So, you need something cheap with a box in the back and the option of powering all four wheels? Look no further! While we wouldn't buy or recommend any car under $4,000 for reliable driving, historically people have gotten very lucky and found these for under a grand with some or most of the functionality remaining! These are trucks are often bought for business wright-off or for the elderly and can be found with a ton of life left in them.If, meanwhile, you are mechanically competent, then the world is your oyster! From the Ford F-150 to the late Dodge Dakota, you should be able to find these frequently, if not the parts for them, and keep them going for a long time. Could they run the Baja 1000? Not much worse than the Baja VW Beetles. Could they get you up your steep dirt driveway in the winter, up a local canyon, or over to check on your heifers at five AM? You bet it! It's reassuring to know that for a monthly minimum wage of cash you can easily own one of the most useful and capable vehicles available to man (albeit, 20-40 years ago).
10 2001-04 Ford F-150
For obvious reasons the Ford F-150 is one of the very cheapest and most available cars that you can get with a four-wheel-drive. Over and over we hear advertised that the Ford F-150 is not only one of the best-selling trucks in the world but actually one of the best-selling cars of all time! Not only does it make a great vehicle that you can find for very cheap, often owned by the likes of grandparents and business owners who took care of it or never drove it… But it also has amazing aftermarket support.
Actually, the F-150s that you can find are not hard to lift, and while there’s not much to distinguish them as off-road capable that’s sort of an advantage when you’re looking for the very cheapest you can find in the 4 x 4 truck market. If we were to check craigslist this is the first thing we would look up, even if it isn’t necessarily the most reliable, because it will warrant the lowest price and the engines can be very good if they’re well taken care of. One of the cheapest ones that we would buy from TrueCar is a 2002 4WD for $4,500, and while you can go cheaper, this is one we'd put our trust in when we drove it home.
9 1990's Toyota T100
A lot of people know about the Toyota that came after the T100, and it remains one of the most reliable cars you can possibly buy... ever! That truck is a Toyota Tacoma, a Tacoma that can easily hail a price tag of $10,000 even after 30 years of abuse. Very few people know or even consider the T100, and while it has a lot of the exact same reliability we’ve found it, quite surprisingly, to be half the price! Is it because it's just a little older? Maybe, but the forgetfulness of the public also seems to work to our advantage.
This might not be one of the very cheapest ones on this list. After looking for a while, it's not the most expensive. And after just a few months of driving... it will equal out to be the very cheapest, trust us. Because of how many of the Tacoma and T100's there are, aftermarket parts are a breeze and you certainly will not be disappointed with the capability! After searching for less than a few minutes, we found several under the price range of $3,500, our favorite being a 1997 2-door on CarGurus for $4,350.
8 Early 2000's Dodge Dakota
The truth is… The Dodge Dakota did not do very well at all while it was alive. Dad was in a slump it wasn’t turning out the most reliable cars, so as a solution they released the Dodge Dakota to compete with other small pickup trucks on the market. As a selling point, it was made cheap like the other small trucks, and that cheapness has certainly remained.
While it will most often come with a lot of issues, if you are at all mechanically inclined or if you get lucky you can find some incredibly cheap dodge Dakotas which conveniently open you up to the world of Mopar. If we’re being honest we are very impressed with some of the things we’ve seen people do with Dakotas, and on the inside, they are a fairly decent ride to have on hand. The cheapest one would buy on CarGurus came in at $3,500, it’s a 2001 with just 128,251 miles.
7 Early 2000's Chevy S1
Admittedly, it is not very easy to find a Chevy S1 in great condition but if you do they just are not worth that much! In fact, they might be the cheapest on this list that you find. The S1 is the smaller predecessor to what would split off and become the Silverado down the road. Because it’s a Chevy the engine can be considered fairly reliable even if everything‘s around it doesn’t hold up quite so well, and it had a V6 option with some capability. About 1 in 3 for sale are 4WD, so make sure you're looking at the right ones.
These are one truck that you can find with a V-8 and fun 4 x 4 options, many of them shared with the Chevy blazer, a competitor at GM put up against the bronco. This is one track we have personal experience with and we are frankly shocked that this truck continues to just keep on going. On the first page of CarFax, we found one with just over 201,000 miles, a 4WD V6 with a clean title for just $2,800!
6 2000's-2010's Ford Ranger
Oh yeah… The car with its own (explicit) theme song! The kind of people perceived to own Ford Rangers isn’t that different from the kind of people perceived to own Ford Mustangs. It’s not necessarily a bad stigma, they’re just considered crazy people who like to go all out. Not all who choose them are wild, though, as they are a great choice for a simple, small, and affordable 4x4. The Ford Ranger certainly supports this profile and has often stood up to totally inhumane abuse.
