Old Pickup Trucks

Cheap Trucks - Save the Environment

    Cheap trucks often get a bad name. Often the idea is that old trucks make no sense. They don't often get good mileage. They are big, often loud and seldom very pretty. Here's why old pickups should be valued, not scorned.

    1. Poor mileage, compared to what?

    My 1980 Plymouth Arrow Pickup gets 25 miles per gallon. My 1976 Chevy C-10 gets 15 miles per gallon. Comparable new trucks are much more powerful, but not much better on the mileage. So, you'll never justify a new truck just on mileage.

    What about comparing an old Chevy pickup with a new hybrid SUV. No comparison again. Look at what you can move with old trucks and look at what your little hybrid will do. the old truck is a different beast that excels at what it does.

    2. Energy cost to make a new truck.

    An old vehicle, car or truck, sitting there is a store of value and energy. All the energy, human and fossil, that went into building that vehicle is stored right there ready to work. Scrap the vehicle and most of that energy is no longer available to be used. Sure, you can recycle the basic materials. You can't recycle the value-added design and manufacturing that went into that truck. Scrapping useful trucks is a terrible waste.

    3. No money time bombs.

    Older vehicles generally are cheap to maintain. That's partly because of all the infrastructure that's already there to keep them going. Buy the latest and greatest and the maintenance issues may be far bigger than you dream. Take batteries. How much will a battery replacement cost for a hybrid down the road? What is the environmental cost of battery recycling and replacement? These are lurking money time bombs that will make many newer vehicles unaffordable for poor folks.

    4. Parts are everywhere.

    Used parts and the people to install them are the way to keep old trucks working. Many vehicles hit the scrap heap not because they are worn out or obsolete. It's simply because parts are high priced and the skills to deal with that particular model are rare. Drive old Chevy, Ford and Dodge trucks and forget about all that, at least for now.

    5. Tools not toys.

    Trucks are tools like shovels and hammers. They can be art objects too. But older trucks keep going because they make sense. Will the newest vehicles stand the test of time? Maybe, but maybe not.

    Cheap trucks represent a lot of energy and work that's already been spent. Scrap a truck and you've made unavailable huge amounts of energy invested in designing and putting that machine together. Keeping trucks working is much more environmentally prudent that scrapping them and replacing with new.