The sheer versatility of a pickup is something that is attracting more and more buyers every year. Pickups have become more refined and more efficient than ever, and there is no denying the appeal of such a vehicle.
For those of us who can only own one vehicle, they make even more sense. The market for pickups has seen huge growth in recent years, and as a result, the used market has also blown up. Pickups, for the most part, have proven to be more durable than similarly priced cars and usually still have a lot of life left in them even when others perceive otherwise or simply choose to upgrade.
Some cheap pickups really are cheap for a reason, though, and will likely bankrupt you if you try to keep them on the road.
10 Ford Sport Trac
Back in the early 00s, Ford saw where the market was heading and rushed their leisure-focused pickup to market.
They decided the Explorer platform was a good fit for comfort, but this meant the bed was a lot shorter than most would have liked. More concerningly, this was a platform with a less-than-stellar reliability record. All told the Explorer got recalled a whopping 16 times.
9 Chevrolet Colorado
Chevy had something of a rocky start with their mid-size pickup. Today, people trust the Colorado name, but in the '00s it was a bit of a running joke.
GM was cash-strapped at the time so not much got invested in its development. Pretty much anything they made back then had sub-par build quality, awful interiors, and less-than-stellar reliability.
8 Hummer H2 SUT
The Hummer and by extension, the “pickup” SUT variant were pretty much doomed to fail. The H1 became a cult hero and was everything it claimed to be: a rugged, uncomfortable diesel-guzzling troop carrier.
The H2 was going to be the refined, civilian-friendly version. Unfortunately, it was anything but refined thanks to its woeful build quality. It just guzzled gas instead of diesel and occasionally caught fire.
7 Dodge Dakota
Like several pickups, the Dakota has a pretty big fan base, but those that live anywhere near the coast or along the rust belt... well, they might have a different impression of this pickup.
If you see a Dakota today without any rust, you might well be looking at the only one, or one that somebody actually took the time to repair. Even their brake lines sometimes rust through – something that is deeply concerning.
6 Ford F-150
Although this generation F-150 will go down in history as one of the best-selling vehicles of all time, it too has its fair share of problems.
It had a nasty habit of ejecting spark plugs, which is something that could have been fixed pre-production, but Ford decided to just repair vehicles under warranty instead. Although it is not a deal-breaker, if it happens in conjunction with another known fault, a leaky fuel line, things might get a little too interesting.
5 Dodge Ram
Cummins diesel-powered Rams of the 80s have become increasingly popular. Prices reflect that fact, but if you do spot one that is cheap, beware.
These were work vehicles that may not have been properly maintained, and you might just end up taking on something that requires a lot of expensive deferred maintenance work.
4 Jeep J10
Arguably one of the best-looking pickups from this era. Its issue starts with the fact that it was never supposed to be a body-on-frame design but a unibody SUV.
AMC essentially grafted a pickup bed onto an SUV. As a result, rust is a big and very obvious problem, and it can ruin the bed. There is also that AMC V8 the vast majority came with, which likes snacking on its own oil pump.
3 Chevrolet Avalanche
Chevrolet was onto something with the Avalanche. They saw the need for more leisure focussed pickups and actually made something that was certainly more car-like to drive and pretty innovative.
Unfortunately, it suffered from the same poor build quality as everything else GM made in the 00s. It had a long list of frustrating issues including an interior that would just fall apart and those bad airbags supplied by the now-infamous Takata.
2 Lincoln Blackwood
The Blackwood, like most luxury Lincoln offerings, is a souped-up Ford. Therein lies the problem, because the Ford base was not exactly up to the task.
Although this has worked well for most of their vehicles, taking something solid and adding luxury, all they did here was add a badge and more electronics gremlins.
1 GMC Canyon
If you think we are picking on GM a little, well, we are. The Canyon rather obviously suffers from the same foibles as the aforementioned Colorado.
This only serves to highlight the risk of badge engineering. If you are going to display your name on something, better be sure it lives up to your brand standards.