Who wants to help me find a new (used) car/truck?

[short bus president]

Unfortunately, my Camry, despite having been babied for its entire (relatively short) life, will not fetch too much as a "total loss." I'm probably looking at 5 grand, maybe less. Minus my deductible, of course. <ratbastards!>

I'd really like to get a light truck with a 4-person cab (and preferably 4 doors). Bed size is unimportant, so long as there's SOME bed. Gas mileage is a factor, so no 6 cylinders. 2WD is kosher. Anyone here have any ideas? Recommendations? Any light truck drivers care to share the details of their automotive lives with me? I've got ~30 days of rental car coming to me, but once that's up, I'll need to have my own transport again.

TIA for any and all assistance.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Toyota trucks!!

Last forever, and are pretty good lookin' too.

[CanuckAmok]

2. Yup...get a Toyota Truck!

We have two...ask me anything.

PS--glad the Camry was a write-off, and not you!

on edit: if you buy a Toyota Truck with the 22RE 2.4litre EFI engine, it'll last forever, requires very little upkeep, and has slightly less power than the 3.0 V-6. We have a V-6 and the 22RE, and there's no noticeable difference between the two in the power department (although the 6 is a little bit more 'incline friendly' at highway speeds). The 4cyl, however, gets pretty good mileage.

If you want info on how to get 2WD MPGs with a 4WD Toyota truck, PM me...I have all the info.

[Philostopher]

3. Can't offer much advice here.

I bought a RAV4 last summer (we take the dog with us a lot, including short trips out of town, and my Mazda MX-3, which was rear-ended, was awful for it), and can tell you some of the places I used to help me find it:

http://www.kbb.com

Kelley Blue Book site. You can get at least a ballpark idea on prices, and what you can get in your area for what you have/want to spend.

http://www.consumerreports.org

Consumer Reports. They'll tell you which ones smell funny.

Never drove a truck, myself. The RAV is about as close as we needed to get to that -- it gets about 25 mpg. I'd suppose a Toyota small truck would do about the same -- maybe better, if it was 2wd.

[On the Road]

4. Funny You Should Ask

My car died yesterday (a Mazda MX6 with 130,000 miles), and I'm thinking about Toyota for a replacement.

I originally looked at pickups with an extended cab, but the ones I saw were all $25-30K.

I decided a smaller amount of cargo room was OK for my needs. So I'm considering a wagon (Toyota Matrix) and a small SUV (Toyota RAV4). They both have excellent reviews. I'm going to test drive them tonight with my daughter. A new 2003 model should run about $15-16,000 for either vehicle.

Send me a message if you want to see the Consumer Reports on these or any other vehicle.

[short bus president]

5. I had only 79K miles on a 96 camry

It would've taken me another 100-150K, easily.

Thanks for the offer on Consumer Reports. If they did some kind of a "showdown" on models from the mid-80s, that would be the kind of thing I'd like to see. There's no way in hell I'll be able to afford a late-model truck. But the thing is I have to have a cab that seats 4, and those are apparently quite tough to come by in the world of inexpensive used trucks. Especially with a 4 cyliner engine.

Will have to ask some of my truck-drivin' neighbors if they know of any secret redneck cheap truck sellin' place or something.

[ET Awful]

7. Another great resource . . .

For pricing information, reviews, etc. is www.edmunds.com

It was their information that helped me get my car for $100 over dealer invoice a couple of years ago :).

[geniph]

8. Do you absolutely have to have a pickup's bed?

or would a cargo area do you just as well? There's a hell of a lot of mid-80's minivans and vans on the market which are fairly reliable, inexpensive to operate, seat 4 easily and have cargo room.

My personal recommendation - a used Subaru Legacy wagon. They never die.

[VelmaD]

6. Did I miss something?

What happened to you car? And are you ok?

:hug:

[soleft]

9. I'm selling my car right now on ebay, check your DU box