I'd like to mount one in my car to give me a heads up on deer in and around the road would this be well tasked for that? Is there something else I should be looking at (under 2k)

It's an older 320 x 240 Core based on BST technology.  These systems came out prior to Micobolometer technology and have a constantly spinning shutter inside over the core.  This core was used widely in firefighting cameras and was even used in some of the earlier PAS-13 thermal scopes.  They are relatively rugged and were also used by Cadillac for their car night vision system.  Refresh is 30Hz.  These core can be salvaged out of the Scott Eagle imager firefighting cameras for very cheap.  They can generally be found for around $300-500 sometimes less.  In fact there are several for $200 on eBay right now.  From my experience the core is usually still good.  I've torn down about 10 of them and only one had a non functional core. The camera is super easy to tear down and remove the core from.  The core is all still nicely self contained however you will need to remove the aperture shutter installed on the lens as it's not necessary if you are not using it for firefighting (it reduces the intensity of he heat signature from the flames). Basically it functions as a rudimentary gain control.

Wow thank you for the detailed write up flyboy! I'm gonna pull the trigger on one the only other questions I have are where can I buy new lenses (long range)? and what kind of video output connector does it have? I need to be able to run it to a screen inside the car also I assume like how you cant walk around with just thermal monoculars you can't drive using just the thermal screen

Glad I read this, interesting and great post!

You will need to re terminate the cable that comes from the core.  If I remember correctly you will find that it is 4 wires.  2 are for 12V DC power input and the other 2 are for analog video output.  Depending on what monitor you get you will just need to wire the video to an RCA connector.   As for lenses the one that come in the Scott Eagle imager is a pretty wide FOV with fixed focus that might work pretty well as is for a driving cam.  If you were wanting something longer range you could look on eBay for a 75mm or 100mm lenses that were commonly sold with the PalmIR Nightsights that used the same Raytheon core.