Sold my little beater Ranger cause I wanted something that had a little back seat at least in case one of the kids came along for haul duty. I found a good deal on a 1st gen Tundra but it was gone before I could get out of work to go check it out. What would you guys get for sub $3k?
great question. I'm not in exactly the same boat but am jonesing for a smallish truck. I'm leaning toward 2002ish chevy long bed with extended cab (back seats, not back doors), 2wd v8. But I also love the s10.
Cleanest, least-rusty truck you can find, honestly. At a certain point, brand and features don't matter nearly as much as condition.
Good point, don't really need 4wd or a long bed. Most cheap ones I'm seeing are million mile Ford and Chevys
I am selling this next week, but won't be sub $3000. Just did timing belt water pump, 4 new michelin tires. 4.7L V8. 38K miles. 1 owner. All records.
You can try buying a Mighty Max or HardBody at that price. I see them fairly often, and they are good small trucks.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
Would love to have that but yeah way out of the price range.
Early colorados with the 4 banger and rwd.
If anyone knows of anyone selling something shoot me a message. I'm in NoVa /WV/MD area. Stopped at a little old car lot down the road at lunch time that had an old T100 but they still wanted $4800 for it and it was pretty rough.
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:Cleanest, least-rusty truck you can find, honestly. At a certain point, brand and features don't matter nearly as much as condition.
Also add truck based SUVs to the list, depending on what sort of cargo you're using it for.
My kids (ages 5 and 9) enjoyed riding in the jump seats in the back of an extended cab Ranger, but I'm not sure that would work if your kids are older.
Would an Explorer Sport Trac meet your needs/wants? They seem to be overlooked by people shopping Ranger/Colorado /Dakota
How about a 1997-2004 Nissan Frontier? They are great small trucks and can be had with a "king cab" aka extended cab. Something like this:
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/d/saint-petersburg-nissan-frontier-pickup/7143372039.html
The 5 speed and KA24 will run forever.
I dunno what's good and what's bad, but the car wizard seems to know. (Car wizard got youtube famous from fixing cars for Hoovie who got youtube famous for buying broken cars)
When I was shopping for compact trucks (ended up with a Fordzda Branger) I noticed that Toyota seems to follow the rule of 2. Take any $3000 Ranger, colorado, s10, or dakota. Then compare it to a $3000 Toyota. It will have twice the mileage, twice the rust, and twice the dents. They hold their value big time.
Still likely a good deal mechanically, but it's also hard to argue with parts prices. I just did a radiator, intake gaskets, belts, hoses, clutch, flywheel, rear main seal, master and slave cylinders, brake rotors and good pads, u-joints, cold air intake, injectors, plugs, wires, and coil on my Branger and the parts cost was under $500. And I got good stuff, too. Gates, Exedy, OEM ignition stuff, OEM injectors, Reinz and FelPro gaskets. Funny thing was, that was mostly as a "while I'm in there" exercise. I had a little leak from a valve cover so I went nuts because COVID gave me cabin fever.
I've been incredibly happy with my Branger. I'd do it again. If you're looking for a back seat, maybe not.
I would find the nicest Silverado or F150 extended cab or crew cab I could find. I would love a Tundra, but at the $3000 buy-in, they will all likely have taken a fallen tree across the bed and the interior will look like the former owner was a grizzly bear that smelled honey-coated salmon in the seat cushions
stanger_mussle (Forum Supporter) said:How about a 1997-2004 Nissan Frontier? They are great small trucks and can be had with a "king cab" aka extended cab. Something like this:
https://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/d/saint-petersburg-nissan-frontier-pickup/7143372039.html
The 5 speed and KA24 will run forever.
I agree, but has anyone else noticed that 90% of them are beaten to death before 100k? I looked at several and they were all abused hardcore. They seem to be solid mechanically but they do tend to have rust issues... not body and frame so much, but things like brake lines, power steering lines, etc seem to rot quickly.
Still, I would buy one. They don't seem to come with the Toyota tax. I found several in my price range but ended up passing on them because they seemed like a ticking time bomb.
My buddy had a Frontier forever. He commuted 2+ hours every day for work and racked up about 300k before trading it on a Titan.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
38,000 miles?
In reply to spitfirebill :
Yup
Totally agree on the Toyotas. I've had my share of 4runners and Land Cruisers to know that they will run forever but finding one in my beater truck price range is tough. There is an old T100 up the road for sale for $4800 that the guy has had forever but it too is rough and I would kinda like to get an auto so the wife can drive it if I needed her to pick up something for me.
You'll need to log in to post.
