I like my Tesla. And I’m looking forward to my Tesla pick up, but I’m running errands in a truck from work...

My grandfather always drove a basic vinyl bench, rubber interior regular cab, long bed pick up.

And, I forgot how lovely this is, as a run around vehicle. I still prefer electric, for the most part, but it does seem pretty darn ideal.

Add a “station wagon,” for a family, and a sports car/antique/date night car, and it seems like it’d cover every need...

I have a 98 Sonoma that is awesome. I do wish it had the extended cab though, as it is I really can’t put both my kids in it. Since it’s a manual transmission it’s tough to get both of them in the front seat.

It’s a blast to drive. I just took it out yesterday.

For shits and giggles, I priced out a stripped down 2wd regular cab long bed Chevy pickup. The sticker price would be just under $28K. Good luck finding that on a dealers lot. It would probably have to be special ordered.

Regular cabs are scarce as hens teeth. The Dodge Ram Express is still available, possibly.

I stopped by the Ford lot the other day to look at the new Ranger. A Ranger was my first truck. I didn’t talk to anyone and I didn’t look around too much. The first one I looked at had a sticker price of 47k. The one next to it was 45k.

I got in the 99 Isuzu Trooper with 87,000 miles on it that I bought three years ago for 3000 cash and left.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
For shits and giggles, I priced out a stripped down 2wd regular cab long bed Chevy pickup. The sticker price would be just under $28K. Good luck finding that on a dealers lot. It would probably have to be special ordered.

A commercial/fleet dealer might have some handy.

Nope. 1995 F150 works well for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I like my Tesla. And I’m looking forward to my Tesla pick up, but I’m running errands in a truck from work...

My grandfather always drove a basic vinyl bench, rubber interior regular cab, long bed pick up.

And, I forgot how lovely this is, as a run around vehicle. I still prefer electric, for the most part, but it does seem pretty darn ideal.

Add a “station wagon,” for a family, and a sports car/antique/date night car, and it seems like it’d cover every need...

Ford Expedition. If you're not carrying anything smelly. Third row seat folds flat, second row seats fold flat, can fit 4x8' sheets of plywood inside if you wanted to. But everything stays secure, dry, and easy to slide anything in and out at waist level. Plus can haul 8 people in it, in air conditioned comfort, tow 10,000 lbs, plenty of power......For my business the Expedition works a lot better than the F-150.

Sure- in some aspects a pickup works better (tall stuff like furniture, or smelly stuff, or dirty stuff......but for most people's needs the Expedition works great.

quote:

A commercial/fleet dealer might have some handy

Yep, I gots plenty, any color you want as long as it's white

In years past dealer incentives brought that down quite a bit but this year it seems the incentives are not quite as big. I have a friend who bought a mid level trim chevy 4 or 5 years ago and the incentives and discounts added up to over 15k.

I can remember my Dad buying two plain jane Chevy trucks for the business, 6 cyl three on the column, IIRC the cost was $5,600 bucks... for both combined. Or about 20k each in 2020 dollars. Now it seems even your lawn guy drives a 60k diesel truck.

We special order our work trucks. We get them stripped, but with every camera and sensor we can.

We just build them, then call the fleet dealers for prices.

quote:

My grandfather always drove a basic vinyl bench, rubber interior regular cab, long bed pick up.

I put lotsa miles on a 36 chev half ton, a couple F1 48 & 48 Fords, on a few 3100 style GMC & Chevrolet early 50s models...& maybe a dozen or so "plain simple" over the next 50 years. I towed a bed full of household stuff AND a 12' closed van trailer from Portland Oregon to Cape Cod in 1978 in a 1951 Chevrolet 1/2 ton with stock 216.... Almost all of these newer ones were rubber mats, stick shift, with heater/defrost as the main option. Some had radios. A couple of the 80s & 90s models had a/c. Just lucky I guess.

Recently I traded into a new model Ford Ranger with nearly most of the trimmings, & stuff I didn't know I couldn't live without.

My new answer to your question is, "so far I like it". So for now, I'm out of the hair shirt & wood block pillow option package. What won't fit in my 5' bed, can be hauled in my Bantam or dump trailer.

