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let me stir up the big truck small truck new truck old truck arugement some more

5K views 80 replies 22 participants last post by  ironglow 
#1 ·
I can stir up the small pickup guys and the old pickup guys in one post. I just traded my "OLD" 2015 Silverado for a NEW 2017! The young guy I deal with at the chev garage called me and said there really in need of used trucks and he could cut me the deal of a lifetime on a new one. Trading my old z71 for a new Z71 cost me about . With the rebates and the 0 percent financing my loan pay off date stayed the same and my payment is only 50 bucks more a month for a total of 6k difference in price. Well worth that as I'm getting a warrantee again (my bumper to bumper was about to expire) New tires (end of this summer id have to replace them), new shocks brakes, wiper blades, Well new everything. Big increase in resale value to boot. Just the increase in resale value was more then the 6k.

here it is
http://www.foxnegauneegm.com/Vehicl...x_4_Wheel_Drive_LT_Z71-Negaunee-MI/2862045043
 
#72 ·
Each to their own as I see it. All our experiences have been good with Toyota vehicles and I don't doubt some other folks might have had a different experience but so far we have not. In the small city we moved to a few months back I saw a fellow sitting in a mid seventies Ford Pinto station wagon. The car was in really great shape and I asked him when he had it restored.His answer was that it was completely original, he was the original owner and the engine and transmission had never been touched and ran just as good as it did when he bought it. Now that's pretty impressive to me. Point being you never know when you might wind up with the absolute worst vehicle from something that's supposed to be bulletproof or buy what is considered questionable fresh off the showroom floor and it wind up being bulletproof.
 
#73 ·
my problem with Toyota isn't reliability. I think they've proven through the years to be very reliable. I have two problems with them. First was already mentioned. They lag the American brands in technology by 3-5 years and even so cost more. the other problem I have with them is a BIG part of the profits for selling them goes to back to the Japanese economy instead of our own. Yes they have American factorys and workers but still import a lot of vehicles and even the ones made here profit the Japanese more then US. But they have at least made efforts in that aspect while many American companys are going the other way. I guess if they caught up to the big three in technology and the buyers of those trucks would smarten up and quit buying them for a while until Toyota got there prices more in line with the big three then I wouldn't have much of an argument. Bottom line today is if your buying a Toyota your paying way to much for it. Toyota knowing this, knowing that they can sell anything with there name on it, even with there inflated prices to most of there brain washed customers are laughing all the way to the bank. (a Japanese bank!!)
 
#74 ·
Maybe lagging a few years behind "technology" wise isn't all bad. For example look at all the problems many carmakers are having with all the integrated electronic systems. Toyota and Honda are quite conservative in their technology approaches. Due to that they rarely have any significant systems problems.
GuzziJohn
 
#75 ·
If a truck starts every time I turn the key, gets 18 to 20 miles per gallon, and has a radio, heater, a/c and power windows, then that is absolutely all the "technology" I need. It's a truck for gosh sakes, nothing more.

Wow, how did we ever get along with those "low technology" trucks of 10 years ago? We must have been out of our minds. And I need to dump my 14 year old Pathfinder right away, even though it has never broken down and never failed to start even once! (And poor me, I actually have to pull back on a shift lever to put it in low or high 4-WD. I must be nuts! What a death trap. ) :)
 
#77 · (Edited)
wont argue that other then that the Toyota full sized trucks aren't getting close to 20mpg. Yup we got along fine with the trucks of 10 years ago. With 5mpg less gas milage, a worse ride, and factoring in cost of living just as expensive. When I was 22 I got out of the service and bought a brand new 1979 chev 4x4. Short box no carpeting,4 speed stick, not even a radio on the lot. It got 12mpg. I paid 7k for it. I made 6 bucks an hour at the power plant I worked at. Right now the same job pays 31 an hour so 5 times that. I just bought my 2017 for 38k out the door completely loaded z71 ex cab. 5 times that 7 k makes 35 k. If that 79 was loaded it might have been 8k.


