Thread: Older vs. newer.

Hi, I am currently in a dilemma as to what years of vehicles I am looking to buy. I'm pretty handy with cars, I've rebuilt a 1971 vw bus before, I know how to rebuild engines properly and maintain most anything like that. My problems come to bear on newer vehicles with all the 'drive by wire' features that are now incorporated into EVERYTHING. So obviously I have a little sway towards the older, and IMO simpler, vehicles. Currently I have a 2008 Chevy silverado that has been nothing but problems. Broke down 9 times with the same issue that GM could never fix. At my wits end now, I want to sell it and buy another vehicle but I am so disgusted with all the problems I've had with this one and its overly complicated computer systems which I know nothing of how to fix. I want to go with an 80-90's Toyota Land cruiser. My budget is about 5k so I know whatever truck(need one for work so no cars) I do end up getting is going to need maintenance as it will most likely be over 100k miles. My round about question is...Am I crazy for wanting to go with something older, knowing it will need more maintenance but also knowing that I could most likely fix whatever breaks?

the newer it gets, the more expensive the parts, and the harder they make it for home mechanics to fix...
at the toyota dealership when i worked there, some new model cars would have new toosl required to change simple things, so a mechanic at a factory dealership would still have to buy one-off tools for single jobs just because the engineering gets less and less mechanic friendly. you're not alone in hating new cars.