Do you want recommendations on what vehicle to replace it with?
Yes, now I do.
In terms of replacing my truck: I would like to use my past truck purchase (the one I'm currently driving) as a good gauge for how I should buy a car again in the future, in terms of miles/year/price ratio. I was a poor college student at the time and found a great deal way out of town through the help of my old coach. Glad he had a sharp eye. The truck I'm currently driving was purchased:
- 7 years old, in 2009 (it's a 2002 truck)
- 77,000 Miles on it
- $7k (maybe $7500...can't quite remember)
I've put 100k miles on it. I feel like that was a really good deal (maybe "too good" of a deal to reasonably strive for again, but we'll see).
The following are on my long-list (7 years old and younger would be 2011 models):
- Mazda CX5
- Subaru Crosstrek (or XV since I think that's what it was called at first. At a cursory glance, I doubt I can find anything
near $7k - 8k . But I have the luxury of time on my side now that my car is mostly fixed)
- Honda HRV (seems kinda plasticky /cheap to me, but I like the size. Also seems kinda feminine but I don't really care that much.)
- Hyundai tucson? (wasn't really aware of these until recently. seems to be about the same size as the others so I'm considering it now)
- Honda Fit
- Toyota Yaris (don't know much about the toyotas. Is there like a "Big Yaris"? Prius/Rav4 would be their next biggest cars I guess, but I'm not crazy about either. Prius because I'd have to charge it. Rav4 because they're ugly).
There's 4Runners, etc. but I'm convinced those have big gas guzzling engines like my current V6 and don't want that.
If I do try to follow my old 'model', something's probably going to have to give. I want to stick to less than $75k miles, we'll call it $9k for the price, and I don't really care how old it is.
4WD would be cool, but definitely not a necessity. Anything will have better traction than my current RWD truck.