This next car comes from tipper TeleArrow who writes: Looks to be in surprisingly good shape for a Northeast Vehicle. Price might be a little high given the mileage. 22re should last. Find this 1992 Toyota Pickup offered for $7500 in Kittery, ME via craigslist.
It didn’t take long on my local craigslist to find something appropriately “America” to feature today, but I did hit a jackpot of freedom. This next car is as American as apple pie — it is a Ford F250 built during the era when America was in the world’s driver’s seat. Additionally the current owner is selling to make room for a new baby, how much more will he/she have to pay to buy this car back again when the kid heads off to college? Happy Birthday America! Find this 1967 Ford F250 offered for $15,000 in Marina Del Rey, CA via craigslist.
Urban Dictionary says that a Viccup is “what occurs when you’ve been drinking too much or have overeaten (or both) and have a momentary hiccup with a slight vomit aftertaste.” That is just plain wrong, because a Viccup is what happens when you put a Ford F250 Pickup body on top of a Crown Victoria chassis, and it happens far more often than you’d expect. Find this 1973 Ford F250 offered for $7,500 in New Jersey via craigslist. Tip from Cory.
The Cadillac Calais was available as a coupe, sedan, and hardtop, but it was not available as a pickup or El Camino. But it should have been. So the builder of this next vehicle did to the Caddy what should have been done by GM way back in the mid 1970s, and that is to hack off rear of the cab and create an automotive mullet. Find this 1975 Cadillac Calais offered for $8,500ish via GrassrootsMotorsports classifieds. Tip from Cory.
The late model used car market goes something like this. We (car nerds) get abscessed with some particular car because it is cool or reliable or interesting — let’s pick the Toyota Hilux and pretend it is 2010. You could get them for next to nothing and they were cheap and easy to maintain and we (car nerds…again) told all of our non-car friends about it. Some of those people turned into car nerds and others started to treat their used cars like some kinda physical version of a crypto-currency and they started hoarding them and then prices started going up and the next thing you know you are paying $60k for a barely running Ford Bronco, or VW Bus, or original Mustang, or…Toyota HiLux…you see where I’m going with this? Okay. Next object of our mass stupidity is…spin that wheel…beep-beep-beep-boop ooohhh, Ford Ranger. Find this 1997 Ford Ranger offered for $2500 in Phoenix, AZ via craigslist.
It is funny that you can’t buy a convertible pickup from a new car dealer today (at least since the SSR went out of production in 2006) because the convertible pickup has been a common form of transportation for the better part of human obsession with the wheel. Remember Ben-Hur? Charlton Heston’s chariot (technically a quadriga), was basically a Roman equivalent of this next car. What? Yes, it had wheels, a spot for the driver, and place for junk. Because to do work with a vehicle (regardless if that work is to transport someone places, or move stuff, or wreck someone else with spinning wheel spikes) what you really need is a propulsion system, a spot for the driver, and a work bed. Everything else — flappy paddle gearboxes, touchscreens, massaging chairs, rear seats, electric windows, opera lights, landau roof, any roof, 4-wheel-drive, airbags, cigarette lighter, ashtray, warranty, navigation, bluetooth, 8-track, et al — are simply luxury items. Get back to basics with this 1926 Ford Model T Pickup offered for $5,200 in Opelousas, LA via craigslist. Tip from Ramjet.
The world is filled with yawn inducing boring stuff. Just look at your nearest Toyondaordmotorstallanis dealer. The stuff you see in the showrooms is an insult to the 7 year old version of yourself who dared to dream about driving someday. It is boring, safe, comfortable, and gives you this false sense of security about arriving at your destination without stopping to diagnose a strange noise or soldering a coil pack harness on Christmas eve (true story from this past Xmas). These safe and sensible cars are fine for the zombified masses who wear name brands like RFID ear tags and read the fine print before signing mortgage docs — but readers of this rag know better. We know the feeling of success and relief when reaching your destination. And we understand that swapping a modern 1.8T Audi/VW engine into a vintage Caddy is a thing of beauty. Find this 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup Sportruck offered for $7000 in Machester, VT via craigslist. Tip from Cory.
The International Harvester corporation released a new line of pickup trucks called the D-series in 1969 to replace the older C-series trucks that had been sold since 1961. This next example comes from the first year of a 1971 restyle where the trucks dropped their D-suffix (1100D, 1500D, etc) and were now called 1010 or 1110 depending on weight rating. For the price I can’t think you can get much more vintage truck coolness. Find this 1971 International 1110 Pickup offered for $6,500 in Modesto, CA via craigslist.
This next pickup truck doesn’t look like much from near or far. In fact, it looks just like any other 90s era pickup, but to quote tipper Rock On; This thing can blow your doors off and then carry them away in the back of the bed! That’s not a Spacecab, that’s a sleeper cab!! Find this 1989 Isuzu Pickup LS1 offered for $16,500 in San Jose, CA via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
A brand new Nissan Frontier pickup will set you back $30k before taxes and fees (more if you start piling on options)…and it is a nice car, but you can’t get it with a 6-speed manual gearbox because the only transmission that Nissan offers is some 9-speed super flappy birds paddle thing…sounds like a recipe for just putting in auto and following traffic on your daily commute. But if you want to save a few bones and you don’t mind the horrible death-by-plastic interior of early 2000s Nissan…then take the dirt road around traffic and get something like this 2006 Nissan Frontier SE Crew Cab offered for $7900 in Phoenix, AZ via craigslist.