A friend of mine asked me for my recommendation for a mid-size pickup truck. He's leaning towards a Canyon, but I'd like some input from others that have more recent truck experience.
The back-story (skip if you want). He currently drives a Camry, and borrows a family member's truck or rents a truck to tow a cargo trailer a few times a month. His wife drives a Nissan sedan of some sort, and the CVT failed. It's out of warranty, as it has about 160K miles on it. The same day the Nissan died, they went to the Toyota dealer to just get her a new Camry as their Camry has been PERFECT, but he refuses to get a hybrid of any kind, and the new Camry is only available as a hybrid. Anyway, they decided that his wife will take over his current Camry, and he's just going to buy a truck.
The truck is going to be used mainly for daily driving and commuting, and occasionally towing a cargo trailer. They have a younger kid that is in a car seat, so they need a crew cab. He is happy with the towing performance/driving style of his family member's Canyon, for what it's worth - it's a previous gen Canyon with the V6.
Requirements:
-Brand new.
-Crew cab mid-size pickup. He doesn't want an SUV.
-Full size is not an option, his garage is too small. He doesn't have a good driveway either. When he had an F-150 before he had to street park it.
-2WD. He never leaves the SF Bay Area, and told me that he will not even consider a 4x4/AWD truck.
-Gas only - not hybrid
-Not steel wheels because he thinks they are all ugly.
-5000lb towing capacity
Preferences:
-Cheap as possible. He doesn't care about any particular features. The only feature he cares about is power locks and windows but from my understanding ALL trucks have that now.
-Doesn't care about color
-Intends to keep it for about 150K miles, so if it can make it that far without any major repairs, that would be great. The wife's Nissan is the second vehicle that had a transmission failure at just above 150K, the previous being an older F-150, so he feels like 150K is the best time to trade in the vehicle. I am mentioning this, because it means resale value doesn't matter too much.
-He has no brand loyalty.
Options we've found:
-Chevy Colorado
-Ford Ranger
-GMC Canyon
-Nissan Frontier
-Edit: Toyota Tacoma
Options we've ruled out:
-Honda Ridgeline (AWD only)
-Ford Maverick (limited to 4000 lbs towing)
What he is leaning towards:
He likes the size and driving style of his family members's Canyon, so he's leaning towards the Canyon. But, from what he said, that family member had several major repairs under warranty on that Canyon (I don't know the details, but it apparently spent several weeks at the dealer multiple times for different stuff, all handled under warranty at no charge). It's been fine since then, though, and last time he borrowed it it had over 100K miles on it.
What my choice would be:
My pick, if I was him, would be the new Canyon, because I think it looks the best, and I'm a GM fanboy. I'm very anti-Frontier because we have those at work and they're total trash, but others reviews online of the new Frontier tend to be pretty positive, and some fairly well respected sources even say it's the best option in mid-size trucks.
Anyway, before he goes with the Canyon, any strong reason to consider something else? The prices and fuel economy are all pretty similar.
The back-story (skip if you want). He currently drives a Camry, and borrows a family member's truck or rents a truck to tow a cargo trailer a few times a month. His wife drives a Nissan sedan of some sort, and the CVT failed. It's out of warranty, as it has about 160K miles on it. The same day the Nissan died, they went to the Toyota dealer to just get her a new Camry as their Camry has been PERFECT, but he refuses to get a hybrid of any kind, and the new Camry is only available as a hybrid. Anyway, they decided that his wife will take over his current Camry, and he's just going to buy a truck.
The truck is going to be used mainly for daily driving and commuting, and occasionally towing a cargo trailer. They have a younger kid that is in a car seat, so they need a crew cab. He is happy with the towing performance/driving style of his family member's Canyon, for what it's worth - it's a previous gen Canyon with the V6.
Requirements:
-Brand new.
-Crew cab mid-size pickup. He doesn't want an SUV.
-Full size is not an option, his garage is too small. He doesn't have a good driveway either. When he had an F-150 before he had to street park it.
-2WD. He never leaves the SF Bay Area, and told me that he will not even consider a 4x4/AWD truck.
-Gas only - not hybrid
-Not steel wheels because he thinks they are all ugly.
-5000lb towing capacity
Preferences:
-Cheap as possible. He doesn't care about any particular features. The only feature he cares about is power locks and windows but from my understanding ALL trucks have that now.
-Doesn't care about color
-Intends to keep it for about 150K miles, so if it can make it that far without any major repairs, that would be great. The wife's Nissan is the second vehicle that had a transmission failure at just above 150K, the previous being an older F-150, so he feels like 150K is the best time to trade in the vehicle. I am mentioning this, because it means resale value doesn't matter too much.
-He has no brand loyalty.
Options we've found:
-Chevy Colorado
-Ford Ranger
-GMC Canyon
-Nissan Frontier
-Edit: Toyota Tacoma
Options we've ruled out:
-Honda Ridgeline (AWD only)
-Ford Maverick (limited to 4000 lbs towing)
What he is leaning towards:
He likes the size and driving style of his family members's Canyon, so he's leaning towards the Canyon. But, from what he said, that family member had several major repairs under warranty on that Canyon (I don't know the details, but it apparently spent several weeks at the dealer multiple times for different stuff, all handled under warranty at no charge). It's been fine since then, though, and last time he borrowed it it had over 100K miles on it.
What my choice would be:
My pick, if I was him, would be the new Canyon, because I think it looks the best, and I'm a GM fanboy. I'm very anti-Frontier because we have those at work and they're total trash, but others reviews online of the new Frontier tend to be pretty positive, and some fairly well respected sources even say it's the best option in mid-size trucks.
Anyway, before he goes with the Canyon, any strong reason to consider something else? The prices and fuel economy are all pretty similar.
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