Subaru vs Midsize Truck for mountain roads

[StupidLightweight]

I own an F150 and had a Tacoma for 8 years, but when I go hunting, I almost always take my wife’s car. On rough roads, the independent suspension and AWD is impossible to beat without going to a side by side. As others mentioned, ground clearance is the only limiting factor. You will hear lots of homo jokes, but for a one-car solution, Subarus are king—well, maybe queen…

 

[Hydra6]

I bought a GMC Sierra 1500 AT4 6.0 as my retirement truck - too many issues (stranded with $100 failed sensor plus 30+ days to get part, transmission worries, 6.0 V8 recall). Sold the new truck and looked at other trucks - more reliability issues, used trucks $$, new trucks crazy cost. Looked at my wife's 2019 Subaru Outback Touring 3.6R serving us great, no issues. Bought a 2021 Subaru Ascent Touring (the biggest Subaru) and it is serving me well for PRS. 99% of driving to PRS is highway or paved 2 lanes then the last few miles are bad dirt roads (muddy). I just tell my buddies that I am a Lesbian. I have noted more and more Subarus at the PRS events for same reasons - new trucks unreliable and costly. I kept my old 2015 Ram 1500 4x4 Hemi with 170k+ miles and if I need a truck I use that.

 

[TaperPin]

Tire chains make such a huge difference in snow and mud I should have made a different choice and not bought a 4 Runner, which has so little clearance it’s stupid. There’s also not a lot of storage so a full length roof rack is essential unless you camp out of a backpack. I dislike modern jeep products because of cheap wiring, but they are the easiest way to get a lot of tire clearance for taller tires and/or tire chains. If I were to do it over I should have bought a good used full size pickup.

Most of my hunting is out of established trailheads so they are generally good enough to get a car to in good weather or light snow.

I didn’t have a Subaru, but a 2005 vintage Hyundai suv that was simply built, easy to fix, reliable, and with all four chained up could go through more snow than 4 wheel drive pickups without chains, and had a lot of room. Even the factory roof rack was well made and carried a lot of weight. It survived two teenage boys learning to drive with only one clutch replacement at 100k. The biggest downside was the lack of any kind of low gear, so you could go down something and almost not have enough power to come back up.

 

[fngTony]

I don’t know if this is part of your consideration, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. The older I get the more I appreciate a soft ride off-road. Subaru are similar crossover SUVs will give you that assuming they’re capable of the given trail. Newer trucks even a 1 ton can ride pretty nice. Old trucks ride like shit there’s no two ways about it. They ride like shit. Middle-aged trucks from say the mid 90s through 2010 are hit are a hit or miss depending on the make model and suspension package but the heavier duty trucks of that era still ride pretty hard.

The other tough decision is that a brand new to slightly used truck can be almost the same cost of ownership as something a little older with a little bit more miles on it. Once you get to say over 10 years old and over 130,000 miles I think you can expect 10 grand on maintenance and repairs and that’s on something that isn’t showing any signs when you first buy it.

 

[elkhunter505]

I don’t know if this is part of your consideration, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. The older I get the more I appreciate a soft ride off-road. Subaru are similar crossover SUVs will give you that assuming they’re capable of the given trail. Newer trucks even a 1 ton can ride pretty nice. Old trucks ride like shit there’s no two ways about it. They ride like shit. Middle-aged trucks from say the mid 90s through 2010 are hit are a hit or miss depending on the make model and suspension package but the heavier duty trucks of that era still ride pretty hard.

The other tough decision is that a brand new to slightly used truck can be almost the same cost of ownership as something a little older with a little bit more miles on it. Once you get to say over 10 years old and over 130,000 miles I think you can expect 10 grand on maintenance and repairs and that’s on something that isn’t showing any signs when you first buy it.

I agree with your statement about the relaxed ride. My F150 bounces me all over the place but it’s not my number 1. My number 1 is reliability by a mile. Everything else after that is so wishy washy in my mind that I am stuck in analysis paralysis. Right now I’m looking at two Tacomas, a 2001 and a 2017. The 2017 has been at that dealer for long enough that is gives me pause. They’re both wildly overpriced which does suck but seems like no matter what I look at, they’re overpriced. Ones an XtraCab and the other is a Double Cab with a long bed. Basically I’m sitting on the fence about do I get something that gets me point A to B until I finish my PhD or do I get something I’m going to try and keep as long as possible. I’m doing everything in my power to not fall into the analysis trap because it’s a very long trap for me normally but it ain’t working.

 

[fngTony]

Dont get me wrong, you buy the wrong rig on the wrong day and you can have some big bills to fix. But for the most part, thats a bit of a stretch.

My company just spent $6500 on a bunch of minor to moderate repairs on a 06 Chevy. We declined (for now) shocks and tires which would put it at $8k. No internal motor or transmission stuff just leaf springs, bolts, front suspension, extra labor to torch and cut sized bolts, cooler lines, intake gasket, full front brake job and several other things.
@elkhunter505 Those old Tacomas are pretty solid with some areas of rust concern. The next generation up was similar other than the frame recall so check that if you’re getting serious about one.

