Posted on 01/04/2015 4:53:02 PM PST by upbeat5
Normally when you buy a pickup you worry about things like depreciation, operating costs, and how long the truck is going to last. Not this guy — he more than got his moneys worth with this one.
Back in 1976 when Bob Sportel was 24 he bought a used, rusting 1957 half-ton Chevy pickup for $75 because he needed a way to get to work. He just retired from his job after 38 years — driving the same truck.
According to KARE-TV in Minnesota, Sportel originally tried to buy the truck for $50. His only “extravagance” as he puts it is four oil changes a year. We’d say he changes them with the seasons but Minnesota only has two: winter and mud.
Sportel has applied several layers of duct tape to the truck’s upholstery. Bondo holds the front lights in place and rust holes provide portholes to the truck’s underside. He guesstimates the truck has more than 300,000 miles on it because the odometer hasn’t worked since he bought it. And, in spite of his wife’s pleas, he has no plans to replace it
Maybe the best line of the news report? “Soundtrack provided by Chevrolet.” Sportel has no plans to sell the truck. Then again, who would buy it at this point?
Nissan stepped up and fixed an Altima advertised on craigslist. Maybe Chevrolet could do the same thing for Sportel’s truck? We’ll reach out to Chevrolet to see.
Pics at link.
A brother-in-law has a compact Ford 2001 truck. He loves it. No electric stuff, barebones, has roll-up windows, manual mirrors, etc. I make fun of him because most cars and trucks for the last thirty years have comfort items. All he says he needs is to get from point A to point B. He's like my father (long departed) who bought a 1959 Rambler that had no heater or radio (optional items); me and my siblings hated that car.
do you do your own work?
Now there's probably some truth to this one but I don't think we are getting the complete story. Maybe he used this car just to get to work and back and has another vehicle for everything else. Maybe his job is a half mile down the road. We just don't know.
Nice story but lacking in a lot of facts.
Forgot my “silly answer” tag. Oops!
Seventeen years and not a single hiccup out of the window switches and mechanics on my 1998 Silverado.
Didn’t Sam Walton have one of those?
Glad he didn’t scrap it for Cash for Clunkers.
It has real chrome bumpers and not those plastic panel pseudo-loooking things.
I have a chrome grill in front which I call my "liberal catcher."
It's gonna get a new motor when it needs one and the works.
Gosh. I hope he likes it!
I couldn’t change the oil if you put a gun to my head, which made dispatching vehicles in the service a chore. No, I had a former Mercedes mechanic working on it for part of that. Lost him so now use Craigslist if I have a problem. Not everybody can do a diesel, but so far haven’t had an engine problem [crosses fingers].
My first car was a 1971 Gremlin I bought in 1977 and paid $100.00 for. I’d still be driving it if all the metal hadn’t rusted off by 1978.
It’ll come in handy post-EMP.
I know where a 1955 or maybe 56 Ford 3/4 ton is that only has around 5000 miles and is near mint. It has the original tires and surprisingly they have no sign of cracking or deterioration.
It was always stored in a building. For many years it was used as a fire truck then as a welding truck. It still gets some use but obviously not much. I think the engine is a 292 with a two barrel.
“Nissan stepped up and fixed an Altima advertised on craigslist. Maybe Chevrolet could do the same thing for Sportel’s truck? We’ll reach out to Chevrolet to see.”
Also, Mazda fixed up a ‘95 626 for someone a while back, but the car in question belonged to Alfred Morris of the Washington Redskins. This guy might be out of luck...
‘59 Rambler...you were THE chick-magnet in HS.
Of course, we had a ‘62 Bug! But Dad let me borrow the newer family cars for dates —’’66 Bonneville and ‘69 Torino.
Amazing on the tires.
You must live somewhere that there’s low ozone in the atmosphere.
I restored a 67 Camaro that had a pretty good body but all the rubber parts were breaking up. The body mounts looked like they had been attacked by termites.
“Didn’t Sam Walton have one of those?”
Sam had a late-60’s Ford F-series.
Kind of like my first car where the value of it fluctuates depending on how much gas is in it.
1958 was a good year for light trucks. I bought a rusted out F-100 van in 74 for $25 from a college. I was working in the boat factories in the Tampa Bay area at the time and fiberglassed the roof and floor and much else. I sold it for $100 a couple years later and saw it a dozen years after that doing duty as a pickup and delivery vehicle for a generic motorcycle shop. When it passed me I remember it still sounded good.
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