I need a truck....or do I?

In reply to Driven5 :

Because the odyssey is, out of the 50+ I've owned, my least liked, most hated, and 1st or 2nd least reliable vehicles. 
It's typical of most of the Japanese cars I've owned in respects that the Japanese don't really design/engineer anything, they mostly copy what's out there. In this case, they did it poorly. It technically could hold a 4X8 sheet of plywood, but the opening was only 4' 2" wide about 1/2 way up the opening so you had to levitate stuff in and your fingers couldn't be holding the piece. Then when set on the uneven floor it was below the trim panels, you couldn't get fingers under it. Uncomfortable, lack of torque, I could go on, but I won't.
When Hurricaine Ian came through I hoped and prayed it'd get demolished. It had a body panel ripped off, but it survived. Then my neighbor had a large tree that was leaning heavily toward my driveway after Ian. I parked the oddy directly in the path. I wanted that crushed so bad.

The answer is a Dodge short full size van.  You can turn it into a Dajiban for track days and swap in a 4BT so you can still get 58 MPG while towing 10k uphill into a headwind!

In reply to logdog (Forum Supporter) :

I agree. Then sell it to me for far less than it's worth. 

In reply to DrBoost :

I wasn't asking why you replaced the Odyssey. I was asking why you replaced the Odyssey with something less capable, despite needing the extra capability?

In reply to Driven5 :

Ahhh, gotcha. Good a screaming deal. 50% off what you would typically see. And my wife is done with minivans after 20 years of having one. 
Edit: I've been thinking about getting a truck since before we were paroled from odyssey ownership. 

In reply to DrBoost :

The kicker for me is $6k budget.  The minivan market is a mess.  It used to be fueled by rental companies offloading minivans.  Then the rental companies started keeping minvans into the 75k mile range and then still wanting to sell them at high dollar.  

I think what you will find in the sub-$6k market for minivans will mostly be undesireable.  

Of course, pricing for pickups is high too if you want these features:

• a back seat
• 4wd
• the big engine

So, with all that said, my recommendation for sub-$6k is to keep the Mini AND buy a full size, 2wd, single cab.  Far fewer buyer of these and you'll be in a better position to "name your price."  

This has been up for 3 weeks at $4250.  Im guessing it can be bought for less than $3,500

'05 w/ 102k asking $4.3k V6 single cab long bed

I like the old Tundras with scary miles

I used work vans for years, huge Econolines including a 1 ton model. I drive a truck now

Vans are great for a lot of things but stupendously terrible at others it just depends what you are doing. 

Colorado.  Especially in rust free areas.  Can be had cheap in nearly any configuration and drive.

You need a truck. 

z31maniac said:

Apparently there is a 4th kind. Especially if it's coming from a big box store. Just have them deliver it. We recently redid a big portion of our flower beds out front. Had HD deliver a pallet of mulch and about a 1/4-1/3 pallet of the stones to go around the flower beds to replace the crummy green, metal edging. We used her Mazda 3 to get all the plants. It took a 2nd run so I could get the two 6' Arizona Spruce's, but it's only about 5 minutes from the house. 

I'm only 41, but the older I get the more willing I am to pay for convenience. Having those two pallets delivered to the driveway was a far superior option. 

Depends what you are often doing with the truck, but yes, 95% of stuff you can just have delivered.

Every once in a while (f0r me) there is something that doesn't work for and I'm bummed.  But usually not bummed enough to buy a truck.  For example my mom has some furniture she is getting rid of.  I can't take any of it with me when I visit her.  But at 2 hours away, I'd need to pay $20/day + mileage + turrible mileage for a uhal to retrieve it and its easily a $200+ ordeal and no longer worth it.  If I had a truck I'd just throw it in the back and be done.

To be honest the only thing enticing me into truck ownership is the Maverick.  At 40mpg in town and super friendly to mountain biking, its the level of utility and DD economy I am looking for.

