to cross the country: dodge ram or isizu rodeo?
 

Hi,
We are going to move from L.A. to N.Y.C next Sept. and we have decided to cross the country by car.
I'm going to buy a used car this week and I have two good options:
- a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with 160k. It's the truck of friends that are going to leave the country at the end of the week. They have to sell it quickly.
- a 2001 Isuzu Rodeo with 100k. It's an ad from craiglist. It's a smaller car
Both have a clean title and they have both a Kbb value around 5000$ and they have about the same mileage (18-19m/g)
So what is the best car between them to cross the country? What car has the best resell value (we have no plan to keep it in NY)?

Your data states that both cars have the same resale value, $5000, based on kbb. Are you looking for a different car value webiste to compare to Kelly?

Both cars are 10 years old--be very careful, IMOP. Both get poor gas mileage compared to what you can get now. If you aren't going to keep it, then why not just rent and forget it. This way you don't have to worry about breaking down, etc.

You would be able to move/haul a lot more in the Ram than the Rodeo.

Are you going to move a lot of stuff from LA to NY? The Ram will carry a lot more and could also pull a larger cargo trailer. Knowing the owner is a little safer than the craigslist ad.
Why rush the purchase if the trip is not until September?
Could you lease a vehicle? You could also look on Ebay Motors to see what similar vehicles are selling for.

I doubt that this is a legitimate question. But in the event the OP is for real, I'd suggest googling some car/truck forums and posing the question there. It's not really a travel question for Fodors, but question better suited to a car/truck forum.

If OP has questions about what to see along the way, fire away with those questions.

Isn;t the first a truck?

Don;t know what the second is.

If one is a truck I would be concerend aout hauling htings cross-country. Does the backlock? How will you keep things secure?

Separately, if you are going to try to resell the vehicle in NY - I can;t imagine that will be easy in NYC. We don;t do trucks here and I would think the market would be very limited. If you are selling out in the country it might be OK.

Agree that I would rent a car - and if you need to bring a few things with you get a small U-haul trailer.

The crew cab truck is going to be longer which might pose some difficulty in certain parking spaces. You probably could not do angle in parking on a downtown main street, for example. I agree that you should have some way to secure items in the back of the truck if you are hauling anything. If it has a cap, keep in mind the cap makes it difficult to see behind you and your visibility is also restricted at stop signs when an intersection is angled.

I live in NH. DS drives a 4x4 quad cab because he needs it for work and he needed something the family could ride in when they haul a camper on vacations. Even though we are in a rural area, this kind of truck is not popular. You would probably have an easier time selling the Rodeo.

I do not agree with renting a car to haul a trailer if you aren't used to hauling trailers. This would be even more restrictive for parking places even at a grocery store. Any high winds can grab the trailer making it sway. Improper driving techniques can have you end up rolled over.

I vote for the Rodeo. It will probably be more comfortable for passengers. You really need to check the leg room in the back seat of both vehicles assuming you have people in the backseat.

And just WHERE in the original post was anything said about hauling things? Two questions were asked: the best vehicle for driving across the country; the one with the best resale value.

Good luck getting parts for the Isuzu in some Backwater Town, USA. (My FIL had an Isuzu)

Mark

I have a 2002 Isuzu Rodeo. It is a piece of sh!t. Isuzus are discontinued, so as cdnyul said, it's tougher to get parts in case of problems. I just had to replace my transmission last month - $2,600. I don't know anything about Dodge Rams, but at least they're domestic.

<<<I vote for the Rodeo. It will probably be more comfortable for passengers.>>>

Not really - it rides like the truck it is. My son had a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo, and did drive it across country a couple of years ago. Fortunately, it did fine, but I'm glad I wasn't a passenger. He sold it this past year in the DC area, and good riddance (but it was a very good and useful car while we had it).

If this is just a drive cross country - and not hauling things with them - why is the OP looking at trucks instead of cars?

Not sure where in NY the OP is ending up - but here people drive cars - and trucks are very rare except in very rural areas or a place where something special is needed. I imagine it would be very difficult to resell a truck in this area - esp one so old.

If it were me I would look - depending n how many people they have - for a decent used Accord or Camry - which you can resell in about 30 minutes.

I'm sure the OP has to haul things - they're looking at trucks/SUVs and they're moving across country -- makes total sense. As for reselling, while I wouldn't buy one now, there's plenty of people out there (not in NYC, but certainly in the environs) who will buy a cheap car as long as it's still running. As I said, we sold a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo just this year.

Whoa! Thank you very much for all these answer.
Actually, if we chose to buy the rodeo, we will probably have to change the transmission. So thanks SusanM for these precious information...
We want to buy it know because we really enjoy visiting national parks and we want to enjoy the fact to have a truck to do backcountry trips before leaving California.
The price to rent a car to cross the country is really expensive so we're not going to do that.
And yes, we want to buy a big car to be able to move our stuff in NY.
So based on all your comments, we are going to chose the Ram.

Thanks again! That helps a lot!

So our idea is to cross the country with our stuff to move close to NYC. So we would like to have a chance to see a lot of interesting things during our trip but in the same time, it's not a vacation trip, so we would like to do this journey in about 9-10 days.
What is the best way according you from a trip from LA to NY. We already visited most of the national parks in California and Utah and also Yellowstone and Grand Canyon so we are looking for new places.

Dodge vehicles are made much better, in general, than Isuzu.

Good choice on the Dodge even though you don't "need" to have it for a few months.
Your first choice as to your route will come in Barstow. Taking I-15 will take you through a lot of country you have already been through. If you take I-40 you will go through Oklahoma and Tennessee. The Great Smokies NP in eastern TN might be worth a day out of your schedule.
I wouldn't want to drive a truck through Chicago on the northern route.
The other thing to consider is that the smallest U-Haul trucks are only $19.95/day rental and you can drop them where you move to.

Thanks tomfuller for these advices.
I know about the small U-Haul truck but this price doesn't take into account the number of miles. With miles, the minimum price is $2200!!! (+ taxes and assurance...)

Dukey1 on Mar 5, 13 at 8:00am
And just WHERE in the original post was anything said about hauling things?

The first four words say. "We are going to move"

So, I assume that they would be hauling things and even more so since they mentioned a truck. Most everyone hauls something when they move, even if they use a company to move them.

Yes, as I said above, we'll be hauling our stuff and some small furnitures