We're looking for a truck as a second vehicle (my wife thinks we should get an SUV or a minivan). We'd use it to get around the city, but mainly we'll be using it for some home reno projects. I'd like something newer by Honda or Toyota, but our budget is less than $15,000. Something big enough to take the kid and dog along, but not a huge truck. - Terry
You can pick up a good pickup for $15,000. But the first step is figuring out how big a truck you'll need for the long haul – and how often you'll actually need it.
If you're not planning to carry multitonne loads or pull a heavy trailer, then you don't need a full-sized heavy-duty pickup – a lighter-duty full-sized truck or even a compact pickup should fit the bill, Consumer Reports magazine says. "If you don't need to haul dirty cargo like construction debris, mulch, or manure, another vehicle type, such as a minivan or SUV, could be a better choice."
It might even be a better idea to rent a pickup when you need it instead of "making it do double duty as the family car."
If you're hauling the family – and Fido – along with occasional loads of lumber, you won't want a regular cab. That's the classic farm truck, which has two or three seats in a row with no back seat. An extended cab has smaller seats in back and may have smaller back doors or clam-shell doors. A crew cab has four full-sized doors and two rows of seats – some are roomier than a lot of cars. Toyota and Ram also offer mega cabs.
But with crew cabs, the load bed may only be five feet (1.5 metres). If you go bigger and get a longer, 8-foot (2.4 metre) bed, then parking becomes tricky, the magazine says.
"To help you choose a bed length, think of the standard sizes of lumber or other construction materials you might need to carry," Edmunds says. "Sheet rock and plywood come in 4-by-8-foot dimensions, so a longer bed might be necessary for such loads."
On top of that, you'll have to decide whether you also want all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. If you'll just be heading between home and Home Depot, you may not need it. But if you plan to be towing heavier trailers, you might.
We dug through ads on Autotrader, Kijiji and Craigslist to see what you should be able to find for less than $15,000.
There are good light duty full-sized options, such as the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. The F-150 is Canada's best-selling vehicle and there are a bunch out there up to about 2012.
But, because you'd like a smaller truck, we'll focus on compacts.
The main contenders are the Chevy Colorado, its tonier twin, the GMC Canyon, and the Toyota Tacoma.
Of the three, there seem to be more newer Colorados out there in your price range. But they're not that new – there are a few from 2012, but more go back to 2007 or 2008.
2012 was the last year of Colorado and Canyon's previous generation – a new mid-sized model came out in 2015 – and the design was showing its age, reviewers said.
"The Colorado's handling is sound but unexceptional," Consumer Reports says. "The ride is unsettled, and the body quivers constantly."
Edmunds praised the Colorado's affordability, its optional V-8 and wide array of available configurations. It panned "mediocre fit and finish, weak power and towing capacity from base engines, aging design and disappointing crash safety scores."
Toyota's Tacoma fares better in reviews. But to get one in your price range, you'll probably need to go back to at least 2009 (there are a couple 2010 and 2011 models out there).
Toyota offered a 2.7-litre, 159-horsepower four-cylinder and, for the four-wheel drive version, a 4.0-litre, 236-horsepower V-6.
Natural Resources Canada gives the four-cylinder a combined fuel economy rating of 10.4 litres/100 km for the five-speed manual and 11 litres/100 km for the automatic. The V-6 gets 13.3 for the manual and 14 for the automatic.
"The ride is pretty terrible, bucking and jittering constantly on anything but smooth pavement," Consumer Reports says. "Stopping distances are long on models without anti-lock brakes."
Still, the magazine gave these years an above average rating for predicted used car reliability.
Edmunds says the Tacoma's available engines "offer good balance of power and fuel efficiency," and the truck is well-built with a well-appointed interior. It complains about the low seating position, a spongy brake pedal and a noisy V-6.
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