Truck shopping

Quick update: I'm not shopping any more.  The story and photos Monday.  I'll say it up front, I hate truck shopping.  I know, I know, Sue and the kids are going "WHAT? We have spent YEARS looking at trucks!" Yes, but looking and shopping are different.  I have been contemplating if it is time to replace little red.  It has 180,000 miles on it and is probably going to start costing some money before too long for repairs.  So Thursday Aman and I had to go to Terre Haute for some things so we looked at trucks in a more serious manner. Looking the trucks over, talking to salesmen, getting prices, giving my phone number ... actual shopping.

Part of the problem is I don't know for sure what I want.  I have had everything from a basic 2 wheel drive short bed Ranger to a 6X6 with a service bed dually and everything in between.  I can argue the benefits of all of them.  I'm sure this is equally frustrating for the salesmen.  In fact, my only criteria is if it is black it is going to have to be one heck of a deal.

Our first stop was in Marshall.  LT as a 4 door 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive diesel.

Great truck for hauling people and pulling a camper. However fuel mileage, even as a diesel, is probably under 15 MPG.

We stopped at Honda, they had one truck and it was black.

The GMC dealer had several choices, but none tripped my trigger .. well, except for the diesel with the new service bed.  Can you say $40,000+?  We went across the street.

Dorsett's have a truck I am attracted to.  A used Nissan Titan extended cab

20,000 miles, very recent trade in.  We got to see it before it was detailed. A little more plain that some others but nice.  They also had a Hummer H3

We took it for a test drive.  I was impressed.  "Course, I should be.  This one had ALL the bells and whistles included a few thousand dollars worth of wheels and tires.  Seriously.  I could work out of it.  And the color is right. If it only had a tow package.

Down the street Ford has a 2006 Hummer WITH a tow package.  Pretty Blue. It was tempting.

We looked at Chevy, nothing there really interesting. We did look at new basic trucks.  They call them work trucks.  I think it might be better to buy a basic work truck new than most of the used ones we saw.

Then came back to the Nissan dealer.  We drove a used Ford, looked at a new Frontier. But no decision was made.  The salesman did call me today to see if he could help me.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm seriously considering going back to look at the blue Hummer again.  The idea intrigues me. It would pull the camper. It's 4WD, It would carry me, others, and tools.  Nobody would mistake me for someone else driving another one of those dirt brown Chevies.  To be honest, the Hummer is the only thing we have looked at that jumps out at me and says "This could be better than what you have."  However I haven't looked into where it would have to go for service.  It could be like a VW.  Great car if you were 75 miles closer to a dealer.

But who knows.  I might go to Shannon's sale tomorrow and buy the old Dodge.