ill be moving soon and im going to end up daily driving the porsche so i am going to post the mk5 rabbit i have as a daily right now up for sale. ill be looking for a truck or vintage van to haul around my bikes as a secondary vehicle.
im not really into huge trucks so i prefer single cab/short bed trucks and im ok with 4cyl and 6cyl engines. my main thing is purchase cost, reliability and maintenance cost
ive got a few ideas in my head but just seeing if anyone has any other suggestions that i am missing. obviously the newer trucks would be convinient because i could just trade in my mk5 vs. waiting to sell to a private party…
anyway, so far ive thought about:
pre 72 chevy c10 shortbed
mk1 vw rabbit truck
06ish tacoma (single cab)
1st gen ford econoline
datsun 520
2009ish chevy 1500
older el camino
the touareg is neither. plus i would still have to get a trailer.
the reason im looking into trucks vs just getting a trailer for the mk5 rabbit i already own is the fact that ill prob be renting an apt with a 1 car garage that will be occupied by the porsche along with trying to squeeze both bikes in there too. no room for a trailer…
out of that list…the only two that won’t give you headaches are the tacoma and the 2009ish chevy 1500. The tacoma is a super nice truck…I almost bought one…BUT, they hold their value really well, so you’re going to pay more for it than a newer comparable chevy 1500…and the difference in gas mileage between the two isn’t enough to justify spending more on the tacoma. Not to mention the chevy will tow more due to having the v8 rather than the v6 in the tacoma. Cost of ownership should be pretty cheap on both.
I vote chevy 1500. you can get a bare-bones truck way cheaper than a tacoma, and it will be 3-4yrs newer than an equally priced tacoma.
if youre looking at the 67-72 c-10’s, you definitely want to update some things. my buddy has '68 that they have been daily driving 90% of the year.
if its a manual, get that 4speed and manual clutch out of there unless you want a left leg the size of the hulk’s. i drove their truck around and it is a PITA driving through the city. i decided to stick to the less stop and go roads when driving it lol. update it with a hydaulic clutch at least, and going to a toploader would help. the 4speeds arent very good for cruising especially if the truck has some tall gears. sbc’s are cheap though and can be pretty reliable. no worries about it being carbed, tune it right and its turn key every time. the nice thing about an sbc is if anything goes, its extremely easy to find and dirt cheap. you can rebuild an entire engine easily for well under 1000 bucks, and thats with new pistons, reman crank, etc.
youre also gonna want to upgrade the brakes…driving around with manual drum brakes on all 4 corners ontop of a manual clutch is interesting…but you still have a smile on your face lol
as for the tacomas, definitely stick to the newer ones. the previous gen had frame issues unless you find one that is clean. if you do, plate the frame to make sure it doesnt crack.
why a newer chevy 1500? out of the box the power sucks and the mpg doesnt make up for it. my buddy has an '11 chevy 1500 and it has less power and worse mpg towing then his old '04 hemi ram got. my '11 hemi ram avg’s 20mpg all around, and when towing a 27ft enclosed snowmobile trailer with a couple sleds i was avg 16-17mpg. truck was hardly working compared to my buddies truck.
