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For the last 6 years I've daily driven my work truck. It's a 2002 6.0 Chevy Silverado 2500. It's a beast and does everything you ask, but dangggg the gas mileage is killing me more than ever.
We switched shops at work and now my commute is 20minutes one way vs 5minutes like it use to be. I also find myself driving more now days for hobbies (Like arrowhead hunting haha) and every time I fill up it's another $120. I took a 200 mile trip last week on the freeway and calculated my MPG and came right above 7mpg. DANGGGG! Literally just lighting money on fire.
Well, last year February a little latino dealership near me had an almost immaculate 1999 Ranger 4x4, with the 5 speed for sale for $3,999. A little higher mileage at 150k, but like I said, it's immaculate. It has a mountain of maintenance receipts in the dash and has had almost every major maintenance item replaced in the last 2 years like clutch, brakes, slave master etc. Only thing wrong with it was the upper and lower control arm ball joints were shot. I only bought it because it was a good deal for my area. Anything rust free, manual, and 4x4 commands mad money up in Wisconsin. So I bought it and parked it for a year.
Now a year later, sick of paying $100 a week in gas, I finally fixed the ranger's balljoints and it fired up right away after a year of sitting. Filled the tank and went for nice long drive. Averaged 20mpg on the freeway going 65mph on the stock granny tires and keeping my foot out of it. That's gonna put $50-$75 bucks back in my pocket every week. I am happy to say the least.
Also I won't have to pay the insane part bills for the big 'ol 2500 anymore. Everything on that truck costed $200 or more. Hubs, Exhaust, Wheelbearings, everything costed an arm and a leg. Versus the ranger, everything is like $50-$75 to replace. I paid less than $300 for both driver and passenger upper control arms and lower balljoints (Moog) and installed them in a weekend taking my time drinking beer. On my 2500 that'd have been a $700 job and taken 3-4 days.
Gonna miss the room the big truck has, but not as much as I missed not paying $100 a week in gas, and always handing out hundreds for the minor repairs.
We switched shops at work and now my commute is 20minutes one way vs 5minutes like it use to be. I also find myself driving more now days for hobbies (Like arrowhead hunting haha) and every time I fill up it's another $120. I took a 200 mile trip last week on the freeway and calculated my MPG and came right above 7mpg. DANGGGG! Literally just lighting money on fire.
Well, last year February a little latino dealership near me had an almost immaculate 1999 Ranger 4x4, with the 5 speed for sale for $3,999. A little higher mileage at 150k, but like I said, it's immaculate. It has a mountain of maintenance receipts in the dash and has had almost every major maintenance item replaced in the last 2 years like clutch, brakes, slave master etc. Only thing wrong with it was the upper and lower control arm ball joints were shot. I only bought it because it was a good deal for my area. Anything rust free, manual, and 4x4 commands mad money up in Wisconsin. So I bought it and parked it for a year.
Now a year later, sick of paying $100 a week in gas, I finally fixed the ranger's balljoints and it fired up right away after a year of sitting. Filled the tank and went for nice long drive. Averaged 20mpg on the freeway going 65mph on the stock granny tires and keeping my foot out of it. That's gonna put $50-$75 bucks back in my pocket every week. I am happy to say the least.
Also I won't have to pay the insane part bills for the big 'ol 2500 anymore. Everything on that truck costed $200 or more. Hubs, Exhaust, Wheelbearings, everything costed an arm and a leg. Versus the ranger, everything is like $50-$75 to replace. I paid less than $300 for both driver and passenger upper control arms and lower balljoints (Moog) and installed them in a weekend taking my time drinking beer. On my 2500 that'd have been a $700 job and taken 3-4 days.
Gonna miss the room the big truck has, but not as much as I missed not paying $100 a week in gas, and always handing out hundreds for the minor repairs.
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