So basically that loaded z71 that gets 20mpg or better, has a motor that will run 250k instead of a 100k (if your lucky) A ton better ride. A body that isn't rotted off it in 10 years. A stereo better then the one I had in my house in 79. All for the same amount of money in todays dollar. Its a no brainer for me. Ill take all the technology they want to throw at them. Hopefully in 5 years I can buy a new one that gets 25-30mpg rides even better, has a motor that lasts 400k ect ect. You might want to think back a few years. this technology has made the new vehicles much better and much more reliable.


Remember too that every small town in the US used to have 2 or 3 mechanics in business. Now you MIGHT see one. Even your Toyotas have improved drastically due to technology. Look at just the bodies. Around here it was about a given that every Toyota more then 10 years old had a stake bed on them because they were rotted out so bad that they were about junk. the new Toyota 6 cyl motors have more hp then some any of the cars from the 80s. The new 6 cyls with there much better power also have as good or better gas mileage then the stripped down 4 cyl trucks Toyota had in the 80s. Just like the American trucks the new Toyota motors are better in every way including longer life. All due to TECHNOLOGY.


Only thing different is Toyota is behind the game. Why would anyone want to pay 5k more for a truck that is 3 years behind the rest. Why would I want to get 16-18mpg when I can get 20-22 out of a truck that is actually bigger, rides better, hauls as much or more and contrary to what some here have been brain washed into believing is just as reliable. Look at any truck shoot out or test in the last 5 years and find one that Toyota trucks have come out on top of the American brands. That is a shootout that's wrote in American by a non bias organization. Show me the last time a Toyota truck was declared truck of the year by anyone.


I kind of chuckle at someone claiming they don't want technology on a site that is on a home computer!!!!!! Maybe youd like to go back to, carburetors, bias ply tires, 8 track tapes, dial telephones, the news paper and 3 channels from your tv antenna too! Yup there trucks but for gosh sakes thank God technology improves them every year! thank God my money buys me much more truck today for the same money that 14 year old pathfinder cost factoring in cost of living. Nothing wrong with driving an older vechicle. You do have a distinct advantage in that you don't have a payment but just don't think somehow your driving something better or more reliable because that's just nuts. If you want old school reliability why don't you just get yourself a horse and buggy. I guarantee you they seldom break an start every time.
If a truck starts every time I turn the key, gets 18 to 20 miles per gallon, and has a radio, heater, a/c and power windows, then that is absolutely all the "technology" I need. It's a truck for gosh sakes, nothing more.

Wow, how did we ever get along with those "low technology" trucks of 10 years ago? We must have been out of our minds. And I need to dump my 14 year old Pathfinder right away, even though it has never broken down and never failed to start even once! (And poor me, I actually have to pull back on a shift lever to put it in low or high 4-WD. I must be nuts! What a death trap. ) :)
 
#76 ·
Spent the last 14 years of my 32 years working in the information technology sector in the oil industry covering desktop, network, satellite communications, automation and scada(remote monitoring and control of wellsites and batteries and pipelines). All facets of what we were doing was cutting edge tech and there can be a trade off on running with cutting edge versus proven. My group wound up having to partner with the companies that provided these high tech options and work with them to develop their products into reliable products that actually performed as originally intended. As the head of our group on the automation/scada side we found applications where cutting edge did not serve as well as proven older tech solutions and actually deployed a combination of both for critical sites. Cutting edge is fine and has its place but proven tech definitely has its place as well while the newer tech is deployed, refined and made reliable.
 
#81 ·
Back to the big vs small pickup... I have driven small pickups for years although I have no truck at the moment. If I had enough to haul or was plowing snow regularly, I would have used the big ones.
I simply prefer smaller vehicles, and my loads were never heavy, in fact at least 95% of the time I carried no load. I look at my Amish neighbors..for heavy field work, they use a draft horse, but going to town for hardware or groceries, they trot past my home with a pacer or light carriage horse . Make sense to me!
Personally, I think the manufacturers got rid of the small trucks, because they wanted to crowd buyers out of the plain, small trucks (which I prefer) and into an accessory laden truck at twice the price! I think they will sneak smaller trucks back in, but not at a reasonable price and no plain Jane models.

One thing which surprised me recently, is that a 2wd Mercedes van can be bought for about the same price as a 2wd Ford or Chevy standard cab, stripped pickup.
http://www.mbvans.com/sprinter/model/metris
 
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