Anyone have experience with smokers and smoker-grills?

My backyard grill is pretty much shot; I can sorta cook around its faults but I really need to get a new one.

I'd also like to do some real meat smoking instead of trying to fake it with a slow-cooker.

But I don't know how to tell (A) which smokers are good for my purposes (I'm not doing it as a business, just for a medium-large family), and (B) which grills/smokers/grill-smokers are going to SURVIVE. I don't really have a good place to park it when not in use, so it has to survive standing out in the weather, and -- being honest -- given the time and "run run run" life I have currently -- I'm not really going to do much in the way of cleaning in many cases, just let the stuff burn off and scrub away the major pieces as needed and empty anything at the bottom.

So it's got to be really tough, long-term survival. Gas or charcoal/wood is okay, though getting wood is going to be something of a pain here . OTOH, I'm not sure how you'd do "smoker" with gas.

Question on common meme/belief

It's a common meme in TV shows and commercials that a man will just finish washing his car and then it rains. The expression and setting usually doesn't indicate that he's thinking "Darn, if I'd just waited twenty minutes..." but rather "damn, this wipes out all my work!".

Why would this be so? (Note, I have washed a car I think precisely once in my entire life, so I have no experience to apply here)