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I'm going to look at the Ford Ranger, and Chevy midsized, but also the Nissan Frontier which is way out of date and lacks electronic gizmos but is reliable and cheaper than the rest.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.