just the size, the stats of the car itself, and the ability to carry a kayak or canoo on top, and the appeal for Eve. A 4-door-kind-of wagon-kind-of-but-not-entirely fastback does fit in my view.
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Knugcab
180E =cheaper version of the 190E for the Australian market, do I remember right?
Ah, I didnât even realise. I looked it up and yes youâre right.
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