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Best ~10 year old pickup truck for the money?

16K views 16 replies 14 participants last post by  Derek69SS 
#1 ·
I have been casually browsing 10 year old (or so) pickups for a while. To me it seems like the dodge and ford pickups are a lot cheaper than GM trucks. I want a 4x4 3/4 ton unit.

What would you buy or avoid and why? If I had to name a price it would be about 8K.
 
#3 ·
Exactly, Derrick, and there's a reason for that. You can't kill a GM Truck with the LS style engine. I've got two of them, a 1500 and a 2500, one has 189,xxx miles, and the other just turned over 222,333 on the way home from Cleveland today. Maintenence? Oil changes when the light comes on, and a fuel pump in the 1500. One set of brakes on each. Both have the original plugs and wires, and will keep them for a lot longer. Another truck I had, a 2000, I had the plugs changed at 200,000 miles, and they were worn.... .002". The only bad thing I see with them, the rockers rust out, if you're in the snow belt. Find a truck down south with 100,000 on it and it'll go another 150,000 miles.
 
#6 ·
As Dave said look in Texas where we live trucks. Bought an 06 Z-71 a year ago with 107K needing nothing for $10K. The next week I find an 01 Z-71 LT with 135K one owner for a friend of mine for $6500. Neither one crew cabs but 4 door XC.

Search the Dallas Craigslist for examples. You will be hard pressed to find one with even a touch of surface rust.
 
#8 ·
For a gas motor chevy/ gmc hands down. Most of the 3/4 tons will have a 6.0 in them. They are very good trucks my friend bought an 01 2500 hd 4x4 new and drove it over 300,000 miles with only regular maintenance. I will be in the market for a similar z71 model in a few months.

For a diesel I'd go with either the ford or dodge, but GM seems to make the best gas engines IMO.
 
#9 ·
Looking at 10 years old, I would rule out any dodge right off the bat. Even if everything else was equal, the gas mileage on the dodge will be way lower than on a chevy. My 1998 chevy with a 350 vortec was averaging around 15 mpg with bad intake gaskets and a completely worn distributor gear, my buddies 2004 dodge gets 11 mpg at best running perfect side by side on the same trip to our hunting land 3 1/2 hours away. Now that my truck has everything fixed and runs like new it averages almost 20 mpg on the highway.

The MPG rules out any dodge for me immedietely.

Jeff
 
#11 ·
I got over 18 mpg this weekend with the 5.3 '01 1500. 222K miles and ready for another road trip next weekend. The '99 with the 6.0 does eat more fuel, and thats a fact. But, it weighs about 700 pounds heavier too....
 
#12 ·
My dad has a 99 and I like it. I think it has a problem with the door locks and the LH door sounds kinda crunchy when it is opened or closed. It has the baby v-8, 267 (I think) cubes. I think I would probably be fine with a 1/2 ton since the heaviest thing I have to tow is a 4-place snowmobile trailer which will normally only have 2 sleds on it.
 
#13 ·
Newer Ford deisels are junk. I know a lot of contractors who bought new Fords and they have left them stranded or have been in for warranty problems almost every week. One Construction company owner I know sold all his new Fords and bought GMC's with v8's or Duramax diesels and not one single problem in over a year.
 
#14 ·
I love my 2000 GMC Sierra extended cab has 189,000 miles... same issue... rockers are rusting pretty good, no issues other than normal maintenance.
 
#17 ·
Agreed :)

My '00 Silverado is getting pretty rusty though, but it does have 200,000 miles on it in Minnesota.
 
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