In an effort to maximize our assets, we took advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program. We of course wanted a Prius. I checked on line, neither my wife's 1999 Honda Accord (which we really would have liked to trade) or my 2003 Hyundai Accent would qualify. What would qualify was the 1989 Toyota Truck; this was so old it predated names like "Tacoma" or "Prerunner". It was a four wheel drive little wonder. The wonder was that it ever made it back from a trip out. It always seemed to work OK for my wife; but, I think it was possessed and the spirit didn't like me. If I took it out the battery would die, I'd have a flat, or other minor catastrophe. Don't get me wrong the truck had some life in it and the young guys loved it. If it had a new paint job, some new nobby tires and sexy wheels it would be great. But for us it meant a $4500 trade in on a new Prius.
This left us without a truck for chores like picking up mulch, firewood, moving Kari's grandmother and so on. As with most things, once my dear wife makes up her mind it rarely diverges. On the Friday September 4, 2009 Kari took the Honda to work so she could take it down to carmax and see what it was worth. It was worth what she expected, unfortunetly, she had taken a second loan on the car and there was a substantial amount left to be paid. The good part of this was that she didn't come home with the Chevy Pickup they had on the lot, I'm not a Chevy fan. Since it seemed she was dead set on getting a truck, I started searching my favorite outlet, Craigslist. What I didn't understand was that to make the deal work we had to go through a dealer for financing to roll the Honda loan into the truck loan. I started searching dealer sites for Fords that were in the price range about 10K.
I found a Ford F-150 at Bob Bell in Glen Burnie a 2002 in blue with 80K miles. We decided we would take a look at it on the way to my parents house on Monday (labor day). Dad cancelled dinner because he wasn't feeling well but we went out to GB an took a test drive just as they were closing. The truck was nice, it looked new in spite of the mileage. We both agreed that we would like to add it to our stable. The only problem was that with the high miles banks weren't likely to finance it much less take Kari's car in trade. This left my car which wasn't worth as much as the Honda but it was paid off.
Although I didn't feel like it I took the car to Carmax to see what it was worth, 2K. I wanted to get this done because the salesman had had two other customers, one returning on Tuesday to take a second look at the truck, I believed him, it was a nice truck. I went out in the morning with my title and keys and traded my car for the truck.
From the book the truck is supposed to get between 17 and 20 MPG. On my first partial tank spent mostly on the highway I got a dissappointing 17.5 mpg. Some of that was with the AC on, hopefully it can improve.
I think one improvement would be to get one of the flat caps for it, the open cargo box is supposed to catch alot of air and slow the truck down. I've been looking on craigslist for a suitable cap. There are plenty of full caps but Kari doesn't care for those as they inhibit the loading of cargo.
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