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Comment by somehnacct3757 | Hacker News Reader

Yeah if the car manufacturers are gonna start selling trims that do all the really scary stuff for you (like cutting a hole in the roof), and basically include that work as part of the car financing, it should lower the difficulty of a DIY conversion and make it a more reasonable option.

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I think the bigger deal is that these are using stronger parts that are better rated for the really rough roads that these get taken on.

I doubt most DIYers are buying a new vehicles to convert. This will probably be sold directly to professional converters.

Actually a good number of us DIY folks do buy these new. We can do a conversion, live in it a couple years and then flip it when we're ready to do another build for nice profit. I bought a brand new AWD transit two years back and cut two 14" vent holes in the roof on day 2 of ownership. The used market is just wild enough to make buying new make sense, and clean ownership history makes resale easier. There are lots of people doing what I do.

Are they really using stronger parts? I haven't seen what is beefed up in any brochures, articles or press releases.

They mention a 3.5 inch lift, and some 30 inch tires. That's all I can find. Can't find a single other thing that makes this "off road" worthy other than a bunch of useless black cladding.

This is probably as beefed up as an AWD Rav4 is vs a FWD Rav4.

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