TREAD

Taking a Chance on a Pre-Owned Taco

WORDS BY JOHN MATA JR.

PHOTOS BY EVAN WALSH

We’ve all spent endless hours online searching for local and not-so-local trucks listed for sale. Even if we don’t necessarily need a new pickup, there’s no harm in looking, right? In theory, the practice of doom scrolling through classified ads is innocent enough, but every now and then things can quickly escalate past the act of window shopping. Before you know it, you just might find yourself hitting the road with an empty trailer “just in case” the truck in question is in fact too good of a deal to turn down. Even if the seller’s description is incorrect or simply misleading, there’s still a chance that truck is following you home whether under its own power or hitching a ride on that car hauler. Impulse buying a hell of a drug.

While none of us are immune to this sort of behavior, these stories don’t have to end negatively. Sure, you might just end up bringing a lemon of a truck back home that needs way more work than its previous owner let on, but there are those lucky, diamond-in-the-rough scores that keep the hunt for a new-to-us project forever enticing.