What Truck Do You Recommend
 

Hey All:

I thought this would be a good group to ask since a good number of you likely have a truck.

Sadly, I have to start to work on replacing my 16 year old Chevy Truck. :(

My requirements are 4WD and towing capacity. I don't use my truck every day so those that guzzle gas a bit more than others are not out of the question. I can go new or used. Keep in mind used means a higher finance rate. Currently my first two choices would be a Chevy Silverado or a Nissan Titan. I've had great luck with both in the past.

Since I'm talking a high dollar item :$:, gulp, any thoughts/tricks about purchasing a 4WD truck for as little money as possible are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

current truck is a ford f250, 5.4L v-8 gas burner. heavy duty towing package, four door. great truck. that said, i'll never buy another ford-their 'customer service' hung up on my husband once-long story.

at any rate, i've always liked a chevy. our other two vehicles are both bowties.
good luck.

My son works for Ford in SC, Finance Mgr..He recently traded his for 3yo truck for new computerized Taurus, he said listed at 41K. It's like a running computer, big screen on the dash and he just gives it commands...smoothest ride ever..I yelled out 'turn on the wipers', he said, dummy it tells you what to do...lol...looks like this only Silver.

http://www.ford.com/cars/taurus/?fmc...cars-billboard

I bought a 2008 GMC Sierra new 4 years ago and I wouldn't recommend it.

Nothing wrong with it aesthetically, and have never had a serious problem other than typical issues - just a bunch of bullsh.it you don't expect to have to put up with when buying a new truck -

*The tires that came with it lasted all of 22k miles - and from what I've read I was lucky - most were replaced at 15K.

*The battery needed to be replaced after a year (covered under warranty)

*Front brakes were toast at 37K and had to be replaced ( 1 month out of warranty and GMC said no dice, you're done)

*Both headlights burned out prior to 40K on the truck.

Just odd stuff that you'd expect to last longer with a new truck, but they cheaped out and put low end, disposable crap onboard instead.

I had to visit the dealership on 3 occasions under warranty due to design flaws that were never repaired, only band-aided:

**The grease in the rear end yoke needs to be repacked every two years
**The steering column binds up and squeals and you have to spray lithium grease in the turnbuckle that goes through the firewall every 6 months.

All they ever did was reapply grease - they either don't admit or don't have a fix and now obviously out of warranty - yet there are plenty of forums with thousands of owners experiencing the same thing.

But it runs fine, and rides better than any truck I've ever owned (I've been driving pickups exclusively since '81 and have had 'em all at one point or another) so I'll keep it and put up with the unexpected maintenance schedule

All that said, I'd probably take a long look at the Tundra. But the new F150's are sweet too.

The Taurus has come a long way! In college I had a 1986 Taurus. Car would be running fine. Park, grocery shop or something. Come back out to start the car. Nothing. Walk 5 or 6 miles home. Return to start the car a day or 2 later (this 1 or 2 day "rest period" was enacted after being told numerous times that "nothing was wrong") -- car would start and away we would go!

Finally some tow operator showed me how to use a screwdriver to bridge one part under the hood to another and the car started every time.

i'm not a car person. i used to drive a taurus at a former job, hated it. i drive a cobalt now, don't like it! lol
i love driving our truck. i don't like being low to the ground in a car, and it's a stick shift. but the mileage sucks, which is why we don't use it much. it's a 2004 and only has about 90k miles on. still looks great too. but ford is on our 'list' (places we don't do business) so i guess it's the last of its kind for us.

I have a tacoma, double cab, long bed w/ a tow package. It's my second tacoma and I love it. Hard to find used though.

Not sure where you live but if in snow country wait till spring to buy a 4wheel drive. Right now convertibles and sports cars are selling cheap.

