Just can't get a good basic truck, like the old days!

[deserteagle71]

It really sucks when they spend thousands of $s trying get an additional 1mpg EPA rating.

You can thank all those hard working folks we elected to Washington, D.C. for the rules and regulations making that necessary. Start-stop. 0W20 weight motor oil. Cylinder deactivation. And so on. Engineers got these engines so they'd go 300,000 miles easy and now the bureaucratic mandates are pushing that back down so you'll be lucky to get 100,000 miles out of an engine.

Why, unless things change, I'll be driving my 20+ year old diesels till I die.

 

[sunandsand]

Just looked up the price of a basic work truck - Silverado 1500, small V8, single cab, 8 foot bed. Comes with A/C, power windows, "entertainment center" (I guess cars don't have radios any more).

$47K base - out the door a hair over $50K. Essentially the same truck with a bunch of options is $75K. Oh, you want wheels and tires, and PAINT, too?

Ouch!

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

 

[JRH02]

My 2013 F150 stx 4x4 supercab I paid $26k plus ttl. $10k off MSRP. It has the 5.0 and 3.73 elocker. No giant touch screen. It has almost 280k miles. This is easily the best truck I have owned. The bad thing is the new ones are in the $50k plus range for what I have seen They have $10k in gadgets I don't want. Some also have cyllindar deactivation and start stop technology. Those are more useless things that are not needed that will likely shorten engine life. It really sucks when they spend thousands of $s trying get an additional 1mpg EPA rating.

My current PU is a 2020 F350. I could NOT get the dealer to come up with a plain old basic rig. All they would present were PUs full of gadgetry and electric everything to run the price up. All I wanted was a F250, the smaller V8 w/10 speed, cruise and tow package. So I went to Ford's site. Learned the F250 can not be configured with the 6.2 / 10 speed but is available in the F350 / 10 speed (?!?). So I finished the configurator, printed it out and went to the dealer and said order it. They were displeased with me. I picked it up 8 weeks later. The F350 wasn't that much more $ than the F250 for the stronger frame, heavier axles and springs. Rides better than the wife's F250. Both our PUs have manual locks and crank windows. Basic AM/FM. Both PUs have been as reliable as the sun up.

 

[RB5]

Just looked up the price of a basic work truck - Silverado 1500, small V8, single cab, 8 foot bed. Comes with A/C, power windows, "entertainment center" (I guess cars don't have radios any more).

$47K base - out the door a hair over $50K. Essentially the same truck with a bunch of options is $75K. Oh, you want wheels and tires, and PAINT, too?

Ouch!

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

You mean a Chromerado? Sorry I just can't call them Silverado. When I was driving chevy 10 series Silverado was a trim package. I had a 77 big 10 heavy half in that sparkly Cordova Brown with chrome spokes.

 

[fidowanttobe]

I hear that Nissan is going after the "mid-size" truck market with a $22k base model.

 

[3930dave]

My 2013 F150 stx 4x4 supercab I paid $26k plus ttl. $10k off MSRP. It has the 5.0 and 3.73 elocker. No giant touch screen. It has almost 280k miles. This is easily the best truck I have owned. The bad thing is the new ones are in the $50k plus range for what I have seen They have $10k in gadgets I don't want. Some also have cyllindar deactivation and start stop technology. Those are more useless things that are not needed that will likely shorten engine life. It really sucks when they spend thousands of $s trying get an additional 1mpg EPA rating.

Port fuel-injection, on that era of V8, pretty much Peak IC engine reliability. Can't have that, if we are going to force people to Go Electric.

I've seen the aux pump (keeps hyd pressure up in Trans, when shutdown @ light) for Stop Start replaced under Warranty, in nearly a nearly new F150.

Sad, what the engineers have been forced to do....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Just looked up the price of a basic work truck - Silverado 1500, small V8, single cab, 8 foot bed. Comes with A/C, power windows, "entertainment center" (I guess cars don't have radios any more).

$47K base - out the door a hair over $50K. Essentially the same truck with a bunch of options is $75K. Oh, you want wheels and tires, and PAINT, too?

Ouch!

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida

And, that's in real money, USD. You don't want to see the CAD pricing.... you'll break $200k in the heavier p/u's.

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I rescued this 72 Chevy K20 pickup from a junkyard and restored it to running condition. I plowed snow for 10 years and hauled building materials for the new house I built. It had 40K miles on it when I picked it up and I ran it for 130K more before selling it to a friend. It was still in good running condition then, and he used it for several more years.

Fast forward to 2025 and I just had a safety recall completed on my 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 with less than 20K miles. There is a possible flaw in the crankshaft journals that could cause the engine to throw a rod. It checked out ok but I'm on pins and needles listening for any odd sound the engine makes.

You're absolutely right. They certainly don't make them like they used to.

 

[RB5]

I drove a rental car on vacation that had start stop tech in it. I hated it. I had to remember to turn it off every time I got in the car. I asked the Ford dealer if start stop and cyllander deactivation could be disabled and did not get an answer. I also was told years ago that I could not turn off the seat belt alarms in my 2013 F150. Those are pretty annoying when driving across my land and getting in and out of the truck to do things. I looked and found the disable instructions in the manual. All that proves is the sale person has no clue.
I saw it mentioned in a forum that you could put it in tow haul mode to disable those features. There goes the mpgs though.
The biggest problem I see currently is government regulations are forcing many people into vehicles they don't want that are overloaded with gadgets that are not saving as much money as they cost to buy and repair.