OK, so now what?
Go out and buy a quad, "to beat on" it will get you to more places; easier, and your $32k truck will last a lot longer...
I assume you have 2 feet OR get a cheaper truck and a Kawasaki Mule and beat the tar out of the Mule.
Spending $32k on a vehicle just to beat the snot out of it is not a wise move.
I have also considered getting a flatbed truck and putting a Mule on it and then building boxes around the Mule on the flatbed. I have a nice trailer but dragging a trailer around sucks and is incredibly cumbersome. I want to load and go.
Have never purchased a NEW work vehicle and will not start now. ?ÿBut, I work close enough to home to be back every night. ?ÿI might upgrade some if I was spending multiple days per month in distant locations, simply to feel more secure relative to mechanical problems.
Exalted Bovine, I understand and actually agree with you on not buying new but I tell ya around here it seems the overwhelming majority of the truck buying public uses them for daily commuters and as a result they have had the tar driven out of them. I guess the all the men with large trucks and the soccer moms with Suburbans both must be hung like a team of mules and need a large vehicle to commute in.
It is a frequent lament of mine but I sometimes question the wisdom anymore of buying used when the miles often top 250k. It is darned difficult to find a low mileage truck for a reasonable used price. They seem to always think their truck is worth far more than the highest retail and homey don't play that.
I keep thinking that we are going to experience a complete awakening on vehicle choices for commuting but it has not occurred yet.
?ÿ
Pretty used trucks are found in suburbia. ?ÿUgly, but very functional, trucks will be found in farm country. ?ÿLower mileage but a rougher past life.
Cool, but the "real" BEV trucks are pretty cool. Take the Rivian. Perhaps they'll come out with a "surveyor" box config? Boatloads of space to haul stuff in it as the front engine compartment is a ~300L "frunk" and there's ~350L of storage under the backseat (that's not even including the box and backseats):
https://electrek.co/2019/03/12/rivian-modular-box-system-r1t-electric-pickup-truck/
https://electrek.co/2018/11/26/rivian-r1t-all-electric-pickup-specs/
400+ mile range on the high end model. That would easily suit my survey needs. A person can dream.
Yep, that's it. Funnily enough in the southern hemisphere a ute was always just called a ute, and I only recently realised it was the short form of utility. In South Africa I think it's called a Bakkie, while here in the SW Pacific, it's called a Dinghy.
Funnily enough, we'd call that a "motor-scraper". If it had a powered paddle wheel in it, it would be called an "elevator". Haven't seen either for a long time - most of the earthworks around here is excavator to excavator, excavator to dump truck - they say because the ground is too soft (sea level stuff) for motor-scrapers.
I am generally anti EV because of the long charge times and short range and if tour in a rural area they do not lend themselves well to everyday life.
However, I think they would be highly suitable to commercial vehicles where they work a smaller range from home base and charge all night. And I am very interested in the Rivian but I am sure the price will be a gazillion dollars.
I'm not a truck person, but one of my sons is. He uses his as a daily commuter and to tow his boat on week-ends. He often says that if you don't use a truck to make a living, it's a waste of money to buy one. But he's a big guy, 6-4 and maybe 240, so the comfort factor is big.
That said, I always start with Carmax when I look at used cars. I've never bought from them, just use them as a pricing guide, so I don't know about quality and customer service.
Here's what's available for $20 - $25,000 and less than 50,000 miles near Greensboro, NC:
https://www.carmax.com/cars/pickup-trucks?mileage=50000&price=20000-25000
Might be worth a try.
Carmax - No Fords or Toyota trucks showing, maybe that is telling us something.
Personally I downsized from my 16 year old F-150 to a Subaru Forester, which works after storing half of my equipment (extra junk) in the basement and I get 3x the mileage of the F-150.
I think there are Fords and Toyotas in or near Greensboro.
The first person I ever knew who used a truck solely for a daily commute was back in the late eighties. He was an IT VP who I worked with occasionally and he bought a base model straight drive Chevy.
His reasoning? Trucks held their value better than cars so they were cheaper in the long run.
My boss, an Executive VP, drove a 1963 midsize Ford sedan until the mid-eighties when vandals threw a brick through the windshield on the passenger side. He patched the hole with hardware cloth, left the brick in the seat and drove it for a couple of more years. He then gave it to a friend who ultimately traded it for a load of sand rock.
It's great to have enough confidence to not be defined by your ride. If some of these macho lawyers and stock brokers had such confidence, maybe truck prices would return to reasonableness.
