Should I sell while she is running smooth & creamy?

I live 20 minutes down the mountain from Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side.

 

Haha Ive never made that connection before, that's pretty good. I'll stay away from the wild berries as much as the deer stayed away from me. I can't promise anything about staying away from wild mushrooms though...

 

I thought the same thing. I like the 2nd gen but after driving one and then getting back into my "compact" pickup I kept the 1st gen and bought a Mazda3 (manual trans as well). Plus - no loans. That was the deal breaker for me. More and more - the price of used vehicles is so ridiculous that the market is eventually going to collapse I would imagine.

 

I get about the same gas mileage as you. Same year and manual yada yada. I have 265/75/16 mud tires. She has no running problems at all. Runs like a bat out of hell and I don't really take it all that easy most of the time. Went on a road trip and got the gas mileage up a bit higher but who knows. Bigger tires, speedo off etc. It was fun and about 4000 miles total trip. I am right at 200K miles and one day I would look outside and that old bastard pickup will still be sitting there.

 

Maybe I make poor financial decisions - but I just paid about 7k for a 2002 with 225k on it. The miles worry me a little - especially since I am about to start building it up and honestly expect to put over 10k in the build. But I expect that I will keep this truck till it gets it gets destroyed by a wreck (I have 3 kids yet to become drivers) or I die of old age.

Likewise, even if it does have a catastrophic failure - most of the build could always be moved over to a similar donor Gen 1 to start the process again.