I’ve always driven a truck except for the past few years. I bought a Ford Ranger 5 or 6 years ago and my wife bought a Ford Taurus. When I took on this last job we switched vehicles…she drove the Ranger and I drove the Taurus.
I have never liked the Taurus, but drove it because I couldn’t drive the Ranger for work. It was too small. I carry tools and luggage on a regular basis and it just wouldn’t fit.
When we had Ace, we traded in the Ranger on a Ford Explorer. The Ranger was not big enough for all three of us. Plus it is not safe to have a car seat in the front seat. And I stuck with the Taurus.
The Taurus finally started to show it’s age. We bought the car with 13,000 miles and it now has 127,000 miles. It was a great car. I never put the first part on it. Just the routine brake pads, tires, and oil changes. Recently the check engine light came on, it didn’t like to start all of the time, and sometimes would almost die when accelerating hard. So we decided that it i time for me to get a new vehicle.
I hate buying a new vehicle. I hate car salesmen. I hate the whole sales approach thing. How hard is it really? I told them what we were looking for, how many miles it needed to have, how old it could be, what we could pay per month, how much we could put down, and how long the loan term could be. All they needed to do was show us the right vehicle.
Sounds simple, right? Wrong! Our salesman found us the “perfect” truck. I liked it. He assured us it met all of our criteria. We took the truck on an overnight test drive and I fell in love with it. We went back the next day and they couldn’t meet all of my criteria.
Finally after many hours of visiting car lots and negotiating with the dealers we found the perfect truck.
Now that we have Ace, we had to consider a few more things. Will a car seat fit? How would the vehicle do in an accident? Would it be safe?
The biggest challenge for us was finding a truck that would fit a car seat. Trucks with big extended cabs or quad cabs tend to be pricey! However after being very persistent we did find the perfect truck that met all of our criteria…
We are the proud owners of a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4…
Happy birthday to me!
I am a minivan dad. Boss truck man! That is sweet, but my 3 girls wouldn’t fit in it with their car seats. Sigh. My minivan is pretty cool I suppose.
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Dude… You American’s drive some big motors….
How about a Ford Ka, or a Nissan Micra ???
😉
@Joe: Thanks man! I really like it. You are right, two car seats max in something like this. Hell, you almost have to have a minivan if you have three car seats. I have driven a few minivans for rentals on business trips and I liked them! My wife will never buy one though… 🙂
@XBox: Never heard of the Ka or Micra…must be just a UK thing? Driving a little car over here is not safe. If you get into an accident with a Hummer or pretty much any full size pickup truck…you are done… Also the reason I wanted a pick up truck is because I tend to haul a lot of things. We have a wood burning fireplace that heats the house. I need a way to get the wood here. I do most of the work on my house, so I need to be able to haul building supplies, etc. I never knew how much I used a truck until I didn’t have one.
Don’t know much about autos. But yes, that seems to be a big vehicle. A lousy driver like me would probably have a hard time driving & parking it without some scratchings here & there!
Love the truck! I’m a truck guy myself too. In fact, the kid was a perfect excuse to buy it. I was offered a great deal on a Silverado 3500 Dually by the dealer because they couldn’t move it for 2 years. They sold it to me for less than than the Silverado 1500! Any human being fueled by testosterone could not pass up that deal. My excuse to the wife was “look at this thing, it’s like a tank, I could get hit my any car on the road and Marcus wouldn’t even feel it!” That worked. I’ve had it 6 years and it’s just a beautiful to me as the day I drove it off the lot! You will have FUN in that truck! Believe you me.
I’m just pulling your leg, I can’t ever imagine an American in a micra or a ka, they’d be all ‘so where does everyone else sit?’
The compact is a real European thing.
@Tots Mom: It is taking some time to adjust to the size of it. I tend to park farther out in the parking lots so I don;t have to try and squeeze into a tight spot. 🙂
@BusyDad: Oh yeah! A dually! Sounds like you got a steal as well! Big trucks do tend to get the testosterone flowing… 🙂
@XBox: The compact thing is over here a little bit. I’ve seen some pretty small cars lately. They look quite silly driving next to the swarm of large SUVs that caravan down the highway. 😀
When we just had the one car seat to worry about we had a Silverado with an extended cab. Once the second girl came along we switched to an Expedition. We still miss the pick-em-up truck but the Expedition gets it done. When the whole family is together there’s six of us! We would have gone with a van but we couldn’t find one that would pull a horse trailer. 🙂
@Chuck: I just recently thought about this. I can fit only two car seats in the truck. If we decide to have three kids, the truck has to go and we will have to have a big SUV or van. 🙁
NICE TRUCK Jared!
Thanks George!
[…] in October 2007 I bought a new truck…a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 […]