I'm starting shopping for, probably a midsized pickup truck in a week or two. Will also look at full sized but they cost a lot more and are the size of semi's these days so midsize is the focus. Any advice or brand reviews?
Literally just walked in from a talk with the neighbor who recently bought an F150. He said on his latest trip, he got 25mpg on the highway. He's quite happy and I didn't think the F150 was super expensive.
F150
Ram
Toyota
My order of preference.
RAM
The new 2019 RAM is getting rave reviews from the pros, but the owner reviews on sites like Edmunds are not so good. Of course those could be faked.
I'm traveling in Iowa, lots of trucks in the motel parking lot. Most are Fords and RAM's with a smattering of other brands.
I've never cared much for GMC products, but that's mostly because of the dealership. Overall, GMCs feel cheap on the trim, but the basic models hold up well mechanically and I see a fair number of them around on the farms. I usually end up going Dodge (now Ram for pickups) for the overall value, as they are usually priced better competitively against Ford. My daughter just bought a Ram, and they love it. One thing about Dodge (not Chrysler), they get the interior accouterments best-in-class for the money. I was going to leave Dodge once Fiat got involved but bought 'one more time' because of the rave reviews by uber-mechanic friends of the Pentastar drivetrain. Glad I did, as the 2015 Grand Caravan is the best riding vehicle I've owned. Gets great mpg for its frame size.
If you're going to own it forever and drive it until the wheels fall off, you might pay for the Toyota Tacoma, as Toyota still gets the 'longest life' reviews.
I'm going to look at the Ford Ranger, and Chevy midsized, but also the Nissan Frontier which is way out of date and lacks electronic gizmos but is reliable and cheaper than the rest.
I'll look at the full sized too because I'm tall and they might fit better.
>interior
I guess RAM has them all beat.
Thanks, everyone for the feedback. It's hard to narrow things down when the pro reviews and the owner reviews are so conflicting. You brought some clarity. Thanks.
Honestly, one thing for me is that as a shorter person (5'7"), a lot of these trucks are borderline undriveable.
Our plow trucks are either an F250 or Chevy 3500. So in F250, I have the seat all the way forward and so does one of the other plow drivers who's about my size. There's no way my wife could reach the pedals. The Chevy is about the same, but the hood is high, which means that if you're sitting low in the truck (which at my height you are), the visibility off the front sucks. All in all, I prefer driving the F250, but neither of them are a great experience for me.
Meanwhile, my wife has no problem driving our old Mazda (essentially a Ford Ranger). It's like the full-size trucks assume that nobody under 5'9" will ever drive them.
@Ergo. I'd be happy with an old style small Ford Ranger or Chevy or even one of those really old Tiny Toyota pickups they used to make IF I could fit in one. Bloat has taken over pickup trucks. The current "mid sized" pickups are the size of a full sized pickup in the 1960's and the full sized pickups today are trying to be semi's.
In order for me to get enough head and leg room it looks like I need to buy something larger than I really need.
I'm late to this, but for midsize I'd look at the Tacoma. Well Proven and retains value. Ranger is in its first year, potential bugs to work out.
I just picked up a 76 Ford F-100. The engine is still very solid. Got a couple small leaks I need to fix but other than that it is a pretty clean truck for the $1000 I paid.
But if I were looking for a new truck it seems like the Ford F-150 would get most of my attention.
Nice find Doc! What engine is in there?
>Nice find Doc! What engine is in there?
302 V8. Going to replace the valve cover gaskets, water pump, and the shift shaft seal in the transmission and that should fix most of the leaks. Figure I will try to do it myself and call my mechanic nephew if I get into trouble.
There are a couple rust spots but nothing too major. It won't be a daily driver or anything like that. Just something for those couple times a month where my wife and I both need a vehicle. The 1 car thing has worked for almost a year but something like this I can use will be great. And it will work for hauling stuff to the dump, a load of mulch here and there, etc.
(https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/60105511_10156711048216997_3458253490021728256_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&oh=93f4143e3451cd2682e568d93395db42&oe=5D543814)
>F-100
Well, one thing's for sure, Doc's not buying it for the interior accouterments. "Spartan" come to mind.
A/C work?
Looks good & solid for 1k, nice find.
Looks like I'll be the dissenter, but, GMC/chevy all the way. Years of abuse and these things just keep running. I mean real, redneck abuse. Ford, not so much. Dodge/Ram have never held their value, even when you buy used, in our area.
