I won't touch my new truck, these new trucks come out the lot with plenty of power. I won't buy a truck unless it has less than 30K miles, and 100,000 mile bumper to bumper, power train, and interior warranties.

 

You do realize when the dealership puts those add ons on a vehicle, they usually over inflate the price of what they paid for the parts? If you're going to do this, maybe find a nice low mileage truck with all the options your a looking for, but keep in mind you can always add wheels/exhaust/tint down the line. Doing that on a truck on a lot is only adding to your loan amount, which you'll in turn pay on for years.

Also, the warranties you are talking about, what exactly are they? A manufacturers warranty is one thing, but most warranties sold by the dealerships/lots are a hoax. I have friends with lots, so I do know a bit about this. Boils down to this, the owners of the lots, which are the ones asked by the insurance companies to determine what repairs are covered, will payback bonus's to them if they go without claims.

Don't expect any warranty that's not from Toyota/Ford etc to be any easier to work with then the mess you had with your transmission.

Also, if you are getting the manufacturers warranty, keep in mind you should get that from buying a vehicle private party as well. If you are selling the Ram yourself, going to a dealership will cost you more. Titan I was looking at was private party, I already had him negotiated down to the point it was a better price then I could have gotten going wholesale through a friend with a dealer license.

 

Light years? Maybe if we're talking a 2nd gen to a new Tundra

 

Isn't that what we are talking about here?

I'm sorry but any american vehicle I've ever owned has been a POS and a money pit. Most people I know that own american vehicles either trade them every 2-3 years or keep them and agree they are a money pit. That's just not the case with anyone I know that owns a Toyota or Honda. I do agree for people that do heavy hauling as in need a or at least a big motor in a 3/4 ton or a 1ton the Honda, Toyota, and Nissan offerings aren't very good. However, for someone who wants to do what he wants which is not work it hardly at all a Toyota or Nissan would do that just as well as any american truck and do it a lot more reliably.

I see nothing really good about the 1500 american vehicles anymore. They used to have the solid axles up front and that was the only real plus to them then. Now they are no better in any way shape or form than a Toyota or Nissan and way worse when it comes to which will last the longest.

The only thing I think the american car companies have to offer worth a damn at all is the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks and lets face it most of us here just don't need that or even have one. He sure as hell doesn't need one.

 

My loan will not exceed anything past $15k. That's the loan I'm taking out. All I have to spend is the loan and whatever I can get for my truck. So no matter what I choose, I'll be paying $286 per month for 60 months. I had toyota down to 21, 800 for a 2007 tundra with 19,000 miles on it. I barely got them to give me $4,500 for my truck which made me angry. I offered them $20,000 with the 100,000 warranty, and they wouldn't budge the extra $1500. The truck blue booked for $24,500. They were just being homos. I wouldn't be suprised if they call me back. It wasn't even the color I wanted, it was red. I was just going to have it painted with my tax returns. It's for the best, because now I'm trying to sell it privately, and then I can find something '07 an up that's black. They offered me an '09 Tundra for 26K, I bet I could have gotten them to do $23K. If I sell my Ram, I could afford new with the extra cash I'd make from the private sale. Regardless, my loan stays at $15K, the rest is from cash.

 

Nope, don't need anything bigger than the 1/2 ton, my brother has the one ton already. I use my truck a lot for work actually, but nothing a 1/2 couldn't do. Especially today, these half tons are stronger than any of the previous generation 3/4 tons, they do it all. I am looking exclusively at '07 an up Tundras and F-150s, they are the only reliable trucks of today. Honestly, I'm selling my ram because of the transmission. The whole thing really just turned me off. And I don't want to deal with it down the road. My truck has great value still, and people would drool over it still. Some kid like me will come along and ****** it up. My ram looks good, but looks only go skin deep. I live in Maine, if I wanted to go on a vacation trip with my truck today, it wouldn't happen. The ride would be rough, I'd be nervous the transmission would overheat, and it'd suck a lot of gas; simply put, it's not very for long distances. I drive A LOT, I need a truck that's going to ride smooth, without beating itself up. I took all of my HIDs out and I'm sending them back for a full refund, they are under a 1 year warranty. I also removed my Volant intake and am selling it now. We'll see how it goes. I just put it out last night, I am expecting a flood of phone calls when the new week starts, it's on a very busy road.

 

Any new truck should compare favorably to a 2nd gen Ram. I switched to Dodge from newer F150's, and honestly, I didn't put anything for money into them. I will say the only disadvantage I see with the big three is they make too many cars, then have to stoop to steep discounts to give them away, and it kills the resale market. Never had a problem with an F150. Bought the Dodge because I wanted a 10k truck that I didn't have to care about if it got used like a truck. I knew when I bought it that it was below F150 consumer report wise, and I'd have to put some coin into it...but I preferred it to anything else.

 

If I had been smart, I wouldn't have bought this truck at all. I can't believe I paid $7,000 for it. The entire truck was just in absolute **** condition. All the doors were unaligned, rusted, and dented. The hood didn't even open and needed a new latch and hinges. The bumper, tailgate, and front fascia all needed new paint and body work. All the shocks were shot, the lift was rigged, the airbag was already deployed, the dash was cracked and was missing things in it. Then lastly, the transmission was shot. But I let the looks of the truck suck me in still, and I got rid of my dependable car. Sure, it looks amazing now, but that's because I dumped all of my money into restoring it back to brand new. Now that it's all great, I'm just turned off. It's new looking, and it has a new transmission, it's time to let this truck go before something else goes. The only thing dodge did with the 2nd generations right, was their looks. I think my truck looks better than any new truck today, and I really mean that.

 

Sounds like you did make a bit of a mistake from the start then. Guess if you learned from it, what else is there?

 

I've learned that putting your valuable money into a vehicle isn't smart. Putting money towards reliable vehicles with large warranties is worth the money. I want to put my money towards maintaining my vehicle, and paying my payments to build my credit. I did this with my neon too. Dumped way too much money into it. My dad has taught my well, and I'm slowly learning how silly it is in the scheme of things of modding vehicles. It's all about setting yourself up for good credit, and buying a home.