I love everything about the idea except safety. You look like a frugal genius until a routine fender bender becomes fatal.
Unfortunately this isn’t Japan and you’ll be driving on stroads designed for high speed driving with too many conflict points, sharing the road with drunk drivers in their RAM 1500 who barely needed to have a pulse to qualify for a license.
Alternatives:
- Vans, commercial or just an old minivan, like OP’s dad bought. They don’t have the popularity tax of trucks. I also think that the closed cabin of a van is better than a truck bed 90% of the time.
- If you can handle the shorter bed, the Ford Maverick is priced very well with a high mpg hybrid powertrain, and you can use it as a comfortable daily family vehicle.
- Big box home improvement store rentals. These often beat U-Haul prices and convenience in my experience.
- Suck it up and buy a truck. While they cost a lot they’re also designed to be do-all family vehicles with good amenities, ride quality, and comfort.
- Haul less stuff. Do you need to haul things? If your job is hauling stuff you can probably justify the truck investment and deduct it from your taxes. If not then maybe you don’t need to haul things.
- Instacart? I’m pretty sure people with trucks will do Home Depot runs for you.
In my opinion, judging by OP’s other blog post about finance and debt, he’s letting an excessively frugal mentality get in the way of getting the right tool for the job. OP quipped that old trucks still have insanely high values, and that goes both ways: if he buys a $30k truck and sells it in 10 years it’s probably still going to be worth $15k. Spending $15k in 10 years is the same cost as a bus pass.
Unfortunately this isn’t Japan and you’ll be driving on stroads designed for high speed driving with too many conflict points, sharing the road with drunk drivers in their RAM 1500 who barely needed to have a pulse to qualify for a license.
Alternatives:
- Vans, commercial or just an old minivan, like OP’s dad bought. They don’t have the popularity tax of trucks. I also think that the closed cabin of a van is better than a truck bed 90% of the time.
- If you can handle the shorter bed, the Ford Maverick is priced very well with a high mpg hybrid powertrain, and you can use it as a comfortable daily family vehicle.
- Big box home improvement store rentals. These often beat U-Haul prices and convenience in my experience.
- Suck it up and buy a truck. While they cost a lot they’re also designed to be do-all family vehicles with good amenities, ride quality, and comfort.
- Haul less stuff. Do you need to haul things? If your job is hauling stuff you can probably justify the truck investment and deduct it from your taxes. If not then maybe you don’t need to haul things.
- Instacart? I’m pretty sure people with trucks will do Home Depot runs for you.
In my opinion, judging by OP’s other blog post about finance and debt, he’s letting an excessively frugal mentality get in the way of getting the right tool for the job. OP quipped that old trucks still have insanely high values, and that goes both ways: if he buys a $30k truck and sells it in 10 years it’s probably still going to be worth $15k. Spending $15k in 10 years is the same cost as a bus pass.