New or Old? American or Asian? Mental help needed or Normal?

[smack doogle]

Alright, so before you consider me in need of some mental help hear me out. 

In the next year or so (once I return home and get settled and pay some bills, etc. etc) I plan to get a truck to haul around my addictions (motorcycles) and occasional commuting to work, runs to home depot, etc.  Now, if I go new I'm very interested in a Toyota Tacoma X-runner.  6spd manual, $27K new and about 19mpg highway.

So I could go that route or go with an older chevy 2wd.  I'd be looking for something restored in very good shape.  No hot-rod.  Something with no engine mods so I could come close to 18 mpg highway (do-able?).

In my lurking on ebay I see a lot of 80's chevy's in "restored" condition that really look good and seem as though they are very driveable but the prices are about half of what a new truck cost's (in most cases).  Yeah, I know with a used truck forget about a warranty and you can potentially get into someone elses mess.

On the upside with the older truck I get something I can work on if I need to, something that can be taken to a dealership and I won't have to worry about some sensor that costs $600 with another $800 in labor.
I don't need all the new creature comforts.  I'm happy with arm powered windows, etc.

The last part is with an older truck I have something that wont necassarily depreciate and I'll have something not seen on the street everyday.

Again,  I commute on my motorcycle just about everyday so I'd probably only but about 5000 miles a year on the truck.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Am I out to lunch on this one?

 My financial adviser (wife) doesn't care which way I go as long as a) payments are low if there must me payments  b)I'm happy with what I have and will stop buying shoot and bugging her with my "I want this" "I want that"

[1980c10]

You are going to get some biased answers here.
heres mine;
An older chevrolet will hold its value.
An older chev is much classier.
Your kids and you will remember and enjoy an older chevy much more.
Close to 18 mpg is do-able "hot rod or not"
Be prepared to put some work into a restored truck as most need or could use something.
Be prepared for a new addiction.

As far as mental help needed-hopefully we can fix that japanese truck thinking here.

Also; thank you for your service.

[daschlag]

Personally, I wouldn't buy a brand new pickup truck unless I was flush with cash and needed something to tow my yacht.  I like trucks that are tough, thick-skinned, and simple.  I do own some Japanese cars, they have their place, but when it comes to trucks, old Chevys are just the way to go.

You thought you could get an unbiased opinion here?!  

Neither would I spend $15k on a "restored" truck.  I'd rather buy one that has been in the same family for 30 years, is as close to stock as possible, and well maintained its whole life.  Not only will that bring the price down significantly, but the truck will be unmolested.  In many cases, no restoration is better than full restoration.  The trick will be to find one that isn't rusted out, but they're out there.

[big bear]

first off thank you for your service,  second... ha ha yea, i say go for the old Chevy.  as stated above. theres more perks and at least to me , more pride and well, i hate new trucks Lol.  like it was said already, you will surely get biased answers here. but at least were honest.  good luck man

[smack doogle]

I appreciate the opinions and biased or not it's motivation.  I would like to do it he right way and dedicate my time and effort to restore a truck the way I want but with work, family and everything else that just isn't possible.  Not to mention the time it would take away from my bikes     Can't do it so something that has been taken care of or completely re-done is the route.  Thanks again for the "push" to the oldies.

[audrima]

wow, between the two that's hard. I love my old GMC to death and would not trade it give it up for a world!

but the new toyota are great trucks. well all of the toyota's trucks are. ^_^ hm I would lean toward a chevy pickup myself but if I had the money I would buy a toyota pickup. or a newer gmc truck. hmm lol I don't know 0o?

mariah

[slammed79]

For that 27K you could have one of the most cherry squares on the road, and for less than half of that you can have something reliable and will haul the bikes with a little more umph than the yota.

Don't get me wrong though, the Taco's are nice trucks, but the 73-87's are easy to work on yourself and it'll definetly be somethin the kids will get into.

[1980c10]

With an older vehicle you can save a ton of money on auto insurance as well as tags if it'll be eligable for collector plates. Tags save me 85 a year and probably another 500-600 on insurance with better coverage than I had on my newer truck.

[smack doogle]

I didn't even think of the savings in registration and insurance. 
The thing that kills me is the dang depreciation in vehicles when you drive them off the lot.  I've never bought a new motorcycle for this reason alone.  Always used. 

plus, I hate having to put 20% down on something just so I can keep up with the payoff bieng what it'll be worth.  With the old chevy very little would be financed assuming the buy-in is about half of what a new truck is. 

Thanks again for the input.  My decision is definitley being swayed to the older squares