WhichTruckWouldYouBuy?

“I've had a 88, 95 and a 97 ranger. Loved them. My dad has a 99 f-150 triton v-8..drives like a sports car..but hydroplanes easy. Bro has a 2001 f-150 lariat x-cab triton v-8. He had a 2001 silvarado..but it turned out to be the biggest lemon in the world. I know have a 2002 sport trac...it's a tad big. and tends to roll over. If i wanted an all around pickup i'd get a ranger, or a f-150 regular cab.”

“Or a caddy.”

“All the benefits of an full sized SUV with enough bed to haul grass seed, fertilizer, 80 lb. bags of mortar mix, 2X4s. The truck bed is steel, not plastic like in the Ford SportsTrac or Chevy Avalanche.”

“I currently drive a 2000 GMC Sierra 2500 extended cab with the long bed...it's been great so far!

Had a 1989 Ford F250 before that with the big V8 ( 460 )...it got 8 miles to the gallon ..uphill...downhill or towing always 8 miles to the gallon...LOL!

My Wife drives the 2002 GMC Envoy and we both love it!”

“For the love of god. You already have two SUV's.

GO BUY A FRIGGIN TRAILER!!! They're about 400 bucks, and then you won't need another gas-guzzling money-hogging conspicuous-consumerism-laden truck! A trailer and the cars you have already would be enough to supply a small rebellion in latin america.

Christ on crutch, already.”

“Never buy a truck that you wouldn't haul manure in.
I'm thinking of trading in my 97 F-150 for another of the same. It has been one dependable work truck.”

“Get a lighter pack and new running shoes------stop at water fountains-----NOT gas stations.”

“4) Can't fit his dates in an SUV

What a lying, married, sick, fat, basterd.”

“The caddy is a good choice.”

“what ever you buy it may or may not have problems.. With anything these days its mass produced on a line so you may be bound with problems. Its a chance that we all take.

If you buy used with say 10k + then most of the buggs have been worked out by the techs. so you would be better off. Thats what I normally do + you get a better deal.

You buy a Chevy I may be able to help you out on price since my grandfather retired from there. Or Ford my brother n law works there and they get killer deals.”

“Or there's the caddy.”

“UTILITY TRAILER!!!!!

Think of how much earlier you could retire with the money you save!”

“I'll just get a better gig, make more cash, buy whatever car I want and still retire early.”

“The caddy is big enough to be a utility trailer.”

“You mean one of the those gigantic 70's coal-fired Caddies?”

“99 silverado 2500 ext cab. best thing I ever had. I have 160,000 miles on her and have had very little trouble with her.




phaed, have fun in yer Yugo, hope some drunk don't head-on ya! SUCKAH!”

“1966 Human! Frickin' cool!”

“I dig the old caddys. Almost bought a '47 with a fastback tail.

Clean it up and update the mechanicals.

Sweet.”

“Stratdewd's comment is typical. You don't have to spend a lot of money, or buy a NEW vehicle to get the safety and functionality you need, even though the car industry might tell you otherwise.

Who's the suckah? I don't have car payments, and both my wife's car and mine aren't maintenance hogs, nor are they unsafe. Further, both get good gas mileage and meet all our needs.

Your money is yours... Until you buy into the commercials, and then it belongs to the MAN!”

“ok, so your car maker doesn't advertise? Look at the stats, bigger is safer. My company bought me whatever I wanted, so I dont have payments either. And when I hit deer, on 2 different occasions, it didnt' take out the whole front end, just dented the bumber a little.


DEER-0

Strat-2




I WIN I WIN! ! ! ! !”

“More importantly, did the deer find a good home in your freezer?”

“In Montana alot of ranchers drive huge pickups w/ gigantic grill guards (most of them are custom made by a guy in Big Timber). The guards are called "Cattle Pushers." You can hit a freakin' elk w/ these things and it ain't going to do one bit of harm to the vehicle. The elk on the other hand . . .”

“Yeah, the makers of both my cars advertise. I let the original owners pay for that, along with the dealer charges and finance charges and all those unnecessary expenses.

Bigger = safer? We can get into a long debate about that. There are statistics leading both ways.

Ever thought about stopping before you hit the deer, or steering around? Do you get to keep the deer after you kill it? If so, you might have a point about the truck being more useful as a source of MEAT.”

