What about the Nissan Frontier MSRP $18,000?

Considering that a small business owner probably spends a lot of time in that truck, no ac would be a major turn-off, IMO

My BIL bought a stripped Dodge Pickup with 3 on the tree when he graduated from college.

They used to advertise these things for a little less then $6000 ,when asked ,the dealers knew nothing about them .

Nah, the business owner is sitting in an air condition end office. The EMPLOYEE is driving the truck without a/c.

Well I was amazed that a 2016 pickup could be bought for less than $20,000 and that includes AC. Does Nissan own that end of the market?

The last Nissan I bought in 98ā€¦ALL Nissans came with AC. You couldnā€™t buy one without AC.

Iā€™d be in the market for a 2016 pickup with a/c for less than $20k. . . Bet that doesnā€™t include the tow pkg tho. . . :frowning:

A/C among other items in the preferred package are an option on the manual transmission trucks, opt for the Automatic and you get the preferred package as standard (A/C, Cruise, Etc)

Try to locate a truck and commercial vehicle dealer in a bigger city if you want a stripped truck. They sell to businesses and fleets, and they will have what you are looking for. Sometimes you see a place like that and you can tell because thereā€™s a huge number of trucks there and they are all white.

(Now that Iā€™m back to my actual computer and can make a longer post) I want to thank the o.p. @ā€œRod Knoxā€ for this thread, bringing my attention to the Nissan Frontier. Sure enough, the base truck is listed at a MSRP of $18,290. Of course like all the other trucks, they make it complicated, with at least 486.2 different configurations, options, and add-ons, right down to $12 for special Nissan valve stem caps (really - look it up).

You can get the base truck with a 5-speed manual transmission. As a manual transmission enthusiast, I really like that, although, if, as in my case, one intends to use the truck for towing, manual transmission is not a good choice. :cry: :disappointed:

Although the ā€œtow packageā€ is listed as ā€œnot availableā€ on the base truck, the ball hitch, wiring harness, etc are, and towing capacity for the base model is listed as 3,500 lbs. :smile:

I think the ā€œbed tentā€ is an interesting option, although its probably a better value to just buy a dome tent at Wal-Mart for $59.97 than pay $260 for one that is custom fitted to the truck bed, but hey, whatā€™s another $260 after you just dropped over $20k for the truck? :wink:

So to recap: MSRP starting at $18,290. I strongly suspect that by the time you add all the stuff youā€™d need to make it fully functional and ā€œfunā€, plus sales taxes, tags, title, dealer surcharges, freight, air-in-the-tires, turn signal fluid, and so on, youā€™re going to be closing in on $30,000 or even beyond. :frowning:

At any rate, the auto show is coming to my town in another month or so, give or take, and Iā€™ll be sure to check out this truck. Problem with the auto show is, nobody displays their ā€œbasicā€ vehicles. They always put out the fully loaded versions, but at least it gives one a chance to see the vehicles up close without having some commissioned salesperson glom onto you. :smiley:

Well, I just tried to ā€œbuild my ownā€ Frontier on Nissanā€™s website just for fun. Couldnā€™t make it past the ā€œaccessoriesā€ stage, too many decisions to make, donā€™t know at this point which of several available trailer hitches I would need. . .

It is, however, really nice that these manufacturers let you ā€œbuild your ownā€ vehicle on their websites though. That way you can decide ahead of time EXACTLY which accessories / add-ons you want, thereby not falling victim to making these decisions on impulse at the dealership. Its awesome when technology works to the consumers favor! :tongue:

However, as a curmudgeon, I want to point out they offer a license plate frame that says ā€œNissanā€ for a cost of $35. Since it is basically an advertisement, shouldnā€™t they offer YOU $35 to let them put that on your truck? :tongue:

Overall, Iā€™d guess $25 - $30k ā€œOut The Doorā€ price, nicely equipped. If you just want a basic truck with the manual transmission, and depending on your local sales / use tax rates, you might be able to get out the door for $21 - $22k. Not bad. Especially after one has spent time looking at $40+k trucks on the internet.

Ed if you have not read my post on page one about our Frontier SV then take a look at it.

Thats why I do not buy baseball caps with Manus names on them now and I usually remove the advertisement license plate frames and stickers from vehicles I purchase (they never offered me a discount to advertise for them . )
(If the cap is free ,I may wear it )

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I ran across this site and thought it might add some humor to the subject

I take you never bought a new American car back in the 70ā€™s or 80ā€™s??? You easily had 10 times as many choices.

The Japanese embraced bundling early on. Now everyone is doing it.

You mean I shouldnā€™t buy anything these guys work on?

http://www.dieselsellerz.com/diesel

Weā€™re having a bit of warm weather and I was thinking of vehicle A/C. Out of 42 cars, 3 vintage pickups, and 3 motorcycles I have had a grand total of 6 cars with A/C!

