My parents, mostly my 85yo dad, 'cuz my mom's got dementia, needs to replace his '08 Accord that got totally (surprisingly not his fault) and a '01 Ford Ranger 4banger MT single cab; essentially melding them into one vehicle. We're thinking a decent extended cab truck, like a Tacoma or a Frontier or...
You guys got any suggestions? We're in Northern California, San Jose to put a finer point on it so we don't have to worry about rust or E36 M3 like that. Looks like an '05-'08 Tacoma might fit in the ballpark. Anything we should look out for? Are there other trucks that're better? We've got around 10k to spend...
Vigo
UltimaDork
4/15/19 10:54 p.m.
Well, if he liked the Accord and doesn't need serious truck capability, a Ridgeline is a good vehicle.
Yeah, a Ridgeline is pretty much the ideal choice if you want an Accord with mini-truck capabilites.
Nicest mini van, Element, or Outback you can buy... When my 80 year old parents consolidated to one car from a Dakota and a Camry my dad bought an Odyssey... I’ve never seen my muscle car loving father love a car as much. Carries everything his truck with a cap did, easy to get in, and can carry all of their friends to Perkins at 4:00 for dinner...
+1 on either a Ridgeline or Odyssey, as a bonus the controls should be familiar, as well.
Ebony's trucks look great, but I'm with Old_Town. With all due respect to your Dad, 85 is NOT when you want to have to adjust everything you instinctively know about the size of the vehicle you're driving. What he wants/needs is something that feels like his Accord. Also, your Mom presumably has to get in and out of this thing: Elements or minivans FTW, big modern pickups not so much.
Yes, can not be stressed enough, at that age, egress is everything. The minivans and other tall boxes like Element are very easy to get in and out of.
I helped my 80 yr old MIL buy a new car. The decision was that it would be new and the decision was that it would be a cute ute. Sure, some cars are better than others but I held the logic that there was not a "bad" new car out there. As new, she would never drive it enough to get out of the warranty and into ownership troubles, so...
All our intial test drives of the usual suspects were not exactly test drives, rather, they were seat tests. We ruled out a number of possibilities very quickly. One that comes to mind was that we ruled out the Mazda CX5 w/o ever leaving the showroom. Though you and I might like its "sporty-ness" the seats on the CX5 are generally high bolstered on the seat cushion. This meant that should could not employ her usual technique of sitting on the very corner of the seat and then sliding inward.
Notice the seat bottom cushion bolstering on the CX5:
The winner for here was the Ford Escape. Notice how flat and un-bolstered the seat cushion is on the Escape.
My MIL law was coming out of a Chrysler Minivan. It was a height she really liked but she had recently backed into a parking lot pole so she wanted something shorter and less "big". She loves the Escape.
Minivans also have a very low load floor resulting in much easier to load items in compared to a full sized pickup truck. That somewhat begs the question, "what will your 80 yr old GandPa be loading into the truck?" Is he still buying mulch by the bed-load and then shoveling it out?
Does he haul a lot of 8ft lumber any more? Does he have towing needs?
In reply to Stealthtercel :
True, my dad can barely get in and out of his Camry but then again, that’s what decades of virtually no physical activity gets you.
Excellent suggestions from everybody. I'm thinking the Odyssey is the ticket though. The Old Man doesn't have trouble getting in and out of big ass trucks (decades of working his ass off) but Mom has some difficulty with any of the trucks we have. The van doors are wider than the Accord so it's probably going to be easier for her than the trucks.
Thank you all very much! This place ROCKS!
