That's true VetteOwner, I almost bought a brand new S-10 when I bought my current truck, but it just didn't have the legroom I wanted. I had also looked at the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon but felt that they pretty much got the same mileage as the full size trucks, so why not buy a full size.

-Jay

I would look at the older toyota pickup's, ford rangers, chevy s-10's. get the manual version, you can average a good 25 mpg with those

yea even when i was in highschool and drove it hard still got 24 before all the mods.

im 6'1" and fit in a regular cab s-10 just fine (sure seats all the way back but ehh) personally id rather have the extended cab, seat goes back further and can accualy have another person in with you and have room for crap.

yea the colorados are nice but thier mpg isnt great for its size.

manual trucks see a huge mpg improvement over the auto.

the GMC sonoma, chevy s-10, iszusu hombre are all the same truck.

also theres a pretty good aftermarket market for them if thats any interest (anything from engine mods to body kits)

can find them as bare bones as no radio, bench seat, non tilt steering wheel manual everything no ac if you desire. or decked out with everything imaginable (power mirrors, locks, windows, seats, heated bucket seats, etc)

I have a 09 Ranger 2.3l 5sp manual trans. My worst tank was 29.1MPG & my best (so far) is 36.5MPG.
A tonneau cover & 40lbs of air in the tires are the only mods besides driving it gentle.

I ordered a scan gauge II & hope to get over 40MPG.

Pretty good for something that is rated at 21city - 26 hwy.

If you mean you only put 1000 miles a year on the Ranger in Home Depot runs, @ 20mpg, then you're gonna have to get something that does 40mpg for practically free to be worth the DOT transfer/licensing fees even.

Unless you mean you need a 2nd daily driver and a truck and want to combine functions, coz you need to do more miles and the truck is too thirsty. To get decent city mileage though you'll be looking for something old and/or rare like a Dodge D50 diesel, 3.3BT swapped Comanche, Dodge Rampage, Subaru Brat etc...

Then on the other hand, over two months this spring, I carted more stuff around in/on Wile-E than some "Must have a truck" guys do in years.

I had a 96 ranger 4 cyl, 5 speed, now I have an 87 S10 (2.5l) 4 cyl, 5 speed. I'll take the S10 any day of the week.

I've put 1300+lbs in the S10 and it'll do 70+ still. the ranger had the same acceleration with half the weight. S10 gets slightly better mileage than the ranger did (without power steering... or overdrive), and does it while taking far more abuse (at least before I put on the 4wd axle that makes the wheels stick out) the S10 can spin the wheels in 2nd, the ranger stalled before spinning the wheels in 1st. the S10 doesn't have the retarded twin-I-beam front suspension. with a 2" drop (springs/blocks) and the addition of some sway bars that were free it's quite nimble for a truck.

Why replace what you have?