I dunno, my experiences in the past few months seem to suggest that the guy with the 15 year old Toyota pickup is probably driving that because he she doesnā€™t get a lot of repeat business. I recently had some home improvements done. One job was putting siding up on a 2.5 car car garage (re: storage shed) in the back yard. Somehow a guyā€™s name came up, I was told that he charged a pretty low rate ( In hindsight I shouldā€™ve inquired about the quality of his work). So I call the guy up, and comes out (he was driving a what looked to be a late 90ā€™s Toyota pickup. He said that the job would be easy and that he could meet me at the Home Depot to pickup the siding, and it would be better to use my truck as it had a longer bedā€¦I shouldā€™ve known better at that point.

Anyway long story short, he does put up the siding, and I pay him his admittedly, very-affordable fee. But he used very long nails to attach the siding, the doors are practically iron maidens now. and you really have to watch yourself if youā€™re withing a foot of the walls. Iā€™ll probably end up just cutting the nails down myself at some point. But To me this was a major oversight/mistake. I didnā€™t call him back to come fix it because, the guy was like 60 years old, was a really nice, but didnā€™t have a firm command of the english language, and frankly I didnā€™t pay much for what he did. So Iā€™m just going to fix the problem myself. About a week after the fact, I asked the person who gave me the handymanā€™s info in the fist place if he had actually used him before. He said that that he used him once, but had no plans to use him again for similar reasons.

A few weeks later I called another guy to have some driveway work done, I wanted paving stones to be put under the carport, paving stones put at the ends of the driveway (Iā€™m on a corner lot), new brickwork at the ends of the driveway over the culverts, more gravel on the rest of the driveway, and I wanted to have my patio (which was concrete) paved with paving stones. Again I asked around, and one guyā€™s name kept coming up. I called him, and learned that this wasnā€™t his primary job, but rather that it was something that he and the guy who owns the business he works for does on the side. He said that they could do the job, but it would be done over the course of about 4 or 5 weekends. Which was fine with me. He came over, driving a newer (2011+) F-350 (Lariat,trim but not a Platinum or King Ranch). To me this suggested that this guy was successful enough to afford a nice truck, but didnā€™t go all out for the top range model. Which to me said ā€œIā€™ve got enough sense and money to get what I need to perform my job and present myself and my company well, but Iā€™m not being excessive about itā€.

He gives me an estimate, which wasnā€™t cheap, but it was very reasonable for the work Iā€™m requesting. He starts the next weekend. His crew mostly drive middle of the road pickup trucks, mostly on the newish side (2008 and up), He uses a dump truck to haul the gravel, a flat bed trailer towed by the F-350 to haul the equipment and paving stones, etc. This guy was much more communicative than the the handyman I had used previously, at the beginning of each day he walked me around what they were planning to do that day, when they planned on taking lunch, when they planned on stopping for the day, and what equipment they were bringing it , at the end of the day he told me were things would be left overnight, what they got done, and had me inspect their work, and got my input on any questions they had. Because of weather the project got pushed back a couple weeks, but Iā€™m very pleased with the end results.

A couple Realtors I know are very careful with their car selection. The consensus is that you want something nice, but not too nice. If you show up to show people houses in a 10 year old Corolla, people are going to think that you suck at your job. But if you show up with a 2016 S Class, they are going to think that youā€™re going to take advantage of them. Pretty much all them drive newer cars (usually no more than 5 years old), And they are usually something nice, but not too showy. Loaded up Toyota Highlanders, Volvo XC60/XC70, Acura MDX, etc.

Sorry for the dissertation, but this topic has some near-term relevance for me.

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It does have some relevance

One of my relatives is a realtor. I hate to say it, but IMO she was never very good at it. But thatā€™s besides the point. She used to have a Benz, an E-class, which was always maintained impeccably, and also always looked very presentable. Glossy paint, no scratches or dents, perfect leather, etc.

When it became several years old, she sold it and got a very nice Lexus G something or other, because she was concerned an old car would literally hold her back

I can say that when I go to open houses, or go house hunting, I ALWAYS check out all the cars in the neighborhood, and whatever car the realtors are driving.

If I see a lot of high line cars in a solid working class neighborhood, Iā€™m worried that somebody is living beyond their means and may crash and burn, partially bringing the neighborhood with them. And if I see a lot of new F350s, huge new RVs, etc., thatā€™s also cause for concern, because maybe somebody is concentrating too much on their toys, and is also going to crash and burn

Huh? I made that post over 6 months ago, Iā€™m a little fuzzy on what I was thinking at the time now. For the record, that Mirage I bought in April was the first new car Iā€™ve ever bought. Basically Iā€™ve always bought cars from the Pennysaver (Pennysaver is what we used before Craigslist) or cars that were sitting in front of gas stations with a ā€œFor Saleā€ sign on them. When you buy those kinds of cars you donā€™t have to make any decisions regarding ā€œaccessoriesā€; you get whatever the car has, and some of it is non-functional anyway.

Back in the late 70ā€™s - early 80ā€™s I was in grade school, so no, I wasnā€™t in the market for a new American car at the time. Sorry.

Iā€™ve also bought cars from what I now know to be ā€œbuy-here-pay-hereā€ lots although at the time I didnā€™t understand what ā€œbuy-here-pay-hereā€ really meant. I thought it was like George Carlinā€™s bit about ā€œopen hereā€ on the bag of cookies, ". . . of course youā€™re going to open them here, youā€™re going to eat them here. . . "