Utility trailers are the most insanely convenient option to turn just about anything into a truck IF storing them works for you.

In that price range, if I were in the market for a small-midsize truck, I'd try and find an early/mid-90's Dodge Dakota, preferably with the Sport package. 



They look good, they can be had with an extended cab if you want, They are a bit roomier inside than a comparable S10 or Ranger. The best part: they had an optional Magnum 318 V8 which makes really good power for a truck that size, and you could get that V8 with a manual! I knew a guy who had one, and with a few simple mods, it was pretty quick but still did Truck Stuff well enough when the need arose. And if it blows up, a Magnum 360 just falls into the thing for even more power!

These years also came with the Chrysler 2.5L four and a manual trans (the 1997-up switched to the AMC-derived 2.5L four), and they can be turbocharged like the FWD Turbo Mopar stuff fairly easily. I nearly bought one a few years back to do just this, but the seller backed out on me. Still sore about that. 

Skip the V6 though. I had one, and it was shaky and gutless, to be honest. 

Best part is that if you can find one, they are dirt cheap! 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

That is pretty much my first choice, even though a minivan is more practical. I always like them. When I was a tech at a Jeep dealer we had a 318, auto, extended cab Dakota. Great truck.
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going to search facebook marketplace again specifically for one.....

Antihero said:

I used work vans for years, huge Econolines including a 1 ton model. I drive a truck now

 

Vans are great for a lot of things but stupendously terrible at others it just depends what you are doing. 

The only situation where I find truck > van is with supremely bulky things.  My van will swallow a 4 x 4 x 8' crate without taking out any seats, and can still carry 5 people with tons of leg and head room.  I can do a 4 x 4 x 11' if I ditch that second row.  It's only when things get bigger/taller that a truck makes sense... as long as it can get wet, or you have flexibility to wait for the weather.

Just today I was thinking about how I miss the V70R I had. That would do what I want.....

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

The only situation where I find truck > van is with supremely bulky things.

In addition to supremely bulky things, I would add supremely dirty things. 

This is 3100 pounds of redundant topsoil (and before anyone wrings their hands in despair, we're well inside the 8400 pounds GVWR here). Not pictured are the several yards of compost it's brought home on other trips.

I don't drive this old bucket very often, but when I do, even if I'm only going for ice cream, I'm really glad I have it. Old pickups are like old friends.

If you really don't ever need four wheel drive, don't pay for it, but it's almost a necessity for me. It enables me to get anywhere I need to be and makes this an all-weather DGAF vehicle. It's a pig to park, rides like a hay wagon, handles like a wheelbarrow with a flat tire, and gets 10 mph on a good day. I kind of don't care. If I didn't need the 4WD, any old 3/4 ton full size would do it (3/4 ton trucks can be cheaper than 1/2 ton equivalents because nobody wants to hot rod them), and if a smaller footprint or better economy were important, an elderly Toyota or a Nissan hardbody would do the job and never complain.

What makes this the answer for me is that it's more headache to borrow or rent a pickup than it is to maintain and store one. It's twenty minutes to the nearest rental facility, which means either I park a car there and hope it doesn't get PowerStroked into next Tuesday in my absence, or I get a ride there and back, for a bare minimum of two additional and fairly precious man hours in the equation.

And it's damned handy to have a backup vehicle.

I've always wanted a J10 or J20. I had a Wagoneer and loved it. Those trucks just look amazing.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

Antihero said:

I used work vans for years, huge Econolines including a 1 ton model. I drive a truck now

 

Vans are great for a lot of things but stupendously terrible at others it just depends what you are doing. 

The only situation where I find truck > van is with supremely bulky things.  My van will swallow a 4 x 4 x 8' crate without taking out any seats, and can still carry 5 people with tons of leg and head room.  I can do a 4 x 4 x 11' if I ditch that second row.  It's only when things get bigger/taller that a truck makes sense... as long as it can get wet, or you have flexibility to wait for the weather.

