The ideal pianotech vehical??

[Robert Goodale]

It's nice to see this topic of piano tech vehicals has come up, as I
have been kind of thinking about a purchase sometime soon myself. It is
interesting to hear others talking about what they drive.

Currently I drive a 1987 Honda Civic, by far the most reliable car I
have ever owned. With over 123,000K on the clock it still runs smooth as
silk and gets over 30 MPG. Being such a small car, however, and in
anticipation of eventually getting into more rebuilding activity, I'm
starting to think "truck". The used market for small pickups seems
hopeless, as they are so popular that few reasonably priced good ones
come up for sale. The dealers only seem to have former lease trucks and
they cost barely over a thousand less than a new one. So what kind of
new truck to buy? My thought is to get a shell to cover the back and
then customize the inside to fit tools, equipment, a place to transport
an action, and so on. If I get to the point to where I want to buy some
pianos either the shell could come off or I could invest in a small
trailer.

I test drove a new Nissan Fronteer a few weeks ago. It seems like a very
nice truck, very comfy inside and has some reasonable power. I can get
the extra cab version including A/C and AM/FM cassette for about
$11,000- not bad. I was getting pretty excited about it until the
following week when the national insurance safety crash tests came out.
They found the Fronteer to be the second worst truck on the market in
terms of potential driver injuries (35 MPH off-center front end
collision). The Dodge Dakota ranked worst, and Toyota ranked third. The
Ford Ranger performed better but also costs about 3K more. The S-10
falls somewhere in between.

Of course then there are the other expenses that go along with a new
vehical. I called my insurance company and discovered that my rates
would go up nearly double what they are now. And of course, registration
fees also go up. I have also grown acustomed to the great gas milage my
current car gets, something that trucks notoriously fall short on.
Nobody ever said life was cheep but it sure gets you wondering.

So, has anyone else looked at, purchased, or test-driven a small truck
recently? What conclusions have you come up with? What positives and
negatives have you heard about?
Just curious.

Rob Goodale, piano dude.