Hello, I am 20 almost 21 and want a good reliable truck.
I recently bought a 2000 Chevy S10 for $300 with 95,000 miles on it. The frame has surface rust like anything in Wisconsin, but other than that it is pretty minimal for being 22 years old. It is an automatic and it doesn't run quite yet. I believe there could be something wrong with the transmission, there was residue on the ground where it had sat and a red fluid condensating on a pan on the bottom, (hasn't ran for about a year). My aunt could've spilled some transmission fluid refilling it though too, she can't remember. She used it as a gardening truck after buying it from a guy who used it as a work truck, (he was a painter).
It would crank but never turn on and I thought it would be good to invest in a new fuel pump since I couldn't hear it run. Taking the truck apart I broke the rusty fuel spout and deemed the gas tank too rusty to chance. So now, with $225 in fuel spout, tank and pump, is it smart to continue fixing/ working on this small truck or should I turn around and sell it to find something else? It desperately needs new tires and a currently unknown amount of other things to be fixed.
I have an uncle(brother to the aunt I bought it from) who has been into fixing cars his whole life who's helping me too.
Looking at your YouTube channel, it seems you'd lean towards older Chevy, Ford, and Mazda vehicles, but I didn't see anything about the S10 other than a low rider that was in a competition.
Thank you for your time,
Jebediah R.
I'm still unclear on its current status.
Did you put the new fuel parts in? Is it running now?
No, not yet. The parts just arrived yesterday
Well you already bought the parts, so you might as well put them in and see what happens.
So far you're only in $525 on low mileage truck so you're doing ok.
Okay, thank you. I'll update this and you once I get the parts in the truck!
I'm ambivalent on this one. We (family) are looking at a similar situation. After my father passed away, he left his 1999 S10. It turns over, but needs a lot of work. Pretty much everything needs help; after all, it is a 20+ year old Chevy.
Previously, my grandfather left his '64 Chevy stepside, which somehow got sold out of the family. We swore that we wouldn't let my father's truck get away. But obviously a '64 stepside is way cooler and way more valuable than a '99 S10. So when my brother priced out everything it would need, we were looking at $10-15K just to get it back in solid shape (which is more than it would cost to buy one with everything already fixed). And as my wife pointed out, we could spend that money and still just have a '99 S10 (not exactly a highly sought collectible)
With your truck, based on what you described above, I would imagine that there are likely additional things that would have to be done to make it "good" and "reliable". It would not take much to spend WAY more than the truck is worth. So assuming there is no sentimental value (like with my Dad's truck), before you get too far along, I would go over the whole thing top to bottom. Probably have a mechanic inspection (maybe a compression test). See what you really have and what it would really take to make it a viable daily driver.
In the end, you might be better off selling it + taking the cost of repairs and finding another one that is well-maintained and running well.
PS - 2 other comments:
1) For what you spent on it, I bet you can just flip it on Craigs List and make a small profit, probably including the parts you got (maybe list it for $1500 and take a grand)
2) If you really want an S10, see if you can find a first-gen square body S10 or S15 (GMC) with a manual transmission and the old "Iron Duke" I4 motor. Those are much more desirable than the second gen S10s and therefore justify more of an investment.
