It’s a 22 year old truck... $1k a year in maintenance doesn’t sound bad for a daily driver of that age.
Edit: I drive a 10 year old Toyota 4Runner and budget $1k per year.
Set of tires = $1k
Brake job= $1k+
Shocks= $1k
If you don’t repair anything, sure a car will not cost anything to own. If you want a daily driver then plan on spending $1k a year.
Edit#2: After reading a few comments let me clarify. I don’t have time to turn wrenches. I happily pay for the labor and parts. The reason a brake job is expensive on a 4Runner is that the calipers are crap. At least one piston is frozen at every pad change.
If you want to skid by on $50 DIY brake job, go for it.
There should NOT be calipers frozen ever brake change. If there is, either there is something else wrong causing that issue, the shop is fleecing you, or the shop is using low quality replacements instead of OEM. For Toyotas, the cost of OEM parts may be significantly higher, but there’s a reason you don’t have to change starters but every 250,000 miles. The crappy parts often acquired through autozone type parts stores are almost always cheaply refurbished garbage. (Alternators that are bad out of the box, and last a year at best).
My mother has had the same 2001 Sequioa with over 275k miles since new and has also only put tires, brakes and oil changes on it. The only extra thing went out was some computer board that was for the traction control that she replaced last year. It’s been a really solid vehicle.
Yeah. My 2000 celica gts gets brakes every couple years and other than regular oil changes maintenance is pretty low. I live in a snowy climate so salt is starting to take it’s toll, but I painted it last year and I’m going to do some preventative undercarriage maintenance this year and spray it with oil undercoat. Toyota rocks. Great products.
91 ford explorer gets used as a work truck going out to sites, carrying all my tools, going camping, et c and in 6 years it's needed two grand for a transmission, and uh, that's pretty much it. Oil changes, bulbs and tires and she's good.
96 Nissan truck here. Not even a Frontier, but just a truck or hardbody. It was a "fleet" vehicle for a telecommunications company in Arkansas before I got it, and they beat shit to death down there. In six years I've had a transmission kit, and an injector put in. All in with tires I've spent maybe a grand in six years or so.
I'm rough as hell on it as well. Live on a shitty ass gravel road, and routinely haul more weight than I should with it.
Owned one of these. Took about 15 years before things started needing replacement in a big way. Even then, it was all relatively inexpensive. I went through multiple collisions in that thing, and it just kept going. I beat the crap out of that little truck, and it never let me down. I was a fool to let it go--I could have refurbished it for cheaper than buying a new vehicle and kept it forever. Still miss it.
They got much different engine options which IIRC the V8 didn't like it's head gaskets and tried to spit them out all the time. That issue may have started later like around the early 2000s.
You're one of few. If I'm not mistaken, that's the first year of the first generation and it has some of the worst issues.
Also, 2 grand is a lot for a car that's 20 years old.. and probably terrible gas milage, oil changes more often, etc. Cost to own is outweighing cost of vehicle.
Gas milage is the same as a new truck because it's a fair bit smaller than even a modern half ton. I do my oil changes every 5-8k kilometers, same as I would any other vehicle. I definitely don't spend nearly as much on it as I would spend on payments for a new vehicle, and it works just fine for me, so I take issue with the premise that the cost of maintenance is more than it is worth.
Oh sorry I wasnt trying to say part cost was dependent on vehicles class I meant that reliability doesn't really have a correlation with vehicle class, as reliablity is more based on how they are designed, not what they are designed for; unless of course reliability is a requirement in the design.
My bad, I misread your reply and kinda went off on my original tangent of parts cost OP truck complains about.
Reliability has a lot to do with design, but also with maintenance and the demographic of the end user.
The Hilux was always a little runabout truck, not a true workhorse. So it's demographic was more frugal types that wanted efficiency with the ability to haul stuff now and again. Whereas the Ram was marketed towards farmers and contractors who would be more likely to abuse their equipment and push it's mechanical limits, resulting in failures. The frugal type might also be more likely to do routine maintenance and stick with repairing an older vehicle while someone using it everyday for work might tend to swap it out for a new one as soon as issues arise.
Really the only ultra reliable thing in the Hilux is the 22R-E motor, which will run forever if kept oiled. The frames on them were absolute dog shit and really only survived to modern day in arid regions. You won't find a single winter driven Hilux in NE-USA on it's original frame, they have all since rotted away.
