Advice - Considering a full size pickup - Will I regret it?
 

I am look at buying a new full size pickup, Crew cab, standard bed. For various reasons I have always wanted one (yard work, basic hauling, occasional towing), but I have never pulled the trigger b/c I am afraid that I will hate driving it around the rest of the time, parking, family hauling, etc. I live in a town of about 200K people and parking space size and quantity is generally not a problem where I live, so that's not a factor.


I think it will be incredibly convenient when I need it, but in the end it will mostly be used as a daily driver and family hauler. I had looked a "compact" pickups but really don't see the point, also nowadays it seems like compact pickups are almost as big as 1500 level full size anyhow.

Thoughts??

id look at like a 10 year old one that has been taken care of it. pay cash for it and not worry.

I drive my F-150 around all the time. I love it. 4x4, goes through snow like nothing. I have a super cab, full bed, and the longer wheelbase does mean you need to learn to give yourself a bit more room in tight drive throughs. But its never an issue for me.

Down side? Yeah, there fuel hungry.

I've tried living without a pick up. I don't like it.

I've had my Silverado for about 7 years, and an F150 for 3 years before that. I have the 5.3L, RWD, extended cab, 6.5' bed.

The good: It's fine for my short commute and convenient for hardware store runs.

The bad: Even with "displacement on demand", I still average a hair under 15 mpg.

I'm moving to Atlanta next month and will have a commute. As a result, I plan on replacing my Silverado with a diesel Colorado when they become available.

This. Mine is a 2000. 85k when I bought it. A bit chewed up, but looks good at 10 ft. I paid $5200 cash for it. I've logged 20k of city driving and hauling. Biggest repair was a spark plug wire. Less than $150 bucks.

We drove a 2012 F150 4x4 SuperCrew 5.0 as our sole family car (3 kids) for 1.5 years, except for the MPG it was fantastic. We put a hard fiberglass tonneau cover and Bedrug in back so we had a massive lockable trunk that could still be hosed out. Inside seating is huge, six adults can ride in comfort. It hauls all of our remodeling needs, our boat, and our kids. Once you get used to the size it's great around town. Zero regrets. It still gets frequent family use but has been augmented by a Mazda5 as a second family truckster.

You get used to just about anything. If you drive a GM crew cab with a 5'8" bed, it will only take you only a few days for it to feel second nature. The 8" color screen back-up camera helps a lot, as does the sonar park-assist systems. The new ones get incredible fuel economy relative to just a couple years ago, but still nothing like a car.

If it's what you want, get it. Life's too short.

That's sorta my plan. Family hauler, tonneau cover to make the bed weatherproof.

Any problem with the sectional (folding) hard tonneaus?

My in-laws have a BakFlip folding 3 panel hard tonneau on both their F150 and Tacoma. It's a little clunky to flip back and forth and not 100% watertight, but it also gives you full vertical access to the bed. My front hinged one piece tonneau can be a challenge with long and tall items, but it's waterproof and hasn't posed an issue. If I had it to do again, I'd still get the one piece and Bedrug. I also like that mine is color matched, it doesn't look like an add on. My cover is a Ranch brand, it came painted to match my OEM color from them.

Eric brought up a good point, the backup cam and sensors are essential for daily driving a full sized truck in an urban environment.

A good plan if you have somewhere to store it... For me an extra truck would cost $200 a month to park, pretty well offsets the increased gas cost of just DDing a truck.

Backup cams make trailer hook up easy! One shot every time. ;)


I've thought about it too, and if I were to buy a DD I think it would be an 4 door regular bed, maybe 4wd. I like to outdoors activities, and having grown up in a house with several pickups around the adjustment is difficult.

Thanks for the feedback, funny the Bakflip is the one I was considering, seems to be the best one out there for the folding type. I'll look into the fiberglass type...how hard is it to remove if I need to haul something tall??

The truck I am looking at is a 2014 Silverado "High Country" edition, so it's totally decked out including sensors and backup camera. My last 3 cars have had backup cameras and I'll never go without one on a daily driver again, awesome!!

I know I've mentioned it before, but I'm averaging about 20mpg in the 2014 GM Crew Cab 4x4 pickups in mixed urban driving.

If you currently drive a car that gets 30% better fuel economy (averaging 26mpg around town), and drove an "average" number of miles per year (15,000) and gas was an "average" price (last twelve months US average was $3.49), then you'd spend only $600 per year ($50/mo) more to daily drive a new pickup over a car.

$600 per year

Most ladies spend more having their nails done. It's a non issue.

Advice: Get the 6.2L, skip the 5.3L

Inside advice: the 6.2L will get the 8 speed auto for the 2015 model year, just a few weeks away

Tough call. I have thought about it too.

6.2L is over 400HP but even with 8 speeds may not get better gas mileage. $2000 option for the 6.2L in 2014, but may be even pricier in 2015 when the 8 speed transmission comes out. 8 speeds is a lot...annoying shifting constantly?...problematic a higher mileage?? Also, the 6.2L requires premium fuel.

5.3L is 355HP which is adequate power for most uses. As a daily driver this engine offers a better balance of fuel economy/power, for my use.
For 2014 both engines have the cylinder deactivation feature.

Like I said, tough call, but leaning towards the 5.3L.

I had a Mazda B2000 and although it was ok to bring drywall it was pretty useless for everything else like towing, family vehicle,etc.

Then i got smarter (I thought) and bought me a Toyota Tacoma, that was just barely enough to get the family and still the same problem, no towing capacity. I hated that little boat (felt like it when driving it)

After a those lessons I got a F250. And was awesome!!
I could finally tow a proper travel trailer.


Lesson learned:
New-ish trailers are heavier than you think. 5000# towing capacity does not cut it nowadays.

Get a real pickup and you will never look back.
Small-Medium pickups are nothing but a compromise that defeats the purpose in the first place.

10 year used all day long. New full sized trucks, hell new anything, is stupid expensive. Buy a used truck with 100K miles for $10K or less. It's a truck. Love me trucks. :)

Let me know if you are tired of your beaten up old truck. Is it full size? I am in need of purchasing a truck for my workman. He just got rear ended and do not feel like having truck payments. I need to keep him on the road and working so I am buying him a good used truck. If you know someone that's selling one that they fell out of love with, please contact me. Thanks

Jeff

Maybe. But I've driven both 5.3L and 6.2L many, many miles.... and I can get better fuel economy with the 6.2L than I can with the 5.3L, both with the 6 speed.

True. But you're getting a High Country anyway. The 6.2L will be expected when it's a used truck. Can't get the 6.2 in a "normal" truck. You'll get a lot of that back. But more $$, you bet. And worth it, imho.

How many people want base Boxsters/Caymans versus the 'S'?? Same thing here.

Nope. You can run 87 octane. Or even E85 ethanol. It will make more power with 92 octane and that's why it's "recommended", and how it makes 420 hp and 460 lb-ft. CYA.

Which is why I'd get the 6.2L.... it's a 3.1L 4 cylinder most of the time. And because it's a larger 4 cyl than the 5.3L (which would be 2.65L as a four, right?) it can actually "pull off" four cylinder mode more often. Trust me. I've driven them on the same roads, same truck, thousands of miles. The 6.2L will get better fuel economy if you try, and adjust your technique to take advantage of the cylider deactication.

Your money. Your call. Trust a professional, or not.

I love my F350. I have a crew cab and the 8 foot bed, wouldn't change a thing.

Bill

I didn't think I was a truck guy. I went the ten year old route, because we had a ton of work to. Do on renovations.

I am now a truck guy. Keeps the miles off the M3 and Miata.