Ray Magliozzi
Dear Car Talk:
I am like your older favorite sister, Ray. My 2004 Chevy Silverado 150 Truck has 180,555 highway, senior citizen miles on it. I do not like the new trucks. I am a keep-it-simple person.
I drive from Marquette, Michigan, to Tucson, Arizona, 2,200 miles each way, there and back every year. This truck is perfect. Plus, I have a 150-pound dog with me, a Great Pyrenees, which is one of the reasons I got a truck.
When the time comes, should I have a new or rebuilt engine put in my old, white Chevy? I do not want to give up this truck. Am I being foolish and sentimental? I love your podcast and your weekly newspaper column.
By the way, I always wanted to be a racecar driver. I am related to Barney Oldfield. I am also the fortunate owner of 2006 PT Cruiser and a 2006 Chrysler Crossfire … pure love. Thank you for reading this.
— Karen
Karen, you do remind me of my older sister. She’s nutty, too.
Whether or not to get a new truck is completely up to you. A new truck will be more reliable, more convenient to drive on long trips, more comfortable, and, most importantly, safer, with all the modern safety equipment. But it won’t have the familiarity, the simplicity of controls, the worn-out seat cushions, or the well-established dog odor that you and your Great Pyrenees love.
If you want to keep your truck, I certainly would not go ahead and replace the engine proactively. Not unless you’re currently burning a lot of oil or have a specific reason to believe you’ll need an engine soon.
If you do get to the point of needing a new engine and/or transmission (before other key parts rust or fail), and decide to keep the truck, then I’d suggest getting a factory remanufactured engine. While you can have a local mechanic rebuild your engine, that depends a lot on one person’s skill, equipment, and attention to detail. There’s a lot of variability in the outcome. Factories that remanufacture used engines, on the other hand, make them perfectly each time, and rebuild or replace everything that’s worn out to the original specs.
We use a company called Jasper, and they ship us factory-rebuilt engines in about 36 hours. They come with an excellent warranty, and honestly, we’ve never had a problem with any of the engines they’ve sold us.
You can find an installer on their website, or you can ask around for recommendations for other rebuilders. But keep in mind, buying and installing a factory-rebuilt engine and transmission will cost you many thousands of dollars. It could run into five figures for a V8. So, it may not make sense to put one in a 20-plus-year-old truck. That money might be better spent on a replacement.
And I’d encourage you to consider a new truck. If you’re driving across the country twice a year, you may find the adaptive cruise control (which accelerates and brakes, and on some cars, steers for you on the highway), the automatic emergency braking (brakes if there’s an obstacle or stopped car ahead that you don’t notice quickly enough), blind spot warning, lane keeping assistance (prevents drifting), and 10-finger nuclear butt massage (OK, I’m kidding about that last one) to be compelling reasons to bite the bullet and get a new truck, Karen.
But if you do decide to keep the old truck, at least get a harness for the Great Pyrenees. That way he can pull you to a repair shop when you break down. Happy travels, Karen.
Got a question about cars? Write to Ray in care of King Features, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, or email by visiting the Car Talk website at www.cartalk.com.
