Preferred Small truck to keep stock and not run often

TL;DR - What mini(ish)truck would GRM choose?

So, Brass spawn #1 is only a few years away from driving. I will need all that time to deliberate, prepare, convince SWMBO, budget, and acquire the proper addition to our fleet. While I will be very tempted to go down the Prius path, I also miss having a little truck to use around the home. I've had a Ranger that I liked and seemed to hold up quite well, but due to car seat issues it didn't last long once BS#1 came around.

I had a Hombre (S-10 clone) that I got for free and had a hard life. It seemed to age much worse, but the S-10 seems to be the preferred option in these parts.

I won't be lowering or racing this, just hauling brush, boats, bikes, and bodies. I've driven many Tacomas and never seem to fit well in them. I'm 6'2", 240, size 13 wide. I have no hardbody experience, and am in the Southland so almost no rust. Will probably go 4-cylinder for gas mileage. Most it will tow is utility trailer that the minivan handles with ease, maybe 3,500lbs at most? Usually under 2,000, and no hills. Don't want crew cab, but need to be able to fit in the driver seat so maybe need extended cab.

No Kei trucks please, I already have my EXV2 at work for that!

Looking for:

Ease of Mechanical Repair

Good auto trans

Interior holds up well

Gas Mileage

Good sightlines

Small exterior

Cheap TCO

Under $6,000 (in 3 years)

GO!!!

Note, SWMBO is not into cars at all. Her requirements for teen driver will be for safety, as much collision avoidance as possible, and rock solid reliability. She may also be desiring a DD upgrade as she has a 2016 Sienna that is quite nice and we won't want to get rid of, but she was used to fancy cars and just thinks as it gets older it will stop working. Daughter is also not really into cars. Other car is 2023 Tesla that I would be fine with having wife drive, but since I have a much longer commute and free work charging it will likely stay with me. I don't really want my teen to have a minivan or pickup to drive, but a small pickup could be ok. Unless I am the driver, I won't be allowed to get a stick. I will insist my kid should learn on a stick just like me, it's safer for her, keeps others from driving, lower risk of theft, but SWMBO will only think about her anxiety around stalling and insist it not happen. IE, this is more of a thought exercise than a likelihood.

when you said southland, I assumed you meant New Zealand and immediately went to a UTE but your profile says south carolina so now i'm thinking one of the new 4 cyl FWD pickups from Hyundai or Ford.  

Ford Maverick

Hyundai Santa Fe

with used car prices coming down and being newer vehicles they will probably be a good choice.  

In reply to ClearWaterMS :

Appreciated. Yes; Near-Coastal SC, USA.

First Gen Colorado. I put over 300k on two of these in the work fleet. Low to mid-20s fuel economy hwy out of the 3.5. Not great fuel economy but not terrible. The engine doesn't make enough HP to hurt the 4L60 but the 3.5 will still scoot. The 4-cylinder gets better fuel economy. If you get the WT, you won't have to worry about electronics or power windows failing. My youngest son still drives one of them. The other went to an employee and his father still drives it. 

My dad likes his Frontier. It's pretty crude, but also pretty unbreakable. He drives it every day, which I find amazing given said crudeness, but it fits our big bodies and fits in spaces that my Ridgeline will not.

Used Ridgelines are in that budget, but two rows of seating.

I don't think there's a wrong answer, except 2nd Gen Tacoma.

Given your parameters I agree with Toyman and say go for a GMT355

Toyman! said:

First Gen Colorado. I put over 300k on two of these in the work fleet. Low to mid-20s fuel economy hwy out of the 3.5. Not great fuel economy but not terrible. The engine doesn't make enough HP to hurt the 4L60 but the 3.5 will still scoot. The 4-cylinder gets better fuel economy. If you get the WT, you won't have to worry about electronics or power windows failing. My youngest son still drives one of them. The other went to an employee and his father still drives it. 

Thanks for the reminder, I do like those! Much nicer inside than S-10. 

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

Used Ridgelines are in that budget, but two rows of seating.

My father-in-law has had both generations of Ridgeline and I do like them, but probably a bit bigger than what I am looking for. Good idea, though.

The dog seems happy.  Maybe a little too happy.  

For ease of interior fit as well as being generally cheaper, I'd go looking for a truck that few people want these days and that is a full sizer but V6 and rwd single cab.  

I also like Frontiers

I put 200k miles on a 2008 frontier.  Not a single issue except a crappy crimp on the battery cable.  Replaced under warranty.

I bought it brand new from a dealership for $22k.  Had the 4.0 and 4wd and automatic.  It had a cd player and ac and that was it.  No power locks.  No power windows.

It towed my open trailer and racecar just fine.

Edit to talk about Rangers...  I absolutely hate rangers.  They have all of the negatives of a larger truck and none of the benefits.  They drive like ass, they are gutless, get E36 M3ty gas mileage, etc, etc, etc.  

They are only good for feeling like a much larger truck than they are.  Ergonomics and operation is like a tractor.

