The Economy

I actually feel bad for farmers and businesses who need them, no matter the price.

My dad recently said he’s kicking himself he traded in his pickup a few years ago. He could now get what he paid for it.

 

Most of my hunting buddies loved all the suburban pickup and 4x4 owners who would buy those fancy trucks and never so much as take them on a dirt road for fear of stone chips or paint scratches. They'd buy them three to five years old, let someone else eat the depreciation, and make out like bandits. Hell, a thirty year old rusty shitwagon pickup will still bring a couple of grand if it runs and will make a functional work truck.

 

I bought my son a 20(-ish)-year-old F150 at a local charity auction just before his senior year in high school. Paid $1,500 for it and nursed it back into functional health (it had some DTCs relating to emissions, etc., that I was able to eliminate). Right after he graduated from college, I was able to fetch $800 for it. I had to put a little money in it over those years, mind you -- eBay is a wonderful tool for owners of old clunkers -- but I feel as if I came out ahead.

I should specify that I feel I came out ahead on the truck. The car I bought for him after I sold the truck? The car he wrecked a month later? And then wrecked again mere months after I brought it back into reasonably good order? Not so much.

P.S. The lawsuit that followed wreck No. 2 was finally done away with last week. I think it was settled for a relatively modest amount ... not enough to buy even a nice used car, but enough to pay at least a goodly portion of the plaintiff's chiropractic bills.

 

Sticker price I just saw for a base model farm/fleet F-150 with a V-6 was $33,000.

Oof.

 

Been there, done that. Both as the teenage driver and the father, heh.

 

Just think ... with even a modicum of care that'll be a useful tool for someone for decades. Now compare that to what a year in People's Studies at Swarthwardmorevard College will run you (and what you'll have as a result)!

 

Hey, underwater basketweaving is a skill that takes a lifetime to master!

 

Supposedly, the trade in value of my 2011 Ranger is $10-12K. For my wife's 2017 Escape, $5K.
Go figure.

 

Stupid Escape clause. (And I now own a 2012 and 2018, so the joke's on me.)

 

The later-model Escape's aren't on a Ranger chassis, right?

 

I doubt it. She had a 2011, and it was the same as my truck.
She liked it a whole lot better than the '17.

 

I think the issue is more used pickup value vs used mediocre SUV.