Timbo

What are you going to use it for? Hauling stuff? What stuff? How heavy? Or is this just for around town use, with some storage space in back?

My kids have 6 horses and they show them, so I have to haul a 3 horse, goose neck type trailer (hitch is in the truck bed, not on the bumper) to their shows. I've been using a Ford F150 for the past 12 years to haul them. The first one I bought was a 2000 model year, 4.6L v8, two wheel drive. It could pull the fully loaded trailer, on the flat land of Florida, but it was pretty slow off a red light and really slow up a hill.

I later gave that one to my kids (when they turned 16) with about 130,000 miles on it, no mechanical issues, and bought a (new) 2007 F150, 4x4, 5.7L V8, Crew Cab, which hauls the horses much easier, but not as well as a F250 Diesel, which I have borrowed from some friends a couple of times, just to see how it is. If you are going to do a lot of hauling, get the diesel!

I was going to buy the Diesel F250 but the price difference was about $10,000 more than the 150, and since my kids were going off to college, I knew I wouldn't be doing as much hauling, so I got the F150, which today has about 75,000 miles on it, no mechanical isssues at all. It gets about 18mpg on the highway, no load, at 70-75mph, or about 10mpg hauling the horses at 65mph.

MOST of the serious horse haulers are doing it with Fords, usually the F250, 350, or 450's, diesels of course, depending on how big their trailers are. If you want some 'expert' truck advice, go to any horse show and walk around, see what people are using, if hauling big loads (boats, RV's, Horses, etc.) is going to be an issue, and ask some of them why they drive what they do.

I have heard some good things about the Dodge, they use the Cummings Diesels, and their transmissions are supposed to be stronger as well, so ask around, see who likes what, and why.

I bought my wife a new Chevy Suburban 1500 in 2004, two wheel drive, 5.7 (?) V8. It had all the bells and whistles in the interior, which I HATE, but she loves. None of that crap works today!

The "Climate Control" blows hot air in July, the 6 disc CD changer is AFU, we can only get it to play one CD, the other 5 are trapped inside! The leather seats are all ripped, the automatic seat controls always run the driver's seat full forward when I get in, so every time I get in, I have to re-adjust my seat, Oh, and we've put two new alternators in it, three batteries, two steering columns. I think it's got about 129,000 miles on it today. It gets about 18mpg, empty. A little less if we stuff the 4 kids in it to go to the beach.

But she still loves it, I still hate it. I like a stripped down, nothing fancy, type truck, my two concessions being; a good audio system so I can blast Santana and Zepplin to keep me awake, when I'm doing a 10 hour haul, and cruise control. But then I like hand propping Cubs too...