It's a gamble to get a used car you know nothing about when you have a truck you know is at least a bit reliable. My family grew up playing used car roulette and it's pretty damn hard to come out ahead in this scenario. Best to run the thing until it dies while saving up for a new or like new vehicle.

Switching costs money. From what he said money might be tight. I buy and sell my own vehicles. It is a job. Most prefer to give up a few grand to not have to do it (you never get paid full market value on a trade in). Even if someone decided to do it themselves they run the risk of losing big time if they're inexperienced. Even though I've been doing it for years even I lose on some of these. When I lose, it's usually close to the cost of the vehicle. I can afford that and in the end I average out really well.But the majority of people can't do that. I get all the hate new big trucks get and I agree. As someone who works in construction I wish station wagons would make a come back. But it's really easy to say "just do x y or z" it's not so easy to do.