The basic short cab, full size bed pickups are out there but getting harder to find. People are looking for crew cabs and shorter beds and better gas mileage. I being one of them.

Oh, I still like the old ones though. Here is a pic of my 1979 C10 with a 454. Yeah, it gets around 10 miles to a gallon.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
I stopped by the Ford lot the other day to look at the new Ranger. A Ranger was my first truck. I didn’t talk to anyone and I didn’t look around too much. The first one I looked at had a sticker price of 47k. The one next to it was 45k.

I got in the 99 Isuzu Trooper with 87,000 miles on it that I bought three years ago for 3000 cash and left.

Even used truck prices are through the roof at dealer's lots.

I've been passing a Ford dealership going to Charlottesville, decided for curiousity to stop and see if my price guess was correct on a Ford F150 they had.

Yeps, I was right, 49k.....Even with a good size down payment or trade, monthly payments would be a stretch. But I see people driving these new pickups every day.

I would love to have a 1 ton regular cab 4wd long bed big block.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:
The basic short cab, full size bed pickups are out there but getting harder to find. People are looking for crew cabs and shorter beds and better gas mileage. I being one of them.

Oh, I still like the old ones though. Here is a pic of my 1979 C10 with a 454. Yeah, it gets around 10 miles to a gallon.

That is a good looking truck! Original or restored? A beauty!

quote:

Originally posted by Sunset_Va:
Even used truck prices are through the roof at dealer's lots.

Having just gone through this, I can attest to that being true. I started my search at a Toyota dealership. 40k for used Tacomas and 50k for used Tundras, no bells and whistles. I was wanting to find something in a crew cab and a standard bed for around 20k. Yeah, right.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:
Oh, I still like the old ones though. Here is a pic of my 1979 C10 with a 454. Yeah, it gets around 10 miles to a gallon.

My first truck was an '86 Chevy Scottsdale Camper Special. Basically, that same truck (same shade of blue, too), but crew cab, extended bed and camper shell. It had the infamous exploding saddle tanks, so no matter which side you got hit on, it was bad news bears. Aside from the fun factor of being told you're driving a landmine, I loved that truck and had a lot of fun with it. It got 8-10mpg. I wished I'd found a way to keep it instead of giving it to my old man when I left NY. It's currently sunk up to the frame in a muddy field and hasn't been touched in at least a decade.

quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:

That is a beautiful truck you have there, sir!

While my large quantity of offspring have pushed me into an extended cab truck (although I still have an 8 foot bed...I don't buy into this short-bed nonsense), I do miss my old '94 1500 W/T with a regular cab and 8 foot bed. Mine had the 4.3 in it, and actually got about 15mpg around town, and was pretty fun to drive. I will say, though, that having gone to an extended cab, even when I'm driving around by myself, it is nice to be able to recline the seat a little and have space behind you to stash things that you don't want getting wet or blowing out of the bed.

To those who suggested an SUV...I also have a Suburban, and while it's a great vehicle, it's no replacement for a truck. You can't haul 4000lbs of gravel, top soil, or cow manure in the back of an SUV, and even though you can fold down the seats for stuff like lumber, you risk tearing up the interior, and you'll get wood particles everywhere. My wife decided to put a couple of straw bales back there one time because she was in town and didn't feel like making a second trip with the truck...I spent hours cleaning that crap out. It's so much easier to just throw it in the back of a truck. Also big stuff like furniture and appliances often won't fit through the hatch. The real solution is to have both .

I bought this brand spanking new in October of 2001. 4.3L v-6. Single cab, long bed. Ran like a tank. I did have to put a new transmission in it, other then that other repairs were minor. Ran it up and down the east coast for years until retirement when we moved back to the mid west. I sold it and bought this because after moving I needed more room for grandbabies, mothers, mother in laws, etc. Just over 325000 miles on it when I sold it. Last report from the guy I sold it to is that it's still running.

quote:

Originally posted by HK Ag:


That is a good looking truck! Original or restored? A beauty!

Thank you. It is pretty much all original with a older restoration of sorts. The engine is from 1978 and it is hooked up to a NV4500 five speed from the 1990's.