My son turned 16 last November. We were able to budget $5000. He was impatient as I knew he would be when we started looking. Looked at a mid 2000 Ranger xtra cab. Trans wouldn't have made it too long, and having an extremely used 4.3 S-10 garbage hauler myself, didn't really like the Ranger. Same guy had an F-150 4WD that was horrendous. Had to pry the boy away from that thing. He couldn't understand why I said no. Made it to look at two others 30 miles up the highway. One was a 2004 Silverado Standard cab with that great and economical Chevy V8 they should have never got away from. Truck ran good, but he wouldn't come off the price and I was still not totally comfortable with him as seller. At $4000 prob should have bought anyway. Ended up with a 96 Dakota V6 with new interior, an engine bay that was showroom clean. No leaks, no spills, no errors. New tires. $2400. With the left over money put brighter headlamps in, rolled on bedliner, new Sony stereo and speakers, after market power door locks, tinted windows. and a few minor maintenance items. Thing runs like a top, and inexpensive if anything does need fixing. Mileage averaged out to less than 8000 per year. Only real future mod at this point is to replace the wiper motor and mechanisms to quiet that function down. All those parts can be had on Rock Auto for less than $75.
