Might be too late but...
$6,000 in 8 months!?!?!?? ON WHAT!?!?!? I've probably got that much into mine in general maint and fixings over the 8 years of ownership...INCLUDING an engine and two transmissions...
You don't have to answer unless you don't want to.... how much do you owe on the truck? How much did you buy it for? Haven't had it a year and dumped that much coin into it already is really really hard for me to believe.
I think what may be the problem is you expect too much from a truck with half it's life already gone. You may be expecting two year old, 30k miles reliability from it. Also known as: maint free minus oil changes. Plain and simple: It's not that. It does suck when they get to a certain point where you're tossing a couple hundred at it every couple of months just to keep it running (or in your case, a couple grand every couple months?!?!?), but you might be playing catch up with negligent previous owners. I've had those before. It's actually how I got into my Ranger...my previous truck was beat and abused by previous owners.
If you've got the title, keep it. It's sooooooo much better to drop a little here and there to keep her going than it is to dump money on a monthly payment. Selling and getting something older won't really accomplish anything...you might be picking up someones even older, grosser negligence. Plus, your truck is new enough to not feel ooooold and from the 80's or early 90's. No offence to any Gen2 or even Gen3 owners out there, I dislike something nearly 20 years old. If it's my toy, I don't care...but if it's my daily, I do care. $300 a month for almost 3 years sucked! I could afford to buy my $34,000 2012 Ecoboost F150, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I enjoy owning my truck outright! lol.
Couldn't have said it better myself. You saved me from saying like the exact same thing! lol.
Redneck_Ranger, we know your head is probably going nuts on this type of decision and option looking. I've been in similar situations. But try not to think out loud on ze forumz. It does annoy. Quality of help decreases when bombarded. lol.
