From 0 to 3 In an Instant

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From 0 to 3 In an Instant was Originally Posted on March 24, 2015 by

I have been looking at trucks for a month and a half and living in the middle of the Pacific makes it a challenge. If I buy locally, the vehicle has been kept near the ocean and may have rust. It may also have been beaten up because of our terrain. On this island it is also possible to put a lot of miles on a vehicle, our only “shopping mall” being over a 2 hours drive away. That is not to say that most of us go visit a mall when we shop, but you get the idea.

On my farm I have some holes and ruts in the road. I also have a small hill that non 4-wheel drive vehicles have an issue with. If you get a bit of speed up prior to the hill you can get up with a 2-wheel drive, but then you bounce over some holes and can scrape the bottom of a vehicle.  4-wheel is best.

On occasion I also have to haul hundreds of pound of coffee or multiple bags of trash to the dump. These reasons and the need for clearance underneath caused me to stop looking at SUV’s and narrow my search to trucks. My criteria were: 6 cylinders or more for power, 4-wheel drive, gasoline instead of diesel, hopefully regular instead of premium, rear jump seats or regular seats so I can move dogs or carry food from the store and not have to put it in the truck bed.

I found people to drive across the island with me and went to Hilo twice looking at vehicles. Oftentimes they were just not right for me. Then yesterday morning I found 3 that looked good. I didn’t get my hopes up but upon visiting each, they are all candidates. I went from none to 3 in minutes. Any of the 3 would do for me and I WILL choose one.

That is where the problem of an analytical mind comes in. I am considering cost, mileage and age as the three criteria. Two vehicles are 2006 and one is 2002. One is $10,000 and the other two are $16,000 (which is more than I wanted to spend). Two are larger full-sized trucks and one is a smaller truck like I just had but with a larger rear seating area.

I am cheap and of course the older truck is the cheapest with the most miles. yet it is $6,000 less.

Of the two others (a large and small truck), the large one requires some body work although not a lot. It has way less miles (36,000 compared to 130,000 on the two others).

When I checked all 3 for reviews, they all were rated 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The cheapest vehicle had many complaints about fuel economy, but it takes a lot of fuel to equal that cost savings of $6,000 .

The smallest of the two expensive trucks has multiple comments about repairs to the transmission. The low mileage may not offset the thousands I might have to pay it it too develops transmission problems.

The other expensive truck has an issue that is a pain but not horrible. To change the oil you have to remove the skid plate. This is a piece of metal that protects the engine and so on. On our island any protection is good. I see that at least one company has created an after-market replacement (probably not cheap) that allows you to access the oil filter easier. However other issues on the vehicle seem to be minor.

So there you have it, cost verses age verses mileage with a few side issues thrown in.

I prefer a smaller truck like I just had, but after flipping it, perhaps climbing up and into a full-sized truck isn’t so bad if it keep me from injury.

For those who know trucks, my choices are:

2002 Ford 150 with 129,000 miles for $10,000 (fuel complaints and suggestions that Fords fall apart earlier than the others below)

2006 Toyota Tundra with 126,000 miles for $16,000 (skid plate issues but otherwise no major complaints)

2006 Nissan Frontier with 36,000 miles for $16,500 (model has transmission issues)

I asked 2 neighbors and one chose price over the others and the other chose mileage as the criteria. So If I ordered them 1,2 and 3 the other the neighbor ordered them 3,2 and 1st choice. The number 2 choice of each of them was the low mileage one. I an leaning towards the one that has less mechanical issues listed by owners.

By later today I hope to have made a decision but as you can see, it has not been an easy one for me. I’m too analytical and as I say, I think any of the 3 would work for me. They all have tow packages, 4-wheel drive, gas, automatic transmission, etc.

I just hope none of them tip over easily :-)