The ideal pianotech vehicle?? reply

[pianoman]

Hi Robert,	
I just made the last payment on my Mazda B-2300 Extra cab, 5 sp man, a/c. 
It now has 85,000+ on it and goes like new.  This is my second Mazda truck,
the first an '87 B-2200 that I bought used  at 111,000 and sold to my son
at  213,000 and it still is going some 3 years later
I would not hesitate to buy another one.
James Grebe
R.P.T. of the P.T.G. from St. Louis, MO. USA, Earth
pianoman@inlink.com
            May I listen as well as I hear.

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> From: Robert Goodale <Robert.Goodale@nau.edu>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: The ideal pianotech vehical??
> Date: Sunday, May 31, 1998 3:33 PM
> 
> It's nice to see this topic of piano tech vehicals has come up, as I
> have been kind of thinking about a purchase sometime soon myself. It is
> interesting to hear others talking about what they drive.
> 
> Currently I drive a 1987 Honda Civic, by far the most reliable car I
> have ever owned. With over 123,000K on the clock it still runs smooth as
> silk and gets over 30 MPG. Being such a small car, however, and in
> anticipation of eventually getting into more rebuilding activity, I'm
> starting to think "truck". The used market for small pickups seems
> hopeless, as they are so popular that few reasonably priced good ones
> come up for sale. The dealers only seem to have former lease trucks and
> they cost barely over a thousand less than a new one. So what kind of
> new truck to buy? My thought is to get a shell to cover the back and
> then customize the inside to fit tools, equipment, a place to transport
> an action, and so on. If I get to the point to where I want to buy some
> pianos either the shell could come off or I could invest in a small
> trailer.
> 
> I test drove a new Nissan Fronteer a few weeks ago. It seems like a very
> nice truck, very comfy inside and has some reasonable power. I can get
> the extra cab version including A/C and AM/FM cassette for about
> $11,000- not bad. I was getting pretty excited about it until the
> following week when the national insurance safety crash tests came out.
> They found the Fronteer to be the second worst truck on the market in
> terms of potential driver injuries (35 MPH off-center front end
> collision). The Dodge Dakota ranked worst, and Toyota ranked third. The
> Ford Ranger performed better but also costs about 3K more. The S-10
> falls somewhere in between.
> 
> Of course then there are the other expenses that go along with a new
> vehical. I called my insurance company and discovered that my rates
> would go up nearly double what they are now. And of course, registration
> fees also go up. I have also grown acustomed to the great gas milage my
> current car gets, something that trucks notoriously fall short on.
> Nobody ever said life was cheep but it sure gets you wondering.
> 
> So, has anyone else looked at, purchased, or test-driven a small truck
> recently? What conclusions have you come up with? What positives and
> negatives have you heard about?
> Just curious.
> 
> Rob Goodale, piano dude.