P.s. that hombre had the crappiest plug wire routing of any vehicle I have ever seen.  They were like 6 feet long and wrapped around and through every single object in the engine bay.  I did not like that truck either.  However, I think it was just THAT one.  Not those s10 / hombres in general.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Wellll, we may not agree on that. My ranger was gutless, but it felt fantastic to be in and operate. Sure the shifter had the throws of a dump truck, and about the same acceleration with the Vulcan 3.0, and the gas mileage of a V8 with none of the power, but it just work, and was super easy to work on. The 4-bangers I've been around have gotten 26-28mpg, and fit in much smaller spaces than the F150s.

It was a 2000 RWD XLT, manual locks, windows, transmission. Didn't even have a tach until I did the simple cluster swap but somehow had the nicer seats. I did wish for an adjustable steering column.

John Welsh said:

The dog seems happy.  Maybe a little too happy.  

He was my first dog ever, and was amazing. He would hop in the bed for me to wash and brush, and he loved it. He rode from SC to upstate NY in the extended cab, and had a great summer with us working on a horse farm.

Not a bad idea about the short bed single cab RWD V6. If it's older so not as big that would be a plus.

bbbbRASS said:

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Wellll, we may not agree on that. My ranger was gutless, but it felt fantastic to be in and operate. Sure the shifter had the throws of a dump truck, and about the same acceleration with the Vulcan 3.0, and the gas mileage of a V8 with none of the power, but it just work, and was super easy to work on. The 4-bangers I've been around have gotten 26-28mpg, and fit in much smaller spaces than the F150s.

It was a 2000 RWD XLT, manual locks, windows, transmission. Didn't even have a tach until I did the simple cluster swap but somehow had the nicer seats. I did wish for an adjustable steering column.

That's exactly what I mean.  It's like a tractor and a novelty.  Not actually a great thing to drive.

If I were buying a mini truck for long term ownership, it would be an 01+ Ranger with the 2.3L Duratec 4cyl and 5 spd manual.

Rangers in general seem to age more gracefully than their GM counterparts here in the rust belt. They're decidedly low-tech, although they did get rack and pinion steering and SLA suspension in 98 to modernize the ride/handling a bit.

The Duratec/5spd manual combo can tickle 30mpg on the highway in a truck with early 90s aerodynamics and gearing. Some of the ecomodder guys get them over 40mpg with some aerodynamic tweaks. The auto trans equipped trucks got different gearing that caps fuel economy around 25mpg, is less enjoyable to operate, and isn't as anvil reliable as the manual. Not a terrible option, but I'm not enthusiastic about the overall package for those reasons.

The Duratec/MZR 4 cylinders were used in tons of Fords and Mazdas for over a decade, and are the base of some of the current Ecoboost 4cyls too. Parts are generally easy to find. The engines are known to be reliable and efficient, without any overly complicated tech. The Ranger 2.3's didn't even get variable cam timing or balance shaft assemblies.

I sold my regular cab truck when kids arrived, but I think I'd otherwise still be driving it. At 6'1"/200 I fit in the regular cab comfortably but there wasn't an abundance of extra space. My only complaint was that it seemed to chew through heater control valves at a pretty good clip. Not sure if that was an issue specific to mine, or wider spread, but I was replacing them once every 12-18 months. They were cheap, low grade plastic that was located near the exhaust and between the exhaust heat, the hot coolant passing through them, and the material it wasn't a great marriage.

Doesn't have to run often?

Toyman! said:

First Gen Colorado. I put over 300k on two of these in the work fleet. Low to mid-20s fuel economy hwy out of the 3.5. Not great fuel economy but not terrible. The engine doesn't make enough HP to hurt the 4L60 but the 3.5 will still scoot. The 4-cylinder gets better fuel economy. If you get the WT, you won't have to worry about electronics or power windows failing. My youngest son still drives one of them. The other went to an employee and his father still drives it. 

 

Came here to say this.  Colorado/Canyon is great.  Any OBD2 Ranger will be killer.  OBD1 Rangers are fine as well, as long as you don't mind the CEL for an impossible-to-fix EGR problem that will have you throwing parts at it for years.  The 4R/5R automatics aren't known for being extra beefy, but they seem to never die as long as you do a pan/filter every 60-80k.  S10 is also a major win.  The 4.3L is an old school 350 with two cylinders lopped off, and the 4L60E was used in applications up to 8800 GVWR.  It's also cheap to rebuild, and so ubiquitous that you can't help tripping over one in a junkyard.

Every time I'm in your situation looking for a small truck, I end up with one of those three.  Every time I think I should get a Tacoma, but you either pay twice as much for the same specs, or you accept that it has twice the mileage for the same price.  You also have to accept that over half of them are basically factory-approved salvage trucks due to the rusty frame recall.  The other half which weren't repaired are probably ready to snap in half.

Nissan makes a pretty fine Frontier.  Being in SC you probably won't have a rust issue.  Frontiers up here tend to rust.  Not the body, but everything under the hood.  The one I drove for a while rusted the power steering line and it blew at 45k.  Brake lines turn into raisin bran.