I've recently pondered the same question. I have a 1-ton Dodge that I bought new back in 2003, and at the time I wanted to buy my first "exactly everything that I want in a truck" new truck. So I ended up with the most loaded 4 door, 4WD, Dodge diesel that was available in '03. I was able to pay it off within a couple years and have since been driving a truck that now has almost 250,000 miles on it and costs me around $1200-1500/year average with maintenance and insurance costs. I've had some big maintenance costs years, like a new transmission at about $3500, but then I've also had $0 maintenance costs years as well. When I bought the truck I had a very heavy (3000+ lb), slide in camper and a 21' jet boat that I would haul and tow around quite a bit (my biggest reason for buying the truck). I have since sold both the boat and camper, and now rarely haul anything really heavy and the heaviest thing I tow is a light wt. 17' aluminum river boat. So, I guess I really have no need for this type of truck anymore. The question is, do I want to get into monthly payments and insurance costs, that would probably be over half of what my current yearly costs are, just for the satisfaction of owning/driving a new pickup? In the end, the answer is always no. Another thing that I didn't mention when I first bought this truck, was my plan/hope to drive it until it had at least 500,000 miles, and now that I'm about half way there, I figure that I only have another 17 years left of driving it to reach my goal. Since I've always been kind of suborn (word my wife often uses to describe me), when it comes to attaining goals, I guess I'll either reach the 1/2 million mark, or die trying. Boy, I sure hope it's not the latter.
