Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Are there any reliable 1/2 tons anymore?

I must be different than a lot of folks on the mileage issue. I’d I’ve for my truck to get 30mpg, but realistically I know I’m going to get about 14-16. I drive considerably more than most people. In the last 10 years I’ve put:

135,000 on a Ford 150 5.0L (17.1mpg)
120,000 on a GMC Yukon with the 5.3L (17.8mpg)
45,000 on a Lincoln Navigator with the 3.5L (around 16.5mpg) 60,000 miles on a 2014 Toyota Tundra 5.7L (about 14.5mpg)
40,000 on a Chevy Tahoe (about 18mpg).

The difference between the Tundra and the Ford over 100,000 miles is about 1,100 gallons of fuel. Most folks drive 12-15k miles a year so that’s going to take 7-9 years to make it to 100K. That’s less than $500/year.

Either way, to me it’s a small price to pay to have a very reliable vehicle. We’re on our 3rd Tundra in my family and have yet to have a problem in 250,000, but I’m not naive enough to think they’re bulletproof. One thing that not mentioned, and it plays into the horrible Tundra mileage is the very small fuel tank that was used for so long. When you can only go 300 miles on a take of fuel it feels like you’re getting horrible mileage since you fill up all the time.

Every manufacturer of ½ ton pick ups make a good, reliable truck, most of the time.

If you talk to 10 people who have put 100K on any brand, you will get 6 to 8 who tell you about a good, reliable truck that has never let them down.
You will always get at least 1 or 2 who tells you it is a piece of junk.
Sometimes you just get a lemon.

As often as not, that 1 or 2 pieces of junk were poorly maintained or pushed beyond reasonable limits.

At last a reasonable answer instead of brand-bashing. Thank you

drover

I agree and the "I had a x brand and it was a POS I'll never have another." You pay your money you take your chances. I've known one person that had a collapsed lifter on a GM. The same lady blew a motor on a Toyota Sequoya before the Suburban and proclaims her latest vehicle is a piece of crap too. Perhaps just bad luck, but that's really really bad luck - especially on a 5.7L iForce motor. The overwhelming majority of any new ones last a good while, some don't. Her pops GMC just doesn't want to seem to die and it has more miles on it than I've ever seen anyone's toy yoda go but I am not going to proclaim on a sample size of one that anything is good or bad but this one is going on 23 years and at this point has enough mileage to have gone around the world 25 times.

Here is the last odometer reading. Maybe he should read this thread to hear about how awful his GM is

Every manufacturer of ½ ton pick ups make a good, reliable truck, most of the time.

If you talk to 10 people who have put 100K on any brand, you will get 6 to 8 who tell you about a good, reliable truck that has never let them down.
You will always get at least 1 or 2 who tells you it is a piece of junk.
Sometimes you just get a lemon.

As often as not, that 1 or 2 pieces of junk were poorly maintained or pushed beyond reasonable limits.

Poor saps that live back east...



I feel for you.. How many trucks do you think you'll go through before this one give up the ghost? Keep buying pos new trucks that keep getting worse though. HA HA..