Get Hotcars Premium. Start your free trial today

These used trucks might be dirt cheap, but maintaining them will cost you a fortune.

A pickup has become a way of life for many. It is a versatile tool that can haul loads to and from a jobsite during the week and then take the family away for adventures on the weekend.

As a result, the market has steadily grown and there is now a pickup out there for everyone. That growth means the used carmarket has also seen steady growth, and unlike similarly priced cars, modern pickups have proven to be more durable and usually still have a lot of life left in them even when others think otherwise and trade them for something newer.

Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, some have already had the life beaten out of them and are on borrowed time, others just aren't quite as durable as they claim to be. Sometimes, vehicles really can be too cheap.

Related: 10 Reasons Why You Should Consider The Ford F-150 Lightning As Your Next Work Truck

The first generation Titan should be a step up from the Nissan Frontier, but, in reality it was a step-down, at least in terms of reliability.

Driveline issues were common, so if the vehicle doesn’t have any record of some work done and seems a little too cheap, then you already know something is up, or most likely, about to give up.

While basically making money hand over fist with their F-150, it honestly made business sense rolling out this model as a more leisure focused alternative.

Ford just got it a bit wrong with how they went about building this particular pickup as they chose to use their Explorer platform, an SUV that ranks among the lowest of all vehicles on record in terms of reliability. The use of this platform also meant that the bed was a bit shorter than most would have liked, but they learned from this mistake and quickly dropped the model and doubled down on their successful F-150 range.

Chevrolet have upped their game with the latest Colorado, it has proven to be one of the best midsize pickup trucks money can buy. The first generation was a far less spectacular effort.

Build quality for anything GM-made in those years is now infamous, but it was their sheer lack of grunt that really stands out. They sold poorly when they were new, and we wouldn’t advise anyone to go out and buy one now either, no matter how cheap.

Woeful mileage is a given, but the shocking reliability and GM build quality made this something of a tire fire.

This was supposed to be an evolution of the rugged military spec first generation, but this supposedly more refined version actually ended up killing the Hummer brand for a time.

Honda made a stir when they released their first pickup back in the early 2000s, sadly it proved most of the haters right.

It really couldn’t haul anything and had exactly the same transmission issues that plagued most other Hondas from the era. Those transmissions are not cheap and will set you back thousands of dollars if it needs to be replaced. Most of them were also front-drive, so keep that in mind if you plan to haul anything.

Related: Here's What The 2006 Honda Ridgeline Costs Today

Although the Dakota proved to be a fairly sturdy kind of work truck, those that live anywhere near the coast or along the rust belt might have a different impression of this pickup.

They just seem to dissolve back into the earth at an almost unprecedented rate, today you won’t see too many of them running around but those you do see will likely have an almost totally rusted out bed.

Even though Ford sold these in droves, they were far from perfect. Build quality was pretty average, but they got away with that thanks to it being more of a workhorse, the real issue with them was how they ejected spark plugs.

If this was an isolated incident then you could give them a pass, but it is by far and away their number one complaint for this generation of the F-150 and is certainly something that can get dangerous if it happens at the wrong time.

With the popularity of diesel trucks still on the up, the early Cummins powered Rams have now become coveted.

Prices reflect that, but if you do spot one that is cheap beware, if they have been abused or modified you might be in for a shock when it comes time to carry out repairs on the driveline.

Related: Here's Why The 12 Valve Cummins Is One Of The Best Diesel Engines Ever Made

Unlike most pickups that get SUV versions, this, much like the Sport Trac, is a pickup version of an SUV. The problem lies in the fact that this was not a body-on-frame Jeep, but a unibody SUV, so several changes were necessitated for this pickup which essentially had a truck bed grafted onto it.

All that grafting was done by a cash-strapped AMC, and it wasn’t necessarily done all that well, so rust is a big problem. Then there is that AMC V8 they came with that likes eating oil pumps…

In good condition these beasts are selling for big money to collectors, sadly most of them are no longer in good condition.

Most of them have been thrashed and trashed, keeping them on the road will be a fool’s errand especially as the rot inevitably sets in, and your pickup becomes a parts-car.

Luke Zietsman is an all out automotive enthusiast based in The Philippines. If it has two or four wheels he has either owned it, researched about it or dreamed about it.