It was rugged, manly and relatively impervious to EMP or other electronic assaults, but a bit too crude and unpleasant to drive over any distance at all.
Thus when opportunity offered, we decided to replace The Beast with a new-to-us Z-Wagon, a 2005 Suburban Z-71.
It tracks like a decent car. I regularly shun automatic transmissions, but that is one of the penalties modernizing puts on me. I can live with that among numerous upgrades. I will be willing to actually cover extended distances in my new Z-wagon.
With the 2005 engine management system, it can approach 20 miles on a gallon of gasoline, while The Beast could get to 13 mpg if I handled it with kid gloves.