Thread: Why I Keep & Repair my 2001-2009 Old Vehicles

Originally Posted by BAMA S

No replacement for displacement. I saw an article. Where a guy had a ford lightning truck pulling a ski boat. It made it 50 miles on a full charge. ��

Ford hasn't had a "Better Idea" since 2017. I watched the last Ford CEO on the news say "Well I guess we will have to go back to testing a new product before rolling it out". He then started saying Ford had not been testing new offerings sine 2017 just rolling them out and then fixing the fallout afterwards. The GM/Ford collaboration on that 10 Speed Junk Transmission takes out 2 of the 3 domestic manufacturers of 3/4 Ton Trucks. RAM got the message and brought back the HEMI but not for the right reasons. Watched their new CEO yesterday, 4 quarters in a row of loosing sales due to their turbo 6 that nobody wants. All he could talk about was consumers wanted the sound of a V-8. The other issue I have with all of them is they only offer a Graphite or Black Interior, well for the South that just doesn't cut it will me either. My 2001 2500HD will be resurrected as long as needed.

Originally Posted by BAMA S

No replacement for displacement. I saw an article. Where a guy had a ford lightning truck pulling a ski boat. It made it 50 miles on a full charge. 😝

Ford hasn't had a "Better Idea" since 2017. I watched the last Ford CEO on the news say "Well I guess we will have to go back to testing a new product before rolling it out". He then started saying Ford had not been testing new offerings sine 2017 just rolling them out and then fixing the fallout afterwards. The GM/Ford collaboration on that 10 Speed Junk Transmission takes out 2 of the 3 domestic manufacturers of 3/4 Ton Trucks. RAM got the message and brought back the HEMI but not for the right reasons. Watched their new CEO yesterday, 4 quarters in a row of loosing sales due to their turbo 6 that nobody wants. All he could talk about was consumers wanted the sound of a V-8. The other issue I have with all of them is they only offer a Graphite or Black Interior, well for the South that just doesn't cut it will me either. My 2001 2500HD will be resurrected as long as needed.

As a mechanic for a living I feel like I have a say-so in this discussion

The engineers design the vehicle such that it meets all government rules laws and standards, appeals to the masses, and is competitively priced.

There is more competition now than there ever was
The cost of materials is higher than it ever was in history
the government has more rules that manufacturers have to go by

The first two are related. More competition, and higher materials cost mean they're scrambling to make them less expensive. Yet the government and competition (and sales numbers) dictate just the opposite. You can't hardly buy a cheap truck anymore. In 1995 my dad bought the cheapest F150 you could get-XL 4.9L 5 speed; but it had a/c (he optioned that). Was around $10,000 which would have been $21,000 today (give or take). Go try to find a F150, Silverado, or Ram for $21,000. They don't exist. There is a dealer up the road that was selling XL F150's for $30,000 (plus fees and such) and that's the least I have seen. Silverado I don't know about, I don't buy GM products anymore and don't keep up with them. Ram? I think $38k is the least I have seen. I don't keep up with the japanese brands either.

But no you can't buy a new pickup truck for any sort of budget number, period. If you could the sales guy would hit you with every fee known to man to help generate income. That is another issue, dealer overhead. It's higher than it has ever been and for many many reasons. What cost us $5,000 a month iin 2020, in operating costs is now $20,000, just to give you an idea. It's nuts and just keeps going up and up and up. It's often thought that if laws don't affect individuals, businesses can just suck it up. Not really, they just pass the costs onto consumers.

So what happens? More people buy older vehicles. I have bought and sold many vehicles over the years and only one was new (which I still have). I've been eyeing an older Ford pickup but the pricing on them is outlandish. You'd have to put $100,000 into one to make it reasonably nice nowadays, including the $10,000-$20,000 initial investment. There is some real junk out there for $5,000 though It's just some stupid stuff going on in the used vehicle market and some ignorant stuff going on in the new vehicle market. Is there an end in sight? I don't see it but I guess we can be hopeful. At this point my car is paid for, the truck is paid for and the house is within sight of being paid off and you'd be a fool if you think I'll go into debt a hundred grand for a new truck. That would be a foolish decision TBH.

Most of the new vehicles I see runnin around are either daddy's money, stupid people making stupid financial decisions, or business purchased vehicles.

Lastly as mentioned the complexities of newer vehicles deter a lot of us from buying too. I can't blame anyone for that. I'm a mechanic by trade and I hate working on them too but thankfully our stuff is mostly old school tech (powersports) by comparison. a couple models are a real pain, and thus expensive to work on though. As a tech, if I see one of those on my schedule, I do what I can to avoid them because flat rate does not match actual labor times. Usually 50-75% of actual and I don't like losing money, the shop doesn't like losing money, and the dealership overall doesn't appreciate it either. But the customer doesn't care about that so long as they get a "good deal", right?

The CEO of Stellantis didn't want to make a work truck anymore. Killed the plain RAM line which they were already tooled up to produce because per/unit profits was not as high as the $70K units. I watched a video of a guy cutting a RAM upper control arm up and it was made from a composite. What is wrong with steel?

Hopefully the windshield guys show up today I still have to de-construct that extra cab section for parts to the cab, repair & paint the truck bed, and grind out the broken fiberglass in the camper cap to repair & paint it.