Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Truck Purchase

Most of what I got was pro truck, but i'm getting it on Friday, so please hold any anti-truck comments. Pictures will be up after I get it!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Shopping for a New Vehicle

Going against my better judgement - there are a number of things I'm looking for a new vehicle.

1. I'm looking for a truck. And by those who drive SUVs, those are not trucks. Those are SUVs. I'm looking for a Pickup Truck. A Nissan Frontier in fact. Now I know i'm not getting a "truck" in terms of 900hp with 1 millions lbs of torque and can haul a house. I'm not a SUV guy, but Wendy and I are tired of having 2 passenger vehicles when trying to pick up or move anything. Every once in a while, you just need a bigger vehicle. It seems to happen a lot more for us.
2. I'm potentially looking at new instead of buying used. The price difference between new and used in terms of the year range and model i'm looking at honestly aren't really that different. We're talking about $3,000 difference - trading for about 40,000 and 3 years (and loss of factory warranty) on the vehicle as well as a few features.

This truck is pretty close to what I want - except the color possibly.

What are the downsides of all of this?

Well obviously the payment, but what i'm sure any sane person would bring up the issue of gas prices these days. My only thought to that is that my commute to work is pretty short - and this is at least a mid-sized truck instead of a gigantic one. It is rated at 14mpg/19mpg highway, which I know isn't awesome, but based on my current driving habits, I drive much less than 10,000 miles a year. If gas prices do go up, I'm obviously going to be somewhat screwed or just have to drive as little as possible. Yes, I've considered leasing and i'm still thinking about it, just in case gas prices to shoot way up.

If I could get the same vehicle in diesel, I'd be all over it. Unfortunately, there are no midsized trucks or compact trucks that come in diesel in the US.

Does anyone have any serious thoughts about this? :)