Six Reasons to Have an Old Truck

1. They're cheap.
   They are sometimes 1/20 or 1/30 the price of a new one. They are so much cheaper, that the bad gas mileage really doesn't make much of an impact. People who have made car payments every month of their adult life cannot conceive that two tanks of gas per month is less money than pretty much any new car payment. In addition to the purchase price being less, you will find that insurance is cheaper. Parts are cheaper as well, since there are so MANY of the old fullsize trucks running around.
2. They're durable.
   If you've never owned one, you may not realize how indestructible these old trucks are. But you see them. You see them on the road, with a shallow dent in the fender. A deep scratch on the door. A scraped bumper. What you don't realize is that these seemingly minor blemishes very likely sent another, lesser car to a scrapyard.
3. Other drivers steer clear
   Ever notice how owners of certain automobile brands have a tendency to do stupid things? Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti owners are among the worst. They tailgate. They cut you off. They suddenly realize that their exit is on the other side of the highway. They run red lights, and don't notice when the light turns green. Well, enter the Ugly Old Truck, and suddenly, those luxury car drivers aren't so high and mighty. They want to try to squirt through that red light? Go ahead, drive through the green and watch them panic. They have learned that their car will end up just as ugly as yours if they don't watch it. And as an added bonus, when someone hits your vehicle that you purchased for $1,000, typically the repair bills for minor dents are enough to total it – so you end up getting more money from their insurance company than you paid for the truck in the first place. Drive carefully, don't cause any accidents that are your fault, and the red light runners, tailgaters, stop sign runners of the world will pay for your truck.
4. They are environmentally friendly.
   While the gas mileage may not be as good as some of the newest and silliest looking hybrid cars available today, there is more to the environment than gas mileage. One popular environment-saving activity is recycling. Lets talk recycling, shall we? Lets look past the obvious, the fact that simply driving an old truck around is keeping 4,000-5,000 pounds of steel, aluminum, rubber, plastic, and other material out of a scrapyard. If you buy replacement parts, the auto parts store will want your old part. Buy an alternator, starter, battery, water pump, or a host of other parts, and you have to turn in your old part – or pay a core charge. The old part is shipped to a facility and remanufactured – bearings are replaced, electrical parts are refurbished, everything is cleaned, and then that part ends up right back on the shelf.
5. They are useful.
   Every had to borrow a truck? Or rent a truck? If you already have it of course you won't have to. You can do everything from hauling furniture home to put in your house, to pulling a car out of a snow-covered ditch in a blizzard. Almost any trailer you're likely to pull is going to be no problem for the old fullsize truck.
6. They go forever.
   Ford 300. Chevrolet 350. Dodge Slant Six. Ford 302. Chevrolet 305. Dodge 318. These are the names of engines that are, by and large, too simple to break. Simple maintenance such as oil changes, replacing some worn out parts when it's time, will allow one of these engines to run easily past 300,000 miles. In many cases, the truck will fall apart around a perfectly good engine. If your truck has a manual transmission, it's even better, there really isn't much that can happen. There have been reports of Chevy and Ford trucks, with 5 speeds, running over a million miles.