Your stepbrother is right. Just for the stupid fucking dial a shifter most of the Dodge trucks have. I know you're anti Toyota but the smart choice is the Tacoma. My friend has one with tons of miles and he doesn't do the maintenance like he should and it just keeps on trucking.
My wife refuses to get a minivan. We have a subaru legacy which is super roomy. That can haul a kid around with ease. Personally i like the look and convenience of the 4 door trucks. And the option of hauling the kid around. Plus we only plan on having one kid.
She's not preggers yet, though, is she? Come back in a few years when she's hauling around the little angel's soccer team and tell me I'm wrong. barfo
Nah she isnt. She literally wants to stab me when i bring up a minivan. A suv for her i can see. Like a dodge (even though it sucks) journey with the 3 rows maybe. But she refuses a minivan.
Just broke in. They don't do super extensive overhauls of the design and don't get crazy with the electronics. I've fixed tons of them when they have been wrecked and I wish I had a picture but they towed one to our shop last year that looked like it fell into the Grand Canyon. Or like it had been crushed by Grave Digger. The owner drove his rental car up next to it and hopped out and got his stuff. I was sure he was dead. Nope. I don't know the crash test results for it but damn I was amazed.
My son has a Nissan 4x4 SUV....he loves it...lousy gas mileage but a really solid vehicle...I've had two Nissans...both very good vehicles.
Had a Tundra 4x4 Limited Truck. Loved it. Worked great for all of our needs, though I grew tired of the gas prices (I was driving a ton of miles at the time). We are anti-minivan (unless we're talking VW Eurovan or Mercedes), so we settled on the Mazda CX-9. We keep the 3rd row down unless needed, but it has plenty of room, solid acceleration and handling, and it's a nice looking car. Pretty much covers any reason to have a minivan without being a minivan. Gets about 24 mpg. Pretty happy with it overall.
First, I agree with SPD's assessment on what the truck can be used for. I drive used trucks twice a week. I honestly can tell you that Ford models and years can be great riding or ride like an apple cart. You have to really test various years and models. The diesels have the worst ride. Dodge will cost you in major line item parts. Chevy and Honda rides are ok. The Tundra is my favorite for ride and gear shift clutch release. We hardly ever get a Titan. However a friend of mine has a 2012 Titan and he loves it. I heard negative stories about the Nissan transmissions. Good Luck. Check Kelly Blue Book. Check a Manheim auto auction. Make a connection with a dealer and get the truck slightly above his costs.
Sounds to me like you're unreasonably letting your experience with sedans from 20 years ago color your opinion of trucks today. That's a highly anti-intellectual thought process. Reading through the thread, the Toyota trucks seem to be getting the best reviews by far. Perhaps you should consider reevaluating your assumptions.
Not really. I said toyota trucks look cool. I just dont want to spend another 8 to 10k for a tacoma. I still hate camrys. I drive one as my commuter car right now. Bought my moms 2000 from her because she needed the money quick.
A friend of mine has a cx-9. Seems to be pretty good car. She did have to replace the turbo awhile back tho which was a costly endeavor.
If you are going to keep it long term - it will probably repay you in kind by staying alive. That extra up-front investment will likely be worth it. Personally, I am not a Nissan truck/suv fan - although the Nissan Titan Warrior is cool as hell (I know some of the guys that did the design on that one). The old XTerras were great looking trucks as well - but had some issues, especially the first generation trucks. All the recent Nissan trucks/SUVs I drove - I did not enjoy. Subaru's are cool - but you have to be careful with them - check your oil regularly. We had 3 that were fantastic and one that was crap (2008) and blew it's engine. I also did not care for Toyota products - but had since one old Lexus sport-sedan (IS300) which was fantastic. We now have a backup family SUV (Lexus GX470) which is amazing - I was not sure about it - but I have learned to love it - it is super comfortable and will go just about anywhere - the modified Jeep guys always look mortified when we cross the same streams and go over the same tracks as them - but are comfortable and do not have to rev our engine like crazy to do it. This thing will do just about anything most Rubicons will do - just rock crawling is a problem because the family wants to keep the running-boards for easy ingress. In the end - get over your irrational hate of Toyota products and at least test a couple before you commit to something else (not that there are any bad cars anymore, most cars today are good, it is just that some are better).
My friend's wife totalled their 12 year old Rav4 and got over 8200 bucks from their insurance. If we total our 2 year old Focus we'd be screwed except we got gap covfefe.
