Gladiator or another brand for a work truck?

[ShadowsPapa]

Some people follow the old adage: never drive a vehicle better than your boss. Some people get ticked that, indirectly, they're paying for your vehicle. That's a true perception of people - and it comes from rich and poor people. I knew a guy who got pissed his employee bought herself a BMW. I don't know why he was pissed, he was sitting on roughly $10 million in real estate, with a huge lakeshore cabin.

Never heard that one.
I often drove at least as nice as my boss had, except for my first boss and then I was 14 and just starting out with a first car and he was an established business. My bosses frankly never cared. And a some of them never saw what I drove.

Naum drove luxury as did the company CFO when I worked at CCC but then Naum was the sort he wanted his employees to thrive and succeed. Big holiday bonuses, a week off between Christmas and New Years (paid) plus your normal time off.

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[Pescatoral Pursuit]

Assuming you’re going to keep it for a while, and drive a lot of miles…a gladiator may make sense on the back end. It will retain more value than any of the other options. Which will give you flexibility to buy another work truck later at a lower cost to you after you trade or sell the work Jt.

I don't believe there is a practical concept of reinvestment on a high mileage work truck.

It's very evident to me that the premier work truck, the F-150 Ford has been constructed much differently than the Jeep Gladiator. My F-150 felt like it was barely broken at 100,000 miles, whereas the Gladiator is already showing signs of loosening up at around 6,000. I can't imagine what it's going to be like as it approaches 100k let alone 300K.

I was very jealous of my buddy's new Toyota tundra Crew cab with 8 ft bed when I bought my new 6.5' bed SuperCrew. More comfortable cab and 8 ft bed. At the time of purchase I did not get much reassurance from the display at my Ford dealer that showed the immense disparity between the underpinnings of the Ford and Toyota. But boy it sure did show up at about 100,000 miles when my buddies Toyota was literally falling apart and my truck felt like it had not yet been broken in.

My Gladiator work truck is not a long-term strategy. I only bought the diesel because the hybrid was not going to be released until 2024, at which time I will be trading it in for just that. I drive all my vehicles with great care, the occasional "Italian tune-up" notwithstanding.

 

[MPMB]

Never heard that one.
I often drove at least as nice as my boss had, except for my first boss and then I was 14 and just starting out with a first car and he was an established business. My bosses frankly never cared. And a some of them never saw what I drove.

Naum drove luxury as did the company CFO when I worked at CCC but then Naum was the sort he wanted his employees to thrive and succeed. Big holiday bonuses, a week off between Christmas and New Years (paid) plus your normal time off.

Oh, don't get me wrong. It's your money, buy what you want. But there are some people in the world who have a different viewpoint.

My current employer is a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to his company. He saw me get into my car one day and said off-handedly, "nice car." I never heard him make a comment like that to anybody, nor when I got into my Expedition.

I was getting in my A4. Which we bought used in 2016 for $23k. It was $10k cheaper than my "utility" Expedition. And it was almost 1/2 the price of the Challenger parked next to it.

Was it the only "luxury" brand in the parking lot not belonging to the company owner? Yes. Was it the most expensive car, outside of the company owners? Not by a long shot. At best, it was 4th cheapest out of 15.

That said, will I be driving the JT to work when/if I go back into the office?

Nope.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Oh, don't get me wrong. It's your money, buy what you want. But there are some people in the world who have a different viewpoint.

My current employer is a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to his company. He saw me get into my car one day and said off-handedly, "nice car." I never heard him make a comment like that to anybody, nor when I got into my Expedition.

I was getting in my A4. Which we bought used in 2016 for $23k. It was $10k cheaper than my "utility" Expedition. And it was almost 1/2 the price of the Challenger parked next to it.

Was it the only "luxury" brand in the parking lot not belonging to the company owner? Yes. Was it the most expensive car, outside of the company owners? Not by a long shot. At best, it was 4th cheapest out of 15.

That said, will I be driving the JT to work when/if I go back into the office?

Nope.

I knew it was not coming from you but a commentary on how some others may view things..... I've been pretty lucky that way, on the other hand, I'm the sort of personality I'd not give a rip what they thought as long as I got paid LOL

 

[Average-Joe]

If you need an affordable work truck with a 6 ft box; Tacoma is a easy choice. I have this model as my work truck. The utility package saves you$1700 and deletes the rear jump seats. The 2.7 is bullet proof for Just hauling material

 

[rharr]

are you self employed? if so there are tax breaks to buy a 6000lb or greater truck.

It has been discussed in some EcoD threads.

