Rick if you are around I have a car question

[973beachbum]

Rick or anyone who knows cars I need a little help.

Our Explorer officially exploded yesterday. So we are looking for a used SUV to replace it.

My question is we only want to spend about $6000 or under and most of what I am seeing are anywhere from a 2004-2006 with 175000 miles or above. Or 1999-2000 with only 100000-125000 miles.

Does anyone know if the older but less miles truck is better or is the shorter age less prone to breakdown.

My first thought is to go with the older truck with less miles. But I really don't know.

[moon/Laura]

beach, I hope you don't mind, but i'm going to put this in the auto board since i'm sure rick goes there..

[TD2K]

175k is a lot of miles even on today vehicles. My copy of consumers reports just arrived on vehicles and they cover used vehicles.

Chevy Silvarado 2001, V6 2WD
GMC Sierra 1500, 2001/2002, V6, 2WD
Ford Escape, 2003, V6, FWD
Ford Expedition, 2001, 2WD
Ford F-150, V6, 2WD


Those are the trucks/SUVs they recommend/suggest up to $6k. These vehicles have an above average reliability. Note there are no 4WD. Lots more cars, let me know if you want those.

[973beachbum]

why buy someone elses problem. You know your vehicle and how its been taken care of. If the Vehicle is in decent shape,

It was a 1994 Fd Explorer 4wd with 350000 miles on it. It now has a trans slipping, upper engine is wiped, the front end is practially gone and I am waiting for the wheels to literally fall off.

DH comes from a long line of mechanics so he can look at a used and see if it is mehcanically sound. Truthfully I am only looking for 2 years tops out of it. A 100000 miles would be best case.

[973beachbum]

TD I would buy a 2WD if I could find one but there just aren't any in the north east. We have been looking at a Tahoe and an Explorer XLT both 4WD. Both had 8cyl obviously also. They both are 2000 year and have 125000 miles or a little less.

There are much newer ones but they all have close to 200K or even more.

[TD2K]

If you only need it for a couple of years 125,000 miles wouldn't likely bother me especially if DH knows vehicles. And if Rick said he'd buy a vehicle with 175,000 miles as long as it's not falling to bits is good to know.

[TD2K]

Exploder, LOL

[973beachbum]

DH always calls it the "exploder". ;D

The gas mileage I could almost care less about. I have a Fd Taurus and it only gets 16 mpg city. The difference between 14 and 16 just doesn't matter enough in my life to make me seriously reconsider a vehicle because of it. If it was between something that got 25-30 maybe then but with even the Taurus sizes in the mid teens it isn't a big deal.

As a separate part I am tired of being squished. The explorer didn't have much more room in it than my car. Between the 4 of us and if we had one of the kids friends it was a tight squeeze. I know gas is going up but I am just darn tired of feeling like I have wider when the cars have gotten narrower.

[973beachbum]

So I finally did it. We bought a 2000 Ford Expedition. I forgot how much work it is buying a vehicle. It is a little too trucky for my tastes but DH is happy. We also looked at a Chevy suburban that was more wagon than truck riding but he liked the way the expidition rode better.

So now I am working on changed over my insurance. For a company that really pushes for you to do everything online they suck at actually letting you. What should have been a 5 minute process has now streched into hours.