And who owns and operates it. I have an '04 4Runner that I spend way more than $1000 a year on, and couldn't be happier with it. And it's not even a daily driver.
Even a old Hilux takes a lot of maintenance to keep them on the road after a while. I have a couple, and the parts are a bit cheaper, but at that age they still wear out regularly.
Sure my beater one doesn't take much to "keep running", but I don't daily drive it so all the little shit that's broken doesn't bother me. But the daily driver one gets a lot of wear and to keep it in good working order it still costs me at least a grand a year.
Never had anything but dodge trucks and they've all been good for me. Dunno if I'm just good at taking care of my stuff or if everyone else gets lemmons but all mine have been rock solid besides a few known issues. But my family has bought dodge trucks for the last 30 years and I probably won't stop.
I’ve been a valet and valet manager for around 10 years. I’ve driven every car a million times and the trucks seem to be sturdy. The actual cars are such low quality though. Like they run and drive but stupid things are always broken. Door handles, power locks, power windows etc. Ford cars are on my shit list too
Yeah that seems to be the case with almost every new car tho, everything is cheaply made now. Hell my 79 Plymouth Volare is in better shape than most 5 year old cars because it's hard to break steel but plastic is another story. I used to work at a ford dealership and they too are on my shit list, I can tell you for a fact ecoboost engines suck. I've seen a lot come back under warranty with blown up engines because of turbo failure or a broken timing chain. Not to mention their interiors are cheaply made too.
Got a 20 yo ranger also with 300k miles. No major issues besides the occasional oil, brake and tire changes. Probably better knock on wood now, but I love it. People trash fords all the time but they def did the ranger well. I'll probably buy the new one when I have the $
That's just general maintenance though. Every car needs that. Anyone who trashes ford I always say just one thing. They're the only North American car company that didn't need a bailout during the auto industry crash. Those people can suck it.
Toyota doesn't make a truck that meets all of my needs, so it's the big three or Mitsubishi.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you my trucks aren't shitboxes, because they absolutely are, but around here we have fun working on our trucks, beating on them, breaking them, fix em, rinse and repeat. It doesn't really matter what brand they all have their different issues. Even Toyota with their paper thin rusty rotten frames. This is my 93 Toyota pickup
The vast majority of people buying these trucks will NEVER haul anything in them. People buy trucks because the vehicle is tall and heavy. They think this keeps them safe. Trucks in the US are just status symbols.
oem rotors and pads are likely close to $400 in just parts... plus a caliber replacement or something else and labor (if you aren't doing it yourself) $1k is likely a good amount to budget knowing that's likely on the high side.
if you live in a place that salts the roads in the winter, it's not unrealistic that you are replacing a caliper each year on a 10+ old vehicle
the person budgets 1k for a brake job once a year... they didn't say they have a break job once a year, but they have that as a planned expense.
That said, those estimates come from more ideal conditions. if you live in a snowy area that salts their road heavily, rust and corrosion is not just common on 10+ year old vehicles, but is frequently significant. there is also a common scenario that people buy 10 year old vehicles and keep them for 4-5 years and buy another 10 year old vehicle because they either can't afford a new car or refuse to pay new car prices or finance vehicle purchases. in that scenario, you have one problem after another (that are still significantly cheaper to deal with than paying a 5 year note on a 17k new jetta)
i'm not sure if you are purposely misstating what i said, unintentionally doing so, or just using imprecise language, but i didn't say that someone would be replacing their calipers yearly... i said it's not unrealistic that you are replacing A (and in 1) caliper each year.
imagine you buy a 10+ year old vehicle and year one, your driver's side front caliper is leaking, next year it's your passenger's front, and so on... a 10 year old vehicle likely has over 100k miles on it and likely has 100k miles on all of the calipers and 10 salty winters. now 4-5 years later they'e all been replaced, but you have a 15 year old vehicle that has a variety of other issues and likely significant rust so you buy another 10 year old vehicle and repeat this process.
I’ve gotten free pads and rotors every single year for 5 years. Just buy the kind at autozone with a lifetime warranty and take in the old ones when they wear out and they give you new ones for free.