 

[wannajeep]

I just got my Mojave and i will not beat that thing up working out of it. I do residential remodel and repair. I am considering buying a cheaper gladiator to work out of as the bed size is good enough for what i need most of the time.

If you already have a Mojave as a non work truck, I think you'd be wasting money getting another Gladiator as a work truck. You already have the fun/nice truck. Even a cheaper Gladiator is a lot of money for a work truck.

If you must have just one rig I can see you'd have tough choices, but if you're already resigned/able to have two, you now have the luxury of make each one better suited to its primary purpose.

Keep it simple. Get a work grade F150, Tacoma or Ram 1500 (Ram: Tradesman or Express, if they still make them. 5.7L if you can swing it) - and be done.

Let the work truck work hard. Let the Jeep play hard.

 

[1996XJ]

are you self employed? if so there are tax breaks to buy a 6000lb or greater truck.

It has been discussed in some EcoD threads.

No at the moment I'm on payroll .

 

[1996XJ]

If you already have a Mojave as a non work truck, I think you'd be wasting money getting another Gladiator as a work truck. You already have the fun/nice truck. Even a cheaper Gladiator is a lot of money for a work truck.

If you must have just one rig I can see you'd have tough choices, but if you're already resigned/able to have two, you now have the luxury of make each one better suited to its primary purpose.

Keep it simple. Get a work grade F150, Tacoma or Ram 1500 (Ram: Tradesman or Express, if they still make them. 5.7L if you can swing it) - and be done.

Let the work truck work hard. Let the Jeep play hard.

People swear up and down the Dodge won't last long and that I should get a Tacoma. Thing is I just don't like them but I suppose I should consider them since reliability and longevity is what I need.

 

[Jerhemi]

I liked my F150. Good towing, decent on fuel (12L/100km with 5.0), TONS of cab space, quiet, aluminum body, Sync system was great. With the 5.5' box and a backrack I never ran in to a problem hauling.

 

[Guns_N_Rosaries]

Late to the party, but I also agree with the base model Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra work truck trim with the 4.3 and 2 wheel drive (unless you live somewhere icy).

Sub-$30k, will last a long time, I'm not sure about a beat up work truck holding its value, but you'll have no problem eventually selling it.

 

[wannajeep]

People swear up and down the Dodge won't last long and that I should get a Tacoma. Thing is I just don't like them but I suppose I should consider them since reliability and longevity is what I need.

When you're buying from any of the top brands, reliability and longevity is a concept that often exists more in our minds than in reality.

Assuming a well proven motor and transmission, longevity might be driven more by how people drive, use and maintain their rigs than by the brand or model.

When I was considering buying a car many years ago that was about 20 years old, kept in a heated garage and had only 18K miles on the odometer, I told a seasoned mechanic friend about it and he calmly reminded me it's easy to kill a car in just 10,000 miles.

If it's a work truck, you don't have to like it. It's a work truck. Treat it as such.

I ended up buying that old Buick, which in the for-sale post was inadvertently advertised as a V6 but which I came to later realize was powered by the old 4-Tech. It died shortly thereafter. Granted, it was because of a poorly designed timing chain system and probably not because of a lack of proper maintenance. The sweet old lady who sold it to me was well into her 80s and used the money to take a well deserved trip to the Galopagos Islands. I have no regrets :D

 

[Orange01z28]

I really, really liked my Ram Rebel

I bought my Gladiator as a compromise with something that could really wheel and still do some truck things. If I had a vehicle that just needed to do truck things I'd get a base model Ram

 

[Hootbro]

Get a Tradesman regular cab 2WD RAM 1500 Classic. Has the same engine and transmission as your Gladiator. Will simplify your maintenance support.

Edit: Gladiator is the Upgraded Pentastar series but same family.

 

[Tiny]

The truck I had before the Gladdy was a 2010 2wd Silverado WT extended cab. 4.3 V6. Bought new. Crank windows, steelies, radio only. Had heat and a/c but not much else. Bought it purposefully basic so nothing would break and 10 yrs/115k miles later, nothing did. Cruise control was the only thing I missed really. Lined the bed and beat the hell out of it. Just weekend warrior stuff but it did great. Hauled gravel, furniture, brick. Towed some box trailers periodically. I was really surprised for a full sized rwd truck how good it did in snow, provided my tires weren't bald. The 4spd auto made the V6 kind of a dog on the highway but otherwise it was fine.

Loved that truck and it am convinced with regular maintenance it would have lasted 30 years. But....then the Gladiator came along and as they say, love is fickle. Gladdy is infinitely more fun but for a work truck it was perfect. I think back then I paid about $21k. Got $10k in trade for the Jeep.

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