Am looking to get a sm. lightduty pickup truck with reg. cab. that gets decent gas mileage. Any suggestions are appreciated. thanks
Toyota. My first lasted 11 years until it rotted out. My second lasted 17 years and 338,000 miles before it got totalled by and errant Hyundae. Neither ever had any internal engine work or any drivetrain work. Both were reliable daily drivers for their entire lives.
A colleague of mine had a Mazda pickup and it seemed to go forever. Also Consumer reports had a Ford Ranger owner go 488,000 miles in W Va. In addition to that Toyota pickus are in use all over the world and seem to run forever. Keep them relatively simple and avoid all he toys. The standard engine in all of these gives great mileage.
My cousin has a Nissan Frontier and is pleased with it. It is comfortable and has a very useful tie-down system installed at the factory.
Ford Ranger or it’s Mazda cousin, the 4cyl with a 5 speed should get you around 20MPG
3 Years ago I would have said Toyota Tacoma, but they have made it bigger now. I say your best bet is Mazda or Ford Ranger, small engine, standard transmission.
If you dont mind a slightly bigger vehicle, then I would go for a tacoma. The old style Tacoma was a great vehicle.
I would say almost any of them. Get a 2WD model and it’s a pretty basic machine. I have a 91 Isuzu with 140,000 miles and still going strong. I drove it to Mississippi 2 years ago to help with hurricane reuilding. That was an uncomfortable trip, but the truck ran fine and I have a picture of it carrying more lumber than was wise. But, again, I have not heard complaints about any recent model small trucks. Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Mazda, Isuzu, whatever. If buying used, condition will be the determining factor, if new finding the stripped down 2WD will be the hard part. Actually, finding a 2WD used can be hard also.
Just AVOID THE GM MODELS (S10?)since they have a sorry history of repairs. The foreign designed small pickups are the standard size vehicles overseas. They had better be good, since the manufacturer makes a good deal of his profit from them. By the way, you may never have guessed, but Thailand is the world’s second largest producer of pickup trucks, All Japanese manufacturers, and many others, have plants there.