On Jul 6, 6:48 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:

For used vehicles, I think reliable is defined not so much by the
vehicle as by the kind of mechanic who works on your cars. If you get
your work done by the dealer, nobody important is familiar with the
history of your car. The service writer is a salesman, so he's not
important to you. You have no relationship with the mechanic.

Hmm. I get my truck worked on by the dealership. Their computer keeps track
of every smidgen ("Replaced door weather-stripping"). This accomodates both
porus memories and porus borders.

Between the 1980s and the mid 1990s we used to buy used Toyotas and
used them daily for a small business. We had had good satisfaction
and reliability in this harsh corrosive and long winter climate
climate. Although wiring was occasionally a problem. Then we bought a
brand new 1992 Toyota pick up and in a few years it became a
disappointment. Engine sensor etc. wiring problems. Strange because
other Toyotas (cars) owned by other family have been excellent.

In 1997W we bought a a used 1995 Nissan (30,000 miles), our first
extra cab pickup. Not much extra cab room but you could squeeze in a
couple of people and or children for a few mile trip and/or excellent
for keeping your tool boxes locked in the cab behind the two front
seats.

We also acquired a well used 1991 Nissan (plain cab) It was the best
vehicle, not only truck, that we have EVER owned.
Four cylinder, manual 2WD pickup. It had no extras whatsoever. No
power steering, one speed wipers, no radio, no fancy locks or electric
windows; further it had been manufactured in Japan and never had even
the few minor problems that the 1997 manufactured/assembled in the USA
has had. e.g. the wiper linkage broke! Economical, good load hauler
and simple to maintain. It's only concession to modernity was fuel
injection controlled by engine computer and a catalytic converter.

We were the fourth owner of the 91. A year later the third owner
wanted to buy it back again being dissatisfied with their brand new
vehicle! We wish we could buy that 1991 again! Maybe the Chinese or
the Koreans will eventually make a good simple cheap truck?

It finally rusted out in 2003 a with some 300,000 kilometres (about
200,000 miles) having cost us a total of less than $6000 to acquire
and do maintenance, spare winter wheels and tyres, which included a
new paint job when we got it, but not including insurance,
registration or insurance and operating costs. We used it for a small
business and for my son to drive daily to technical college for over
three years. We used it for about six years and then 'threw it away'
for an average cost of less than $80 per month.

The latest vehicle is a 2002 Nissan Frontier V6, a gas hog compared to
the 4 bangers and with more unnecessary gadgets and gizmos than
needed. It is also very low geared (for hot acceleration maybe?) Just
more to go wrong and affect the environment! Although very reliable;
the dealer is 'So-so'; one problem being they handle many brands. We
might buy Nissan but probably not this style truck, again.

We mention all this because one neighbour has and oldish 1993 or 95
GMC S-15 which has a 4.6? V6. It's gas consumption is about same as
our newer Nissan V6, he hardly ever drives it, so few repairs. Another
neighbour family has two full size GMC V8s both pretty new and seems
to spend a lot more on repairs than we ever do. Their two trucks are
used on road to and from work. Never for hauling on-site construction
materials or towing etc. But every few months they have to do work on
either the brakes or the front suspension/steering. Based on that we
would stay away from GMC/Chevrolet.

If the smaller pickup is OK buy a good used (and simple) Japanese
product.

Nissan and Toyota are now into newer bigger pickups (Titan etc.); not
familiar with them and while both reputed to be good IMHO still
somewhat unproven?

Our 2 cents.