While the Ranger is technically a small truck the V-6 is capable of handling quite a bit of power if you ever wanted to increase the output and it is a very available and affordable 4 x 4, there’s not much else we can say about it. All it is is a smaller and simpler F150! Almost the exact same truck, also on this list is the Mazda B series but we will talk about that. The best Ford ranger that we would consider off-roading is a 2003 in working condition for $3,950 on Autotrader.
5 2010 or Earlier Nissan Frontier
There's not a nice way to say this… You have to be a fairly skilled mechanic to even want to buy one of these, and if you are a mechanic you probably know how unreliable they are. Like any car, there is a flipside… And that’s not just that the car is cheap! If it’s well taken care of and the owner knew what they were doing you may just have on your hands an absolute gem. Let’s be honest though, no one is reading this list trying to find something that will last him for the next 10 years! The fact is, cheapness is its advantage.
The Nissan frontier is a very capable truck when it works, it’s Nissan's attempt at fighting with the big dogs like Chevy and Ford on their home turf and we have to admit that they step up admirably. While they did fall short, all of their shortcomings are reflected in the used truck's price. If you can believe it... we found several with 4WD under $4,000 on Autotrader in respectable condition, some under $3,000. At that price range, even we are tempted.
4 1990's Mazda B-Series
Let there be no confusion… During the period of blank to blank, the Ford ranger was the Mazda B-Series. The only difference was the badge, and that difference Works to your advantage! Because the Mazda B-Series is a truck that was sold a lot less and also does not have nearly as many followers, you can pick one up for significantly cheaper on average.
Every single thing on these cars is the same as each other except for the badge, and you also might add, the demand. There’s no distinction to see if one ended up more reliable than the other, the only thing we can think of is a few stupid details like buttons and stereo features that are no longer relevant when you’re looking for a truck that old. By comparison, we found a decent 4WD Mazda B-Series on CarGurus for just $2,350, $1,600 less than the Ford Ranger we found.
3 1990s-2000s Dodge Ram 1500
These are trucks that you can find newer and bigger for cheaper than most other ones on this list. They tend to be a lot of farmer types it on the Dodge Ram 1500. This means you get a farm truck frequently available at a much lower price whether because of abuse or because the used market is fairly saturated. Rams are commonplace, reliable if cared for, and can be incredibly cheap used.
Much like its little brother, the Dakota, the Ram 1500 is not necessarily reliable and has been known to have transmission issues, ironic considering that Dodge got it starting transmissions. That being said you can always find something that was well taken care of… Or something that you can fix for the right price. In our case, the lowest prices were frequently under $3,000 on Autotrader.
2 2000's Subaru Baja
Yes, this is barely a truck but it definitely deserves mention. Subarus of this time certainly had head gasket issues which would very much make it cheaper especially if you bring it up with the seller in negotiation, but in reality, it can be fairly easily avoided. While this is not a body-on-frame vehicle, we've personally benefited from Subaru's symmetrical all-wheel drive which makes it a legend at off-roading and snow.
Unlike a lot of trucks on this list, the Subaru Baja will not give you a locking differential or four-wheel drive, but it will offer a very impressive grip on questionable surfaces with a capable and adaptive AWD system. These cars are no longer in production and are becoming somewhat of a rarity, so the price range might be slightly inflated from what it is actually worth, but despite this we were able to find one we would love to own for a little as $4,900 on Autolist.com.
1 2000's Chevy Silverado 1500
Despite not being sold nearly as much as the F-150, the Chevy 1500 is a great truck to have around. The V8 engine has a reputation for being reliable, even if the rest of the car consists of cheapness and plastic. With that reassurance, you are guaranteed to be able to find 1500s for a low price. But be wary, as many people buy these cars for $40,000 or more and don’t quite understand that the value has deflated as much as it has.
If you show them the Kelly Blue Book value which is around $6,000 (in good condition depending on options), they may start to come to terms with their vehicle. Some of the first Chevy 1500s made in the 1990s can be found online for as little as $3,000 such as one that we found from Autotrader. Although we did not mention it, almost every one of these cars has an SUV version with independent rear suspension which can be an advantage, although they may not have the same four-wheel-drive options… Depending on what you do want to do with the car, you may be able to snag a very good deal on something like Suburban, an old Excursion, or one of the hundreds of different names that Dodge called their SUVs.