I started my undergrad in ’05 and ended up with a PhD in ’12 in environmental science.
For my PhD study I managed to include site visits to various locations around Australia, which necessitated the use of one of the Ford Ranger utes, which at the time was generally used for a few days or a couple of weeks throughout Victoria.
I was privileged to be able to access one for almost 2 months and rack up a 4900km road trip to Queensland and back! No flat tyres, roos on the bonnet or cracked windscreens, but almost ran out of fuel once when the school-issued fuel card wasn’t accepted in one country town (new options introduced as a result). Also had some stuff ransacked in the back of the ute in Sydney but nothing stolen which was fortunate!
It was quite the journey, with the some of the field work in a 207 chapter/4000-page book on human geography published by Springer as a result.
