Cheap trucks frequently get a bad name. Regularly the idea is that used tow trucks make no sense. They don’t often get good mileage. They are huge, often loud and infrequently really pretty. Here’s why old pickups should be valued, not scorned.

1. Poor mileage, compared to what?

My 1980 Plymouth Arrow Pickup gets twenty-five mpg. My 1976 Chevy C-10 gets fifteen MPG. Comparable new lorries are much more strong, but not too much better on the mileage. So, you can never justify a new wagon just on mileage.

2. Energy cost to make a new lorry.

An old vehicle, car or lorry, sitting there is a cache of value and energy. All the energy, human and fossil, that went into building that auto is stored right there prepared to work. Scrap the car and almost all of that energy is now not available to be used. Sure, you can recycle the basic materials. You can’t recycle the value-added design and producing that went into that truck. Dumping helpful trucks is a terrible waste.

3. No money time bombs.

Older cars sometimes are inexpensive to maintain. That’s’s in part because of all of the infrastructure that is’s already there to keep them going. Buy the latest and best and the maintenance issues might be far bigger than you dream. Take batteries. How much will a battery replacement cost for a hybrid down the road? What is the environmental cost of battery recycling and replacement? These are lurking money time bombs which will make many more recent cars unaffordable for poor people.

4. Parts are everywhere.

Used parts and the people to install them are the way to keep old trucks working. Many autos hit the scrap heap not because they are worn out or obsolete. It’s just because parts are expensive and the abilities to handle that particular model are rare. Drive old Chevy, Ford and Dodge lorries and forget all that, at least for now.

5. Tools not toys.

trucks are tools like trowels and hammers. They can be art objects too. But older wagons keep going because they make sense. Will the newest vehicles stand the test of time? Maybe, but maybe not.

Cheap trucks represent plenty of energy and work that’s already been spent. Scrap a truck and you have made not available massive amounts of energy invested in coming up with and putting that machine together. Keeping trucks working is far more environmentally prudent that scrapping them and replacing with new.

What about comparing an old Chevy pickup with new hybrid pickup trucks SUV. No comparison again. Look at what you can move with old lorries and take a look at what your small half-breed will do. The old truck is a different beast that excels at what it does.

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