>"Spartan" come to mind.
Extremely. Big bench seat, only lap belts, and an AM radio.
>A/C work?
You mean the crank to roll the windows down that I had to explain to my kids?
>Looks good & solid for 1k, nice find.
Yeah, seems like a very good value. I like the looks of pickups from the 70s. The current styling trends just seem audacious to me.
Looks like you found a winner Dr Cool. Congratulations. Very nice.
Brad, You may want to take a look at this website for reliability statistics:
http://www.dashboard-light.com/reports/Full-size_Truck.html
http://www.dashboard-light.com/reports/Mid-size_Truck.html
http://www.dashboard-light.com/reports/Compact_Truck.html
LM, thanks those sites are great!
Success. I bought a 2019 Nissan Frontier 4x4. Mid sized. The Nissan was not all garbaged up with electronic infotainment, which to me was a selling point, controls are simple. Plus the price was right.
Rumor has it, that Nissan is coming out with an all new 2020 Frontier in October, which will be bigger and loaded with more gizmos and more costly and I don't want to be a first model year beta tester. The new mid-sized trucks these days are almost as big as Dr Cool's F-100.
I looked at full sized trucks but they are bigger than I need and way more expensive. The full sized truck I test drove felt like I was at the con of an ocean going super tanker, all it needed was an anchor.
Thanks again, everyone, for the advice!
>Nissan Frontier
A good friend has had one for years and has driven the wheels off of it. It rides great and has held up extremely well.
> not all garbaged up with electronic
About a month ago, I saw a headline touting the Frontier for that very reason.
Heh, I just ordered a tonneau cover: hard panels, 3 fold, lockable, for the truck bed. From Amazon. Shipping weight 71 lbs. Shipping free via Amazon Prime. Gotta love Amazon Prime. Shipped by Amazon, sold by Amazon.
Other sources online wanted as much or more on price plus $90 shipping. Local auto parts store couldn't get what I wanted. Nissan dealer, parts dept made it obvious they didn't want to deal with it.
Quote from: Brad on June 04, 2019, 12:04:08 PMThe full sized truck I test drove felt like I was at the con of an ocean going super tanker, all it needed was an anchor.
Or a plow blade. Like I said, being smaller, these things feel even more mammoth. But the nice thing is that when you're plowing, the snow doesn't blow up around windshield as much. And, of course, the size is good for intimidating economy-car drivers.
On the other hand, it really sucks when you have a full-size truck with an extended cab and a plow blade on the front and you have to turn around in a narrow street.
>plow
Good point ergo. The power and traction these beasts have is amazing. A neighboring town spent a little more and upgraded all town pickups, even those driven by desk-jockeys (ie town engineer, superintendents, etc) to 4X4's with blades. They use these to clear snow from the many alleys in the old parts of town. They fit the alleyways better than the big plows and they free up the plow trucks to focus on the main roads. It was a smart move.
>sucks
Yeah. When I was test driving a full sized pickup I tried some grocery store parking lot maneuvers and it felt like docking the USS Iowa. Sure I could learn to adapt, but not really what I wanted when I'm going into Ace Hardware, quick, for a pack of AAA batteries.
Quote from: Brad on June 06, 2019, 12:40:44 PM
>sucks
grocery store parking lot maneuvers and it felt like docking the USS Iowa.
Yeah, we have a few cul-de-sacs where turning around with a full-size extended cab + plow is impossible, so you end up backing up for 50-100yds at night in a snowstorm with people parked illegally in stupid places and, even dumber, sledding in the middle of the road. The full-time guys are used to driving heavy equipment, so they think it's nothing. For us "extra help" types, we joke that you don't need coffee to stay awake all night - you're so stressed you can't possibly fall asleep.
To me, ideally a pickup can carry a sheet of plywood. Here's some ideas for the Frontier
https://www.clubfrontier.org/threads/best-way-to-haul-a-4-x-8-sheet-of-plywood.38010/
>ideally a pickup can carry a sheet of plywood
Ditto. It's one of the litmus tests I use to pick vehicles, and one of the primary reasons I drive Grand Caravans.
> until the wheels fall off, you might pay for the Toyota Tacoma, as Toyota still gets the 'longest life'
This Toyota was hit with a wrecking ball, left in the ocean and put on top of a building that was later demolished. And it still started up
https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/x8z4pr/this_toyota_was_hit_with_a_wrecking_ball_left_in/