Your opinion on a used truck

Here is the deal. I have a 2000 Chevy Tahoe, older body style. 4wd, leather, color matching fender flairs, bumpers, and so on. One of the cleanest Tahoes I have seen in Dallas.
But....
The thing cost me $120 a month for insurance due to im worried it would get stolen as soon as I take the insurance down to just liability. I dont live in a terribly bad area but it is possible to get stolen and to Mexico it goes to become a drug traffic-er.
So....
I need a truck for towing to the lake and back without busting a rear-end or transmission (Chevy).
Whats your ideas on a dodge. I cant believe how much they loose there value over the years. Im seeing some 2000's for like $2500. I really don't care about miles on the truck. As long as it will last me maybe 3 seasons. Its only 15 miles to the lake.

Changing to a different cheap used truck that you don't know the history of, just so you can carry liability-only, doesn't make sense to me. An older pickup is no less of a target for theft than an older SUV. I dropped to liability when the value of my truck got down around $5-6k. IMO it doesn't make much sense to carry full coverage when the value is that low. If it's stolen or totaled, you aren't going to get a whole lot back anyway, and the insurance company could decide to total it with <$2k of damage.

Chevy trannies cost about $1200 to rebuild every ~100-150k in my experience. That's not too bad IMO. GM rear ends are pretty good - you had problems? Older Dodges are about the same as far as drivetrain reliability, but the rest of the truck falls apart much faster. Never owned a Ford so no comment.

2500 will cover the difference between full coverage and liability only for a long time.

All cases are different, but the general rule of thumb is that if the additional cost of full coverage is 10% of the replacement value of the vehicle, it is time to consider dropping full coverage. I have not been at-fault in an accident since I was about 17, so I take my chances and only carry liability and uninsured motorists.

Still, I don't get the OP's motivation for wanting to change from one older truck to another.

Is there anything else you can do to prevent total vehicle theft? A club? A sysem that will imobilize the truck? Removable steering wheel? It seems like you should be able to drop full coverage, but still be able to protect your investment to an extent.

How much is Low Jack?

I am with Jarrod on this one. If you have a truck in great shape it doesn't make a lot of sense to get a different truck just to pay less on insurance.

What is stopping you from just dropping the collision and keeping the comprehensive? It's done all the time. That way the only way that the insurance won't pay is if you get into an accident and it's your fault.

A club. Classic.

Thanks everybody for the help. I called my agent and told them I was married and I added her as a driver. Saved me like $250 every 6 months

On the handful of times I've had to go to high crime areas I will pull the rotor out of my distributor and put it in my pocket. Your average thief is not going to carry a bunch of different rotors on him and if the vehicle doesn't start quickly he's not gonna stick around to find out why but rather move on to an easier target.

If you're that worried about theft I would look into long term plans of moving somewhere with less crime. Short term solution would be to buy an old Ford pickup for $500-$750, not do anything to make it a target, no fancy stereo, etc. Install a toggle switch under the dash with a wire inline to the coil, there's your first cutoff. Install a ball valve in the fuel line along the frame rail with a small hole through the floor under the seat to operate it. If the thief manages to find your ignition cutoff, or gets the hood open and throws +12v to coil and +12v to crank the starter he still won't get far. I'd give him about a 1 mile radius at most before the carb has no more fuel in the bowls since he didn't catch your fuel shutoff valve. At least then you wouldn't have to walk very far to find your truck. lol If it does disappear, boo-hoo you can get another for less than your full coverage deductable.

That would stop most casual thiefs. The real thiefs use a a wrecker or rollback. They'll get your vehicle no matter what you do and be gone quick without messing with your antitheft stuff. These types will only hit desireable cars, rare or expensive cars they can make money on.

Something like 1/4 of all auto thefts are due to the keys being left in the ignition.

Glad to hear you got your insurance costs reduced.

Cory, distributor rotors/caps were soo 1995. Ha, ha, ha.

Pop the fuel pump relay or wire in a hidden switch if you really want to deter some theft. I'm just sayin'

ill just take out the fuel injectors. lol

Carry some chain, a cordless hammer drill, and concrete anchors around with you, and anchor it to the parking space. You could also take all the wheels off and keep them on you.

Originally Posted by guido

Cory, distributor rotors/caps were soo 1995. Ha, ha, ha.

Pop the fuel pump relay or wire in a hidden switch if you really want to deter some theft. I'm just sayin'

lol I've always daily driven '60s vehicles. ... Either way, I'd imagine there's a way to quickly and easily disable these new fangled vehicles that shouldn't take more than a few seconds to disable or correct if you know what you yanked.