Starting the truck shopping soon, looking for advice!

Dixie

Dixie

Farting Snowflakes
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This month wil be my final payment for my student loan and thus I need to start getting down to buisness on the truck shopping. If I have counted correctly I will have 500 to spare which I will put back to pay the taxes on the vehicle so that I can get the permanent tags put on it right away.

I do know what I want - a Ford Explorer Sport Trac - I really want a full-size crew cab truck but for financial reasons this will have to do. My upper limit for monthly payments is going to be around 300 a month.

So with that said - is there any good advice you guys are willing to dispense for my benefit? :):ty:
 
used- theres no way I can afford brand new!
 
I envy you! Your student loans are going to be paid off!!! Congrats!

I dont know much about trucks but get something that is roomy for you and your daughter especially when she gets older and u have to transport her friends as well.

Good luck!
 
thus the reason for the crew cab - it has a full back seat with plenty of leg room! (and until I start transporting her friends around, plenty of room to stash my stuff!) lol.
 
Or better yet - transporting friends around is exactly what the truck bed is for! ;)
 
What year of that Ford model are you looking at in purchasing, Dixie?
 
Dixie,

I would consult with Consumer Reports with the year, make and model of truck you buy. In addition, when you focus in on a few that you'd like, grab the VIN and run a trace on it to see if it has been repaired. Protect your backend, don't be conned by the nice person selling you the truck.

In addition, you may want to consider the fact that gas prices will not be this low forever (you read that right). How many gallon tank and multiply it by how much per gallon gas is. Watch how many miles on a full tank of gas. With what you said you want, you'll be lucky to get 18 miles to the gallon. Can you afford this? Weigh your options, especially consider if a truck is worth it at all . . . payments, insurance, title, tax, depreciation. You may get the scare of your life and find that you can't possibly get a truck. Don't despair, though. There are smaller suv's that give a good ride and get reasonable fuel economy in their class.

Bottom line, Dixie, if it's me looking for another vehicle right now, I'd keep looking. We're going into a recession (thanks, Bush and Cheney!). I heard about a man who bought a 1991 Chevrolet Silverado truck, which had 45K miles on it. He is just a couple hundred miles shy of one million miles on it. Not sure if he's trading it in on a newer model, but he'll be retiring it. He's heard from GM and they'd like to run some tests on it, so who knows.
 
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:rofl:
 
HAHA,@ authentic!

Pete, Ive read your advice, and Ive weighed my options. I do plan on running a carfax check on any vehicle I am seriously considering to purchase, i dont want something thats been flooded out in Katrina and has been sent up this way.

But however I do need a truck considering everything that I do, I have two Labrador Retrievers that I need to train during the spring and summer to keep them in shape for duck season in the fall and winter. So I'll need a truck bed to safely transport them in (and when I get the money I may purchase a two-hole dog box rather than having two plastic crates) As of right now I can only transport one at a time given my limited cargo space in my current rig. I also need 4 wheel drive during inclement weather since I live in a very rural area. Not being able to get up and down my driveway can be a real pain in the rear especially when I have to miss work over it.

Then as Shel pointed out I needed a large cab - due to the fact the my DDs stuff takes up alot of space! Plus I want her to be protected and safe so I need a backseat as I dont feel comfortable with her being so small and riding up front.

With the way gas is going, its going to be expensive no matter what you buy. I have done my reading and research on the Ford Sport Trac, the gas mileage is similar to that of the Ford Explorer so Im not losing that much in favor of getting the truck features.

So the Sport Trac is probably going to be what I end up with unless I can get a better deal on another model vehicle that has similar features that I am looking for.

There are 3 or 4 of them in my area for sale (within an hour's drive) and one seems like a possibility but Im not liking the fire engine red color of it, although I really like 4wheel drive feature.

We'll see what happens.
 
Phillips,
my uncle mentioned trying to sell his Dodge Ram crew cab truck, but the only thing is for its year model it has ALOT of miles on it! So Im not sure, but I will look into that as well as an option to buy.
 
Dixie said:
Or better yet - transporting friends around is exactly what the truck bed is for! ;)
Click to expand...

I hope you don't mind me saying this but I had a thought when I read what you said. I know that some states made it illegal to ride in back of truck. Might want to check into that.
 
Well when I look for any of motor vechiles, I tend to check the mileage to ensure it was under 130,000, checking the oils, also I usually start the engine to feel the engine to make sure that it was fairly smooth, also to make sure if the price was a reasonable. I tend to negotate if possible. Also I tend to ask the owner why does he/she sell this motor vechile, asking him/her if there is any problem with the motor vechile that I have to watch over.

I suggeset you do the same thing, as well other that recommended you in this thread :) Good luck with searching for trucks! :D
 
Oh one more thing, be sure that you are comfortable with the inner! :)
 
Since you said you will have $500 to spare. Don't you need some of the money for fun expenses and all. Insurance would cost a lot for trucks, I think. Don't forget spending a lot on gas, too. You would have to pay maybe $70-80 to fill up a tank of gas, if you ran out of gas in a week and that adds up pretty quickly. You won't have much left to spend, mantience can eat up your money if something goes wrong with it. It's generally more expensive to repair trucks than cars.
 
My advice never go to used car dealer. I had a bad expierence in the past with my 2000 Dodge dakota xcab. The motor was all screwed up.

So I got another truck 2003 dodge dakota crew cab and got it the ford dealer and the mileage was low and good price as I traded it in for my brand new car at even amount. I love that truck.

You can look up Used Cars, New Cars, Buy a Car, Sell a Car, Car Dealers - AutoTrader.com and find your truck. Yea the gas price is expensive for a truck. I need a truck due to my remodeling my house and taking the stuffs to the dump.
 
I will add this:
I have been saving and spending my money very carefully in hopes of getting a good truck, and I have also started picking up extra hours at work in order to bring in a little more money every week, but I feel this is very doable if I dont do anything in the spur of the moment and carefully consider my options.
 
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