No More Compact Trucks… For US

Eric Peters Autos ^ | December 9, 2011 | Eric Peters

[chrisser]

You can get a re-built to brand new V-6 engine for a Chevy S-10 for up to 2.5K... labor to get it installed and running about 600. If one keeps up with the body/paint, replaces a manual clutch when worn out, keeps up with synthetic lube and cleaning of rwd differential— well the S-10 would run an easy 500K plus miles.

Friend has one and is doing just this. He got 200K on the first block, has replaced the clutch and cleaned,repacked the differential with syn lube.

Tires- about 400. So, all in all one can manage through all of this marketing and govt. idiocy, if you know people who are sharp.

I have thought along these lines many times - ditto with an older Ranger. They're nice little trucks.

We have a Pull-a-Part franchise down the road. Unbelievably good prices on used parts and plenty of both vehicles in stock all the time. You can pretty much build your own S-10 or Ranger by picking and choosing options out of the junk yard once you had a base chassis (although there's something to be said for the simplicity of the basics, which is also doable).

I'd really like a diesel both for the mileage and to have a vehicle which takes a different fuel source. Unfortunately, swapping a diesel is technically illegal, although a pre-86 would be exempt from emissions testing in my state so wouldn't be detected.

I even thought about building a fiberglass body on the chassis to get around the fact that most of the bodies are rusted away in my area...

[arderkrag]

There's a company that rebuilds them professionally: http://www.dieselenginesusa.com/

When the time comes, I might go for that option - I don't fly down the road in my truck and the extra pulling power would be nice along with the better mileage pound-for-pound.

[Jeff Vader]

yeah, me too. my current one is 4 liter, 4x4 off road 4 door model and it gets 18/22. I used to commute 180 miles/day when I had the 4 cyl model and needed the mileage it had

[Sybeck1]

Well I am going to keep my Hardbody going as long as possible.

[5thGenTexan]

Gunny G
aka: Dick Gaines
USMC 1952—1972
*****

20 years...THANK YOU SIR! I owe you a debt I cannot pay.

[meyer]

Or a new ford ranger to a 1970 ford F-100.

It's been a while since I drove an F-100, but I know that it had a very roomy interior and you could fit a 4-foot wide piece of plywood in back between the wheel wells. Not so with the Ranger. It's always had a narrower bed.

[sport]

Well, that is what the majority of those that voted on November 4, 2008 voted for.