Vital Statistics

As promised, here’s a picture of the truck that I was thinking about buying:

After I asked a number of stupid questions, my co-worker concluded that I was not man enough for such a truck. Alas, I have to agree. So I have been browsing Craigslist to get an idea of what kinds of trucks are out there and how much they cost. I’ve been narrowing my criteria and this is what I’ve come up with so far:

 

  • $3000 or less
  • Less than 150,000 miles, preferably less than 125,000
  • Less than 15 years old
  • Extended cab
  • Gas mileage doesn’t matter much
  • Tags good, recently passed DEQ
  • Owner will let John Mechanic check it out at his home

My co-workers seem to have an anti-American car bias and recommend Nissan trucks. My sense is that both Ford and Dodge make fine trucks (my little Mitsubishi is really a Dodge). Although my preference is probably a smaller truck, I’m not going to use it for commuting, so bigger trucks are OK, too. I’ve always been attracted to SUVs, but not so attracted to SUV pricing. Does anybody make an SUV with a rear bed?

Current reading: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
McCartney Trivia: According the the book I’m reading, George Harrison’s “Something” was written about his then-wife, Patti. Years later, George’s best friend would write another song about Patti, with whom he had fallen in love. The friend was Eric Clapton and his song is “Layla”. (last installment)
Recent listening: Decade
Recent viewing: Nova, World Poker Tour, Saturday Night Live
Recent playing: Poker Room
Recently Accomplished: Taxes done, entered and reconciled half.com transactions
Imperative To Do: Bike repairs, truck shopping
Cool link: Craigslist RSS feed: An RSS reader allows you to watch for new and updated postings. Unfortunately, you can’t save your search criteria (“truck” + price range) as an RSS address.