though we recently dedicated an episode to finding senior editor joey capparella a winter beater for under $2000, not all window shop premises are self-serving. this time, we decided to fulfill a viewer request because we're nice like that. a commenter on youtube suggested we use our skills to find a truck for less than $5000. when we asked for more details—2x4 or 4x4, heavy or regular duty, diesel or gas—we never heard back. so we made our own assumptions, which is why you'll see a seemingly random assortment of pickup trucks in this episode.
testing director k.c. colwell and c/d contributors jonathon ramsey, elana scherr, and john pearley huffman offer up some interesting choices. scherr shows us a surprisingly well-kept vintage nissan pickup whose rust-free sheetmetal has benefited from southern california's dry climate, while pearley shows off his personal toyota tundra and finds a similar one for sale online. ramsey finds an impossibly nice f-series super duty with the celebrated 7.3-liter diesel for a too-good-to-be-true price, which leads the window shop crew to suspect a scam. with the exception of yours truly, everyone on this week's panel has owned a pickup. perhaps that's why my zebrano-wood-trimmed choice isn't well received.