That's basically the gist of it. Something like a fridge that can't be turned on it's side, or having a bunch of stuff that you need to get from the back of the van when it's loaded. You only really have access thru the back or over the seat, anything else and you are crawling over everything to get it rather than just getting it from the side. 

Also supremely dirty things too. I've hauled a lot of forms in the van and sometimes the oil used to prevent sticking is rancid vegetable oil or used motor oil/diesel mix......or both. Very terrible odor there

I have a buddy that has a hitch hauler and small 6'x10' utility trailer that he uses and pulls behind a 13 year old Mazda SUV. He was looking at my Gladiator since he has been contemplating purchasing a new mid-sized pickup. He is one the fence about buying one because he tells me he can do 95% of what he needs to with those 2 items. He tells me he only needs a pickup once or twice per year at most and can borrow a neighbors for those few tasks. 

My 01 Ranger with the 2.3 Duratec 4 cyl and manual trans got 30mpg on the highway in warm months. (autos will only get mid-20s)

DarkMonohue said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

The only situation where I find truck > van is with supremely bulky things.

In addition to supremely bulky things, I would add supremely dirty things. 

This is 3100 pounds of redundant topsoil (and before anyone wrings their hands in despair, we're well inside the 8400 pounds GVWR here). Not pictured are the several yards of compost it's brought home on other trips.

I don't drive this old bucket very often, but when I do, even if I'm only going for ice cream, I'm really glad I have it. Old pickups are like old friends.

If you really don't ever need four wheel drive, don't pay for it, but it's almost a necessity for me. It enables me to get anywhere I need to be and makes this an all-weather DGAF vehicle. It's a pig to park, rides like a hay wagon, handles like a wheelbarrow with a flat tire, and gets 10 mph on a good day. I kind of don't care. If I didn't need the 4WD, any old 3/4 ton full size would do it (3/4 ton trucks can be cheaper than 1/2 ton equivalents because nobody wants to hot rod them), and if a smaller footprint or better economy were important, an elderly Toyota or a Nissan hardbody would do the job and never complain.

What makes this the answer for me is that it's more headache to borrow or rent a pickup than it is to maintain and store one. It's twenty minutes to the nearest rental facility, which means either I park a car there and hope it doesn't get PowerStroked into next Tuesday in my absence, or I get a ride there and back, for a bare minimum of two additional and fairly precious man hours in the equation.

And it's damned handy to have a backup vehicle.

All of this!

I still stand by my original recommendation, but older full-sized stuff is great if you can find one without paying the Vintage Truck Tax. I got this one before people rediscovered that old Dodge trucks are pretty much as cool/functional as old Ford/Chevy/GMC/Jeep/Internationals are. They all have flaws, any old and somewhat solid truck would have done the job.  It's needed work, but I have less into it to date than your budget allows.

This gets used year-round; I hose it down with Fluid Film every November and clean it off in the spring. It hasn't gotten any rustier in the past 4+ years of ownership. And doing Truck Stuff without a truck is possible, but having an 8ft bed to carry trash and dirty (and sometimes stinky) stuff is way better than coexisting with it inside the cab. Plus, I can carry tall stuff in the back, which is hard to do in a car/van/wagon. It also doubles as a cruiser, and I've even commuted with it when the DD was down. 

I'm also in the van/minivan camp, although I had 4x4 trucks for a number of years.  The only time I really used the "truck" aspect was for hauling bulk mulch that had been loaded by a front-end loader.  I did that twice. I hauled a bed full of fire wood with it, but my full-sized conversion van also performed that task. 

I just completed a 4000 mile trip in my 2017 GC and it was a pleasant experience. The GT model (ex rental) was made for that sort of thing.  Hauled two mtn bikes, too much luggage and a transmission (main reason for the drive) secure and dry. 

Towing capacity for the GC is 3600 lbs.  Eventually I'll get the trailer brake controller installation finished and then I can haul any of my LBCs on a Trail-X aluminum trailer and stay under the limit.