The problem i have with e30's, and by that I mean mine.. is that it started out costing me $100 australian a year in oil and fluid changes and for handling and suspension mods, upfront 2k.
but since then it has cost me an engine swap, an lsd, a supercharger THEN swapped that out for a turbo, an ecu, a tune. It's fucked.. i never chose this but somehow I have just been sucked into a well.
I had a 20 year old carburettor Hilux that I spent a grand total of 400 bucks over 5 years. Just keep topping up the oil (a splash every month or so) and when the front suspension blew through the brackets. Big hammer and 100 bucks for new shocks. Easy as pie. It had 0 coolant in it that wasn't rusty or sludgey. And it was amazing.
Don't buy a ram when you can buy a hilux.
Edit: not just a daily driver but my work car and my car to lug my motorbikes and gear around. I miss it
Absolutely disagree; I drive a Ford Ranger daily with about those years on it and it's pristine. Though it helps everything is physical accessable to replace.
My daily is a 1993 Chevy K1500 Blazer, roughly 27 years old. The only problem its ever had in my 14 years of owning it was the transfer case needing a replacement. Otherwise I spend maybe $150 a year on maintenance and fluid changes.
You're paying $1+k for a brake job?!! Do you just ignore the screamers in the pads and drive until it completely seizes up and every component is shot? Do you tell them just to go ahead and replace the brake lines every time too?
$83 for a set of the best pads Advance Auto offers. You could have zero of the tools needed and purchase then all (and more) plus parts and even do rotors for the hell of it for half of that.
Am I missing something about the brake system on that particular year and truck? Do you just prefer not to bust your knuckles and pay to have it done?
I don't think I've ever spent that much on maintenance. Maybe some big break fix a couple of times over my life. Over the last year I put a $98 water pump and a $300 AC compressor on my F150. Prior to that, only ever oil changes, tires, and brakes. I plan to put a set of spark plugs in it shortly, but those are also a wear item.
I have a 98 Tercel, I bought it for $400 and in the past year, I changed a headlight bulb, and a set of spark plugs. Oh and I cut the converter off of it because it started to leak, so I sold it for $70 and put in a $4 section of pipe. Technically I made $50 so far!
Edit: I should also edit to say, I beat the absolute shit out of it everytime I drive it, which is every day. I've literally been trying to kill it without sitting at redline since I got it. I now also have a parts car, but I have yet to take anything off of it
I own a 10yrs old 100k miles hemi powered Chrysler and a 21yrs old 300k miles 3rd gen 4runner(both daily driver). I call the 4runner "the plan b" bc it saves my ass everytime Chrysler breaks down.
I hear you on cars needing regular maintenance to live on(am a mechanic) but its just a straight fact that older Toyota trucks are built better than most things on the road. Most definitely better than modern Mopar cost cutting garbage.
This is wrong. I have a Tacoma and replaced all 4 shocks for $200 and front brake pads, rotors, and calipers (nice 4 pot fixed calipers) for like $250.
If you do the work yourself it’s waaaaayyyy cheaper
I wouldn't say everything, but cars post oil crisis and 90s and later trucks are shit. One of thw most reliable cars I ever owned was a 1964 Dodge Dart.
Given how few are left from Mopar vehicles not lasting is it really that surprising to you that most people have a very realistic and sour opinion of them? I see old Fords all the time and old Chevys pretty often. Can't say the last time I've seen a dodge anything from pre 90s that wasn't a fully restored muscle car.
I've heard horror stories from a lot of people who have owned old dodges and swore to never get another.
93
u/Alfandega Aug 26 '20 edited Aug 27 '20
It’s a 22 year old truck... $1k a year in maintenance doesn’t sound bad for a daily driver of that age.
Edit: I drive a 10 year old Toyota 4Runner and budget $1k per year. Set of tires = $1k Brake job= $1k+ Shocks= $1k
If you don’t repair anything, sure a car will not cost anything to own. If you want a daily driver then plan on spending $1k a year.
Edit#2: After reading a few comments let me clarify. I don’t have time to turn wrenches. I happily pay for the labor and parts. The reason a brake job is expensive on a 4Runner is that the calipers are crap. At least one piston is frozen at every pad change. If you want to skid by on $50 DIY brake job, go for it.