 

[elkhunter505]

My company just spent $6500 on a bunch of minor to moderate repairs on a 06 Chevy. We declined (for now) shocks and tires which would put it at $8k. No internal motor or transmission stuff just leaf springs, bolts, front suspension, extra labor to torch and cut sized bolts, cooler lines, intake gasket, full front brake job and several other things.
@elkhunter505 Those old Tacomas are pretty solid with some areas of rust concern. The next generation up was similar other than the frame recall so check that if you’re getting serious about one.

The guy says it’s rust free and I’m gonna go take a look at it this weekend. If it meets my expectations, it may be what I end up buying. I have a nephew who will be driving age in about 5 years that I could sell/pass it down to for a first vehicle. Looks insanely clean for the age of it, but we’ll see when I get over there.

 

[elkhunter505]

trd? 3.4 or 2.7?

Trd 3.4 with an automatic.

 

[fngTony]

Did you guys not look at it before you bought it?

I think that was a question for me? We owned it for a long time. It was just kind of your back up vehicle never really got much done to it other than oil and tires. So basically neglect that added up which is something that you could get from a purchase.

 

[WRO]

Trd 3.4 with an automatic.

I loved mine, cheap to fix, easy to work on, and it never needed it.


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[180ls1]

I agree with your statement about the relaxed ride. My F150 bounces me all over the place but it’s not my number 1. My number 1 is reliability by a mile. Everything else after that is so wishy washy in my mind that I am stuck in analysis paralysis. Right now I’m looking at two Tacomas, a 2001 and a 2017. The 2017 has been at that dealer for long enough that is gives me pause. They’re both wildly overpriced which does suck but seems like no matter what I look at, they’re overpriced. Ones an XtraCab and the other is a Double Cab with a long bed. Basically I’m sitting on the fence about do I get something that gets me point A to B until I finish my PhD or do I get something I’m going to try and keep as long as possible. I’m doing everything in my power to not fall into the analysis trap because it’s a very long trap for me normally but it ain’t working.

You need to seriously consider a Lexus. Same 4x4 as those tacomas.

LX470/570
GX470/460

Dollar for dollar the GX 470 will give you bulletproof reliability and a HUGE comfort upgrade over the Tacoma.

 

[elkhunter505]

Thats a good solid setup. Ball joints and a timing belt just to have a base to go from. IIRC snip one wire and the Elocker will work whenever you want it to.

The owner did the timing belt about 15000 miles ago so seems like a good thing.

 

[elkhunter505]

You need to seriously consider a Lexus. Same 4x4 as those tacomas.

LX470/570
GX470/460

Dollar for dollar the GX 470 will give you bulletproof reliability and a HUGE comfort upgrade over the Tacoma.

I’ve been curious about these as well but I think I want a truck bed more than I want a cab. But I’ll shop around on marketplace and see.

 

[elkhunter505]

For everyone in this thread thank you for the input. I stumbled into a unicorn randomly and immediately went and bought it. 2000 Tacoma Xtra Cab with a manual transmission and manual hubs. The unicorn part is it’s a one owner with 108000 miles. Paid the Tacoma tax but I’m pretty sure this thing is gonna be the best investment I could have made.

 

[Ross]

@Steve300xcw funny you mention this.

“That era of rigs. When the lower ball joints fails...the front tire pretty much falls off the truck It is sooo much cheaper to change them before that happens! There's a few toyota dealers on ebay that sell OEM parts for fairly reasonable prices...”

Early October was scouting for my elk hunt. Had a 2000s Tundra bear hunter with dogs in the back break down in front of me on a single lane road. Wheel came off from ball joint failure. I waited behind them for an hour. Finally had to change my plan to go a different direction. They had CB contact and had to call for a wrecker to come way up the mountain to get them out. Crazy thing was, where it failed was not a bad section of road, just simply decided to break down way back in.

 

[Ross]

Replaced all mine on my 06 last yr, never want to see that happen back in. Was not really something I thought about breaking with no apparent bad action by the driver. Simply old and worn out messed their day up for sure.

 

[Scoutfan]

Congratulations on your new to you truck! Hope it serves you well.

 

[kcm2]

An older Grand Cherokee with Quadra-Trac or Quadra Drive would be better. It'll have low range, better ground clearance and will be hard to get stuck unless high centered. My 99 Grand has the 4.7 liter V8, and only 134k. I've had it 14 years and could take it to West Virginia tomorrow without concern. The 4.0 liter six is known for long life. The V8, not as much, in part because of the aluminum head. Overheat it and you can nuke the engine.

 

[rootacres]

The midsize trucks are so handy and do great on mountain roads. Tacoma’s have earned the reputation for being extremely reliable. That said, I put 240k miles on my 2019 Colorado with the 2.8L diesel. There’s so much torque you do most your 4wd work just above idle. I did a 3600 mile loop through Colorado and Wyoming with the setup in the picture. I averaged 22 MPG on the trip.

 

[elkhunter505]

The midsize trucks are so handy and do great on mountain roads. Tacoma’s have earned the reputation for being extremely reliable. That said, I put 240k miles on my 2019 Colorado with the 2.8L diesel. There’s so much torque you do most your 4wd work just above idle. I did a 3600 mile loop through Colorado and Wyoming with the setup in the picture. I averaged 22 MPG on the trip.
View attachment 991876

That’s a sweet rig. If I had the money I would have looked at one of the diesels. Ending up with the 1st gen Tacoma I found was about the best scenario I could have hoped for.