I prefer to buy from a Toyota dealer and shop thru their Certified Used Vehicles as they usually have a good selection.
They go thru the vehicles and replace hoses and belts and batteries, bulbs and whatever as needed and you can ask them to not put new tires on or not, my choice 10ply 85 series tires.
I understand the hesitation and they are not be for everyone. However, they fit almost everyone's daily commuting needs.
My Leaf takes about 15 minutes to go from 10% to 80% w/ a 185km max range on a supercharger (that would cost about $3.75 to $5 as it is the most expensive form of charging). I usually just charge at home w/ a 240v charger plugged into a welder plug down at the shop. Overnight that works out to $0.065/kWh (30kWh battery so $1.95 to fill up). The shop on the farm doesn't have any fancy meters so they haven't started charging us for it yet (over a year). I wouldn't expect that for everyone, though. I plug in at a standard 120v plug at work. With a 8.5hr workday, that gives me around 55km so more than enough to get home. If my boss made me pay for this electricity, it would work out to about $1.30 ($0.13kWh w/ 10kWh charged). So, my 180km commute would cost $3.25 in electricity (since my boss doesn't charge me and the hydro company has not upped our average monthly usage I've been driving for mostly free aside from the few top ups at superchargers when we go to Hamilton/Toronto). A comparable car (Chevy Spark) would cost about $8.40 (7L/100k combined w/ gas at $1.20/L). 250,000km lifespan of the car works out to a potential savings of $12,875 in fuel. That only gets larger the more you drive them, but I'm giving a conservative estimate. That's not including no oil changes, less brake changes, no required emissions tests, allowed to use HOV lanes w/ 1 person, and less maintenance per year. New York State has seen significant savings of, for example, $386 for the Electric Focus vs $1805 for the gas Focus in 2018:
The past provincial government had grants of $14,000 for my Leaf so I took advantage of it and clawed back all the tax dollars I could.
If your daily driving is less than 400 miles, I can see of no real reason not to get a BEV/PHEV aside from the upfront cost and user preference of vehicles. A PHEV (ie. the new Dodge Ram) would make sense for a lot of surveyors:
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a22815325/2019-ram-1500-etorque-hybrid-pickup-drive/
More torque and 2 mpg better mileage. PHEV's are also great for reduced maintenance (see above NY study and studies on English Prius taxis).
The PHEV Pacifica is also an option, but it's pretty nice for a work vehicle.
That being said, I get that large upfront costs are on everyone's mind. Buying new isn't an option for many and they aren't many used options yet. I use the Leaf to commute when I'm in the office and a "plain Jane" Dodge Grand Caravan to survey that we bought at discount from the dealer (they used it to deliver parts).
That, and "happy capitalism." Buy whatever works for you in your situation and whatever you like. If you're driving 500 miles in the middle of Wyoming, you almost certainly need a petrol vehicle. But, as my mother is Dutch and my father is Scottish, make sure you do your research and crunch some numbers.
I have an ATV, actually 2, one wheeled, one tracked. I was pulling the trailer around that day with the wheeled one on it. We were working a 2 sq mile area wooded, with 2 tracks all around, and it was alot of moving from place to place to get Gov't Corners. JOb was 15 miles off a paved road.
For the most part, non-city surveyors NEED trucks.
You can't find decent used trucks for that price in Michigan. Everything is either high milage, or rusted out.
I am considering trying to find one 'down South' and having it shipped up.
I was looking at Carmax's annual report to see what their gross margin is. It's pretty thin, 13.6%. Their sales last year were $18.1 billion.
They have only one store in Michigan compared to 11 in North Carolina, 19 in both Florida and Texas, and 25 in California. Not many stores in other frosty states either.
They do put pressure on used car prices near us, though.
'Round here that's called a "can".
You do take a hit buying new, BUT it is worth it IMO if and only if you run it at least 10 years/300k miles. There is usually a reason decent looking newer vehicles are on the used market, you just don't find out that reason until after it is your problem.
My 2001 Dodge Ram purchased in fall of 2000 brand new is still rolling with 304k. Have I had repairs, yes, but I know what is solid and what needs fixed and there are very little surprises. Buy new, treat it with care, do all maintenance, fix little issues as they crop up and when the payments are done, you likely have many years of life left with repairs way less than new payments.
I always say, you pay the bank, the mechanic and sometimes both, no free rides.
SHG
Its not fair Shelby, your Dodge is a Cummins and we all know they run to a million miles or more.