I vote older. I traded my 2000 Dakota in 2009 because the trans was going south for the second time. Should have fixed it instead. However I replaced it with a Silverado with crank windows and no carpet. Very simple truck that looks and rides good. If I had it to do over and had known I would be retiring in a year I would have either fixed the Dodge or bought something from the 50s. All I need now is a kayak/mulch hauler.

Just bought a 2020 Hundayi and seriously speaking...all the electronic gizmos and........"safety" crap is over-the-top for someone my age. and YES!!.......I bought the extended warantee on ALL the 'stuff' in it!! (Something I never normally do) Because......oil change and plug replacement is about all I would be able to do!
They are rolling computers  and extreeemely expensive to replace when/if they go south.
My  DD is a 91 S-10 that has been in the family since new. Power windows/door locks/cruise/AC ia about all the 'frills' it has. Hence....not a lot to go worng!  If/when it goes down I can still fix it at a reasonable cost.
Mid 60's/late 70's F100/150 are EZ to repair and when you die.......the kids have a classic to sell!!
6sal6

6sally6 wrote:

Just bought a 2020 Hundayi and seriously speaking...all the electronic gizmos and........"safety" crap is over-the-top for someone my age. and YES!!.......I bought the extended warantee on ALL the 'stuff' in it!! (Something I never normally do) Because......oil change and plug replacement is about all I would be able to do!
They are rolling computers and extreeemely expensive to replace when/if they go south.
My DD is a 91 S-10 that has been in the family since new. Power windows/door locks/cruise/AC ia about all the 'frills' it has. Hence....not a lot to go worng! If/when it goes down I can still fix it at a reasonable cost.
Mid 60's/late 70's F100/150 are EZ to repair and when you die.......the kids have a classic to sell!!
6sal6

    What did you Buy Mike?    I bought a 2019 Sonata for my son last month.
 

I will drive a vehicle until it becomes unreliable or no longer fits what I need to be able to do with my family.  I would say that anything built in the last 20 years is quite reliable from a standpoint of mechanicals.  Th downside is the electronics.  The reason I would buy something older and in better shape with low miles would be to avoid all the electronic crap that's been shoved into vehicles in the last 10-15 years.  I'm not afraid of computers, EFI, etc., but I don't need a computer for my climate control.  Its those things that will fail and can be expensive to replace, plus nothing is built long enough anymore for most service guys to really understand how to diagnose it.  It can be a real PITA trying to troubleshoot electronics on an older vehicle.

The price of new vehicles is absurd.  I would never buy another new one unless I needed the tax write off for my business.  1-2 years old at least with the bulk of the depreciation already done. 

My DD is an '06 F250SD with the 6.0 Diesel.  It turned 253k this week.  I keep saying eventually I'll get a new truck, but lately I've been thinking maybe not.  The newer vehicles are very expensive.  The mileage on a Diesel is not that much better.  All the added emissions junk has made modifying them much harder, and the bottom ends are not as robust as they were, so I'd be looking at a step down in power in a heavier truck.  My job tends to take its toll on the body and interior, so I have a problem spending a lot of money on a truck that over the years, despite my best efforts, will be to an extend systematically destroyed and devalued.  No, I'll fix the rust as it crops up (put a new bed on it last year), change the seat covers when they get ragged out, and continue to maintain it and plan to keep driving it for the forseable future. 
 

Steve69 wrote:

6sally6 wrote:

Just bought a 2020 Hundayi and seriously speaking...all the electronic gizmos and........"safety" crap is over-the-top for someone my age. and YES!!.......I bought the extended warantee on ALL the 'stuff' in it!! (Something I never normally do) Because......oil change and plug replacement is about all I would be able to do!
They are rolling computers and extreeemely expensive to replace when/if they go south.
My DD is a 91 S-10 that has been in the family since new. Power windows/door locks/cruise/AC ia about all the 'frills' it has. Hence....not a lot to go worng! If/when it goes down I can still fix it at a reasonable cost.
Mid 60's/late 70's F100/150 are EZ to repair and when you die.......the kids have a classic to sell!!
6sal6

    What did you Buy Mike?    I bought a 2019 Sonata for my son last month.
 

 
Tuscon .............Ms 6sally6's ride!
I just wrote the check.....
6sal6

Sounds like most of us are in the same camp, like I said I try to keep the Boss in something new or newer, most times we look for a 2 years old, unless there just isn't much depreciation in what she is wanting. My Dakota has 180k miles and I will drive it until it stops in the middle of the road and the repair is more than I can replace it with. My biggest fear is always someone will hit it, because its worth 10 x to me what an insurance company would give.

I had though about something from the 70' or 80's but I spend to much time on the Hwy going from job site to job site and they just aren't as reliable. I do still think I could be very happy with a clean 95-96 F150 SWB 2wd 4.9 and 5-speed. I saw one a while back with the Eddie Bauer package that was nice but they want crazy $$ for it. In hind sight it may have been worth it.

My Dakota is a quad cab and right now I still need the rear doors, but in a couple more years they wont be as important. I have towed a lot of cars with the Dakota but I'm trying to get to the point where I just drive the cars in stead of towing them all over the place.

Like several of us have said, it is just crazy what vehicles cost anymore, I cant imagine what the payment is on the cars and trucks I see all these young people driving. I work on construction sites all over the state and it always amazes me when I pull on a site, all the new trucks these young guys drive. I was on a project last week that had 9 new trucks lined up (Ford, Chevy, and Dodge) and one of the owners told me that the cheapest one of the bunch was over $50k, the most being right at $70K, and these are just personal trucks these young guys use as transportation. Man I'm getting old.

I know I was there when I was young, just at a much smaller scale. But these young guys will buy the $50-70K truck and on the way home drop 1$10k in wheels, tire, suspension mods, exhaust, and computer tunes. Now with that said it is absolutely crazy the power that these things generate, diesel and gas.

I'm with you, the Boss's Van stays sparkling clean, but my truck is a tool, and I maintain it and keep all the maintenance in order, but it is used just as hard as any hammer I own on a daily basis and I never loose a moments sleep over it. If I had $70k for a truck, setting around, I would build two more Mustangs

Many people (young & older) in my area lease their vehicles, accept the monthly payments as a matter of life.  As the leases runs out before the warranty is up, if there is a problem, they just get a new model.

TKOPerformance wrote:

Problem is that you can't lease a work truck.

This new generation seems to prefer to rent everything. 

The payments on new vehicles are like anything else, how much are you going to put down?  I won't make a car payment that's more than $600/moth.  Anything over that is just nuts IMO.  You can get shafted on the financing rate on used vehicles, but there are ways around that if your credit is solid. 

Speaking of financing, a lot of those guys that seem to be dropping $100k on a truck are financing everything.  There are companies that finance wheels, aftermarket parts, etc.  Crazy that you'd buy a vehicle and void the warranty before its even paid for, but people do it all the time. 

Yes, things are quite different today than when I was young.  I'm glad that our four children, all in the thirties, have some common sense in regards to financial matters.