“well....deer #1; It was dark....late, bout 10:30, goin home through the Qua#&%!$a National Forrest in SW Ok. I come over a hill, doin bout 75 & there they were. 25 deer, in the middle of the 2 lane hwy. They scattered as i hit da brakes and dodged. It was like a video game. missed em all......except the last one. She zigged when she shoulda zagged. WHAM! the deer went flyin, and by the time i could stop(there was no place to pull off to the side for about a half mile) I had no ide where that deer had landed. I went back and looked around a little, but it was VERY grown up on both sides of the road. Then I heard a terrorfying noise from the surrounding woods. It was obviously bigfoot, comin at me mw with his "i'm gonna eat yer liver out" scream(furthur reflection revealed it was prolly a cayote). At any rate, I decided that the buzzards would get this one & went on my way.


deer #2: same story, different night.

I was gonan take them to this local lady here that raises bengal tigers. People donate road kill to her alot around here. Mid-summer deer don't sound that appetizing to me.”

“phaed, I think yer the one that has been sold a bill of goods, which is; Everybody can't have the good stuff, so bring everybody down to the same low level. It's called socialism, not utopia. You'd prolly be a pretty cool dood if you'd just figure that out. YOU are tha "man"....or at least you wanna be. We dont need you or the govment tellin us how to live.



And if you would simply teach the deer to stay in the woods they would not get hit.”

“"And what is good, and what is bad, must these things be taught to us?"

phaedrus
I guess they must be and you are just the one to do it. Thanks.”

“Pfft. I'm not telling you how to do anything. I was voicing an opinion that, apparently, differs from yours.

Low level? The way I see it, if it makes you happier, healthier, or wiser, do it. My experience has shown me very clearly that material things don't usually make people happy. That isn't to say that everyone who buys into a materialistic state of mind is unhappy, but rather than the two things are separate. Things don't equal happiness. I have a number of friends who went that path. Some still do. I guess my question to you is this: is your "low level" comment based on material need or what? If I did own a Yugo, how would you judge me based on that?

As for the socialist comment: since you have little idea of who I am or what my views on socialism are, I'll let it pass. Your leap there is not logical.

Oh, and my point about the deer was that a smaller car might have been able to stop without a collision at all. Who knows?”

“I'm pointing out that someone else has already tried to.

Marketers tell us what is good and we buy it. Gosh, what would we do without the marketers? I never would have known that Nike's were infinitely better than pay-less generic if they hadn't told me! Whew! Thanks marketers!”

“What's happening when the 'haves' use the government to suppress the 'havenots'as is going on at the pesent.some of your opinions of what government is is so 'upsidedown' you need to think,before typing.”

“Who are you talking to uncliff?”

“I own a small car too, honda crv, & when I drive it, I feel like I'm in a hot-wheels car that would be crushed in any collision. I don't feel save in it, at least not as safe as i feel in my truck. I hit a deer in my last honda & it dern near totaled it.

I see your point about stopping quicker, but my point is, what if it's not your fault? What if a drunk head-ons ya? LIGHTS OUT! I have hit 3 deer in my life & all were unavoidable.

Perhaps my socialism comment was unfounded, but this SUV debate is turning into a political movement that disturbs me. You are siding with the "drive what we say is ok to drive" croud, who in this case is extremely left-wing and who, IMO, have a socialist agenda. And you are correct that I dont know you, but we have all seen you take this side before. A pattern has developed. Your "opinion" that you were merely stating was presented in way to make ..... somebody feel guilty about their opinion. The politics of envy and class warfare. Uncool dood.

I don't really see the big deal about marketers and advertisers. You use a backpack that was marketed, your water filter company advertised. I don't choose what I want because a marketer tricked me into buying it. I choose what I want because that's what I want. I choose to research products myself, and draw my own conclusions as to what is crap and what is a good product that I wish to purchase. Don't get me wrong, by most peoples standards, I am poor(lower middle class). It's not like I'm some rich guy driving a hummer all over the place. I'm just stating my opinion.”

“Okay, all in the name of debate:

1. If a drunk head-on's me - Something I have no control over -I'm not worrying about it. Both my vehicles have air bags and I wear my seatbelt, so if it happens, it happens. That's like worrying about madmen in the backcountry waiting to ambush me.

2. If you re-read my posts above, I said nothing about the SUV debate. We were talking about trucks, and money. My first suggestion was for TD to look at buying a used vehicle, and to try to go through a wholesaler. Later, when TD pointed out that he already had two other vehicles (SUV's), I wondered at why he didn't just buy a utility trailer for one of them, since he stated he needed the hauling capacity of a truck.

3. The idea of having three large vehicles does sound like conspicuous consumption to me, so I spoke up. My intent was to get a response from TD as to his further reasons for buying it. I was, in no way, trying to degrade the man for being in the wrong monetary class, or to make him feel guilty about his financial choices. What I would hope people would think about after reading my posts is what is a necessity and what is not. I think, today, some people think that they need some things that are really luxury items and it skews their priorities from the things that matter.

