Keep current truck forever or try to afford a new one every 5-10 years?

[ROUSTABOUT]

Not my experience with older vehicles. Had a late 70s F-150 back in the early 80s, that thing was a royal pain to start if it had even been sitting a month, let alone 6. EFI is your friend, carburetors, not so much.
I have had no issues whatsoever starting modern vehicles after sitting for long periods, well other than the need to keep the battery on a maintainer to offset the drain from the electronics.

It's all fine and dandy until an EMP or solar flare happens.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

People always talk how great they used to be. I think people often remember the good but not the bad. Putting in new points and setting the dwell, then setting the timing, rebuilding carburetors, even plug wires are much better today. I owned a restored some classic cars and loved working on them but as a daily driver, not as much.

Rust? I hate it, I swear they had leftover salt this year and felt the need to use it at the slightest dusting last month. On classic cars fixing rust might pay off in the long run but it’s a losing battle on daily drivers. I got rid of my last two trucks because of rust and hoping my aluminum body F150 lasts. I can already see the running boards are taking a beating.

It was 55 miles one way to work. Drove my 76 there and back, seven years straight. Six days a week. Only changed a battery and didn't need a wrench for that. I finally had to put a wrench on it, because I hit a place where they replaced a culvert. Blew a tire.

 

[stumblinhorse]

I grew up fixing and driving used cars until I could afford something new.
Used to get "hot" safety certificates and drove some rotted out wrecks.
Constantly under the hood adjusting points and timing, carbs, valves etc.
Don't tell me how great those old pieces of crap were.
The muscle cars brakes all sucked and they handled like a Walrus in a china shop.
5 years plus and they were rotting like a dead fish on a sunny beach.
The new vehicles are like comparing a ww1 battle ship to the newest version of the Star Trek Enterprise.
My current everyday ride has 180,000 miles and is 12 years old.
Never touched the engine. Changed the fluids and filters as called for.
Gone thru 3 sets of tires and brakes twice around.
Couple wheel bearings.
Original exhaust but had to replace the manifold gaskets once.
Original paint, rust free, number of chips though.
Find me a 60s-70s vehicle that could lay claim to a record like that.
My first new car was a 77 Smokey and the Bandit TA.
220 hp 10 miles to the gallon. Holes in the floor after 5 years.
My new mustang has 470hp and averages over 25mpg around town. Idles smooth as silk unlike the old muscle cars, gets good mileage and pollutes a small fraction of what the old ones did. It would smoke the Bandit without even breaking a sweat.
The only thing better back then was me. Body anyways.

As I said in another thread. I don’t need more HP or torque, what I need is a vehicle that can be fixed and maintained at home.

On that basis, mine, give me a 60-70s vehicle any day. Some thing breaks and I can fix it. My 69 mostly rust free, it is impossible to be 100%. My 01 dodge I had to replace the tailgate and the quarter panels from rust.

I change fluids and filter on my 69 is pretty much all I do. When it wouldn’t start a couple years ago, it took 2 minutes to see I wasn’t getting spark and that the ballast resistor failed. $3 later I was back on the road. And if I was stranded, I would have just bypassed it to get home…. There is probably 12 wires in total on that engine. Not so on my 2014 pentastar 3.6. One sensor goes bad and viola you have to take the whole motor apart.

 

[2diamondfarm]

I have an 01 7.3 F350 4x4 dually with 97 k that I'm gonna sell. It's running behind me, I just cranked it to let it run. It's reg cab, auto, flat bed. Haven't been on the road in years. It needs to go, I don't need it.

any pics ? I am looking for a work truck

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

any pics ? I am looking for a work truck

 

[4570Man]

It's all fine and dandy until an EMP or solar flare happens.

Is your vehicle not starting really the worst problem after an emp? Even if it did start you won’t able to buy more fuel.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Is your vehicle not starting really the worst problem after an emp? Even if it did start you won’t able to buy more fuel.

Man, if you have one for just a few days, it is tremendous. Turn off your power for a few days when you get a chance.

 

[check]

No reason to buy a truck every 3 to 5 years. My 2016 F150 super crew. Seems like new, runs great, starts even in -30° weather, and has great traction. And no rust, with 100 K miles.

Has all the goodies I need, including a back up camera and navigation. So who knows how long that will last? Maybe my next one will be electric. But, I have to drive 150 miles to get to the cottage from my home in the city, so I need that kind of range, and then a good plug-in at the cottage. I am upgrading to 200 amp service, and will run a cable out to the garage for a future charge. Daughter wants to get an electric vehicle as well, so I guess we had better provide for the charger now.

 

[Paddy]

If a truck stays dependable, you keep it. To keep your truck dependable, replace parts that are likely to strand you. I have a 2013 Tahoe with 175k mi. I have changed the fuel pump and the starter because it's a Chevy issue at 150k mi.

 

[crashz]

I've found that you can keep an older truck up and running if it's not your daily driver. You can order the parts you want, take your time and fix it right, do the majority of work yourself and keep it up. But if you need it to run the next day, you often have to scramble. I'm too old to do that any more. New or newish daily driver and old work horse(s).