I wouldn't buy a GM product out of principal. But don't want to get political. ;)

Ford makes a decent truck. I have a 2003 F-150. 134 thousand miles on it. Still drives like it always did. Ford service departments are a different matter. Might as well have a gun and a mask. They are going to try to rip you off, if they possibly can.

we had a freestyle. throttle body went bad. it was notorious for just making your car almost come to a stand-still. happened to tony one night going to work, car just lost all power/acceleration, dropped from 60 mph to about 20 just like that. just think if he'd have had someone right on his bumper. he went online, and found a bunch of others with the same issue. we wondered about a recall. he called ford, to ask how to order a new throttle body. they said 'well, you have to take it to service dept to make sure of what the problem was'. he said i know what the problem is, and mentioned the sites with the tons of comments from others with the exact same issue. said why do i need to pay over $100 diagnostic fee (ford has made it to where non-ford service techs computers can't 'talk' to the newer cars) if i already know the diagnosis? the reply? 'sir, if you aren't going to take it to a service dept, we can't take this call seriously' click'. unbelievable!
traded the car in on a chevy equinox.

Toyota

Had to go to Little Rock one day. Truck starts making a little noise or at least I thought I could hear a little noise. Took it to a Ford dealer over there. They said brakes were going out and needed new 2 new tires on the front. Said it was "dangerous" to drive. Wanted $750 for the 2 new tires alone. I thought it was all BS, but was a little afraid to drive it. Took it to a mechanic I knew. He said absolutely nothing wrong with the brakes. Tires were worn, but not critically so. I think I put another 10k miles on them and then replaced all four for about $800.

that sounds right. par for the course. when we bought the truck we have now, it came with the door keypad. it didn't work with the combination that they gave us. made an appt to get it fixed. drove it up there, and the guy just kept typing in the same combo. hello. we did that already, many times. so now he has to 'order the part'. i was furious. ' i thought that was already ordered, to be put in today-which is why i drove an hour and a half round trip to get it installed.' oh, no. oops. previous truck....when you hit a pothole, the right side would bounce way more than it should, like the tie rod end was bad or something.
so i took it to the dealer where we bought it. sat there and waited a while...they said 'we looked it all over, nothing wrong'. yeah, cause women don't know when something's wrong. :rolleyes: i told them i didn't appreciate them not taking it seriously.
a few weeks later, my husband was driving and i was with him. hit a hole, it bounced him all the way into the other lane. i didn't say a word, just gave him that 'i told you so look'. so he took it to them. 'oh, yeah. we just got a notice on that'. he let them know i didn't appreciate how everything happened. they apologized profusely and fixed it all. very frustrating.


he's always been a ford man. til they hung up on him. no more fords, which is good, cause i was always a chevy gal.



we had a recall on the freestyle for something else. took it to the local ford place, got a loaner. they called the next day. you'll have to take it where you bought it (an hour away) cause the part's on backorder, we can't be out a loaner six weeks. i said i was glad i didn't buy it in another state! so, brought their loaner back (with the gas we'd put in), drove to el do, got a loaner...car was ready next day. the local had lied about the part being on 'back order'.
also, local guy-took a work truck to them for engine work. they said it needed an all new motor, etc. about 10k in work. took it to a mechanic, said didn't need a motor, 1500. local guy's a ripoff artist.

What Truck Do You Recommend
 

I'm driving a 2004 Ford Ranger; like it a lot. Would recommend a Ford, definitely.

My son works for Ford so i push them...Jus sayin.:)
I had a 97 Ford- Mercury Marquis LS for 12 years, loved it..till my grandson totaled it.:mad:...Had two caddy's before that and liked the Marquis over them.:tro:

This thread reminds me of how grateful I am not to own an automobile. Not because I don't like driving; I do, but holy cow, do they suck up a lot of money, and for most of the country you don't have a choice; you can't even get to the grocery store without one.

My last car was a 1976 Caprice Classic. My dad was so concerned about any of us kids getting into a wreck that he would only let us drive boats. That thing was the length of a station wagon without actually being a station wagon. Too bad I was such a nerd in HS; it had an enormous back seat that didn't get nearly enough use. ;)

By far, the best out of all of the behemoths we had was my granddad's old Buick. What a nice car. I was p*ssed when my brother totaled it.

Never owned a truck, but my uncle has a 92 Ford that is still kicking.

where do you live that you can get by without a car?

i just started driving to work on monday morning and then leaving it at the train station until friday night a few months ago. it cuts my commuting from 260 miles/week down to 82 but that's still a long way from zero.

I moved out of Boston in '98 thinking it would save me so much money... While rent is certainly cheaper, factoring in car payments, insurance, gas, repairs etc. it makes it a virtual wash.

TOYOTA FOR SURE...VERY FEW PROBELMS.......EVER.:tro: