I've always joked that my ultimate sacrifice in being a Father of 4 was having to give up my Ranger for a minivan. Well the oldest is 18 now, leaving for college in a couple months, and she's getting our old Focus. I was all set to buy a new Ranger, but then realized that my son will be getting his license and needing a vehicle in a few years. I'm looking at buying used, but not much more than 5 years old. I would love a Ranger, but the last were made in 2011. I'm looking at Nissan Frontier or possibly a Tacoma. I don't want a quad cab, don't need 4WD. I'm not a fan of GM, and dodge doesn't make a midsize. I have to have reasonable MPG because of my commute, and don't want a full size. Anyone have a Tacoma or frontier and have anything to look out for or look for?
The new Ranger has been out for almost 2 years now...find one of those that some road warrior put a bunch of highway miles on? Newer high mileage vehicles are exactly what I like to buy...the mileage drives the price way down, but they aren't really hurt any IMO...and its amazing what 30-40k miles per year does to the price I've had very good luck with this formula for years now...
I just bought a 2019 Nissan Frontier with 30k miles on it. Crew cab and 4wd and the normal amenities for a truck nowadays. The one thing that I wish it had was onboard navigation. It has the capability to patch into your phone though. I will have to figure it out. In my search 2nd choice was 2018 Colorado 4 cylinder with 21k miles. $18800 . 3rd choice was a nice 2014 Doge Big Horn. 89776 miles for $17.7k Beautiful truck but couldn't see paying 3K less than the Nissan and almost 60k more mileage and 5years older. Most of the full sized trucks were older than I wanted with more mileage. I looked at Tundras and Tacomas. Would have loved either but they want crazy $$$s for them.
I probably would, but I'll be giving it to my son in about 3 years, his great grandmother left $5k for a car for each child when she died, this will be that and some from us. I'm shooting for the 10k range and 100k miles or less. The frontier seems like the closest to my old '99 ranger, simple and easy to work on, lots in the junkyard for parts. Plus this lets me save my Benjamin's for the new body style Ranger in a few years.