4. As for the drive what we say is okay to drive crowd comment: you assumed that I was siding with that group. You lumped my opinion in with another argument without cause. One of my vehicles is a car, and the other is a small truck. The choices I made were based solely on utility and need. The truck serves as a camper for my wife and I when we travel. We enjoy it more than staying in motels, and we live more simply because of it. I bought both vehicles used through a wholesaler, by the way, so I do have some experience with the process.

5. The politics of envy and class warfare that you saw in my post are, again, your inference, rather than my implication. I mentioned that I have a number of friends who are materialistic (working in the computer industry in northern California makes me an oddity - an exception to the materialistic rule), and they are still my friends, even though they don't understand or agree with my views on finance. I have never been a great supporter of welfare or the like. I'm not trying to ensure that people who work give half of everything they make to the homeless or anything of the sort. I just like to discuss financial philosophy, simply put.

6. As for commercialism and marketing in America: Strat, please - and this is not meant as an insult in any way - open your eyes. Marketing and consumerism affect almost every cultural value that we have today. If you look at some adolecent kids, they already know where they fit in to classes by the brand-names they choose in clothes, bikes, walkmen, etc. I'm not alone in noticing this. Where there are no needs, marketers create them. If you want to talk about backpacking, look at the water filter market. I have yet to filter a drop of water when I have hiked, ever. I have used iodine tablets when the water I had available was suspicious, but they are very inexpensive. Water filters are unnecessary expense, IMO, but there's been a market created for them by advertising. In more everyday life, there are a million examples of products that we don't need (or that we never knew we needed until we saw the commercial) that have gone to market. The Swiffer, a tupperware stain-remover, tap lights, rotisserie grills, car dusters, Micro-vacuums (for computer keyboards), automatic cat litterboxes, and those damn motion-detecting frogs that people put by their front doors are all examples of mindless consumerism, in my opinion. What I am pointing out is not a need for a change in government or a call for any legislation or anything of the sort. I'm trying to stimulate people to think about the choices they make. That's all.

The average American will see one million commercials and advertisements by the time he is 20 years old. I haven't done the math, but does a person need a million things to live to 20 happily?”

“I'm sure you've all seen the information about the top ten auto makers, and how much $$$$ they all contributed to the 9/11 fund after the terrorist attack. Don't forget those that didn't forget the victims.

I bought a brand new GMC extended cab short bed 4x4 1/2 ton in 1989, drove it for 12 years and 208K miles. Sold it recently for only $10,000 less than I paid for it, and now I'm driving a similar chevy in a 1999 model. Say what you want about foreign vs. domestic etc. but it's tough to beat the price/performance of a General Motors vehicle. Oh, by the way, my wife drives a Toyota 4-Runner, and I just paid $3300 to have the engine overhauled at less than 150K miles. I guess it can happen with all of them, but in this case, it happened to a Toyota.”

“If you listen to "Car Talk" they recommend the Toyota truck. I don't konw where the Toyota trucks are build, but many of the Toyota cars are built in USA, putting food on the table for American families. If you buy the Dodge you are doing the same, built in America but profits go overseas. (REM. Chrysler is owned by a German firm.) (Also, how much of Ford's profit goes overseas to Mazda?) Etc.

So any model you choose,you're still supporting Americans and the global economy.”

“Stump I think it was Ford who bought Mazda.”

“LOL Buddur.

I liked venture or G&S trucks.”

“Butch Trucks ain't bad.”

“Derek Trucks ain't bad either!!!”

“I agree.”

“tonka makes the best trucks of all in my opinion!”

“My understanding is that Ford bought part of Mazda, and Ford is sinking mega-bucks into Mazda and Mazda isn't doing so great. So the profits from your Ford purchase gets sucked into Mazda.”

“K”

“Ford bought Jaguar too. The new Lincoln LS is more like driving a Jag than a Lincoln.”

“the new jag is just a bastard contour.”

“oops.

now ford is gonna sue me.

go jeep!”

“Now those were trucks!”

“So. this guy needs his porch painted white and he hires his neighbors blond teenage daughter to do it as she is looking for summer odd jobs.
He asks the girl how much she will charge and she says "100 bucks"...
well, this is a huge wrap around porch and the guy jumps on that price, buys the paint and tells her to call him at work if she has any problems.
When she finishes she calls him and says
"I finished the painting and had lots of paint left over...but I got to tell ya.....it's not a porch......it is a Lexus"”

“Why I once seen a truck that Peterbuilt.”

“Funny this thread should pop up. I just bought an '00 Ford Ranger 4WD, loaded. Small enough, but finally, far from spartan. Comfy truck, and Slasher likes it too!”