Americans’ love of pickup trucks has made them the best-selling vehicles on the planet, at least in full-size form. The big three domestic brands sold more than 2 million half-tons in 2023, with the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, and Ram 1500 sweeping the top three positions on the national sales charts. But big trucks, and even midsize ones, tend to come with big price tags; the average price of a new pickup topped $60,000 last year.
Fortunately, shoppers on a budget can still have plenty of used truck options, and at least one new one. Only the base model compact Ford Maverick has a retail starting price of less than $25,000, but for everyone else, used trucks beckon. The hotly competitive nature of big-selling pickups, however, means that even options from a decade ago offer much of the same utility as today’s trucks, many of the same creature comforts, and similarly large cabins, with room for the family in many crew cab models.
To help guide you to the right truck without breaking the bank, we’ve set a price cap of $25,000. In general, if you’re looking for a pickup at this price, your best bet is to set your sights on one of the lower trim levels, which will net you a simpler truck but probably a much newer and cleaner one. If you’re looking at top-dogs like the Ford F-150 King Ranch, RAM 1500 Laramie, or GMC Sierra Denali, the only ones you’ll find at this price are very old or very beat. Similarly, Heavy Duty models tend to be even pricier in all grades, but there are choices available.
Work truck grades, like the Ford F-Series and Ranger XL, the Ram Tradesman, and the Chevrolet WT trims, aren’t very expensive to start but often lack basic features of creature comforts. That’s fine if, as their names suggest, all you need is a work truck, but most buyers will want more. We’ve tried to focus on middle-grade trims here for full-size trucks, which include a few niceties like power seats or infotainment systems with modern conveniences like Bluetooth, satellite radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
For smaller trucks, it’s a different story. While the Jeep Gladiator remains pretty hard to find under $25,000 in good shape, most other not-full-size trucks can be found even at higher trim levels in this price range, though the fanciest and most capable ones, like the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro or Ford Ranger Tremor, probably won’t fit under the cap. While compact and midsize trucks don’t have as much room or brawn as their bigger siblings, they’re a whole lot cheaper and more practical, and in some cases they don’t really give away that much capability.
Modern pickup trucks almost all have automatic transmissions, too, and most are offered with either rear-wheel drive (RWD) or four-wheel drive (4WD). Unless you’re hauling a horse trailer up a steep dirt road or driving regularly in slippery, snowy conditions, opting for RWD may be a good tip to save some money.
The Best Trucks Under $25,000 in 2024
- 2012 to 2022 Chevrolet Colorado / GMC Canyon
- 2011 to 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 / GMC Sierra 1500
- 2015 to 2020 Ford F-150
- 2011 to 2016 Ford F-250 Super Duty
- 2022 to 2023 Ford Maverick
- 2019 to 2021 Ford Ranger
- 2006 to 2020 Honda Ridgeline
- 2007 to 2021 Nissan Frontier
- 2009 to 2018 Ram 1500 & 2019 to 2021 Ram 1500 Classic
- 2012 to 2018 Toyota Tacoma
2014 to 2022 Chevrolet Colorado / GMC Canyon
A brand new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon debuted in 2023, which means that these second-generation models are now old hat. But even though they may be yesterday’s news, these trucks offer a few things that the brand-new Colorado and Canyon do not, and they’re attractively priced. You won’t find the specialized off-road Colorado ZR2 models at this price, and models from the later years will be more expensive, but careful shopping should be able to yield good, low-mileage examples of the rest of the line.
These versions of the Colorado and Canyon are largely credited with reviving the nearly-moribund market for midsize trucks in the mid-2010s, and both debuted in 2014 as 2015 models. They’re refined drivers as full-frame pickups go, and they have more interior space than the Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger, even if the back seat is small compared with a big Silverado or Sierra Crew Cab. They come in extended or Crew Cab form and, in the former, with long or short beds.
From the start there were two drivetrains, a 200-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder, a 304-horsepower 3.6-liter V6, and from 2017 a 181-horsepower 2.8-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder. Don’t let that 181 horsepower rating fool you, with 369 lb-ft of torque, the diesel was strong enough to boast the highest tow rating of any midsize truck at the time, at 7,700 pounds. The Colorado and Canyon are tough, simple, and comfy, and even fairly capable off-road with 4WD. The only versions worth avoiding are the very base models, as the gas-powered four-cylinder isn’t very powerful. If you need anything more than a work truck though, both of these models are very good choices.
2011 to 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 / GMC Sierra 1500
These years cover the third-generation (2014 to 2019) and fourth-generation (2019 to present) Chevrolet Silverado and their fancier cousin, the GMC Sierra. Although some power, payload, and tow ratings, as well as the interior and exterior styling, are different, under the skin these two trucks are peas in a pod. They use the same engines, same chassis, and same basic systems. GMC’s tend to be a little fancier, and after 2019 they looked a little more handsome, but all make good full-size truck companions.
The 2014 to 2018 models are handsomely styled, roomy, and well-made, but their engines are all pretty old-school, which means worse fuel mileage than equivalent Ford and Ram models. They also can’t tow or carry quite as much as similar F-150s, but they offer lots of utility an only the most extreme uses cases really matter. The standard engine was Chevy’s 4.3-liter, 285-horsepower V6, which is found mainly on the work truck. Higher trims almost always use the equally familiar 5.3 or 6.2 liter V8s, with 355 or 420 horsepower. These old engines continued in the 2019 generation. From 2016 to 2018, a mild hybrid system was offered on the 5.3, but it’s rare.
In 2019 GM totally redesigned both pickups, with Chevy getting a very aggressive-looking face and GMC getting even more chrome, but both were reasonably handsome. Most of the engines carried over at first, but were later joined by a fantastic 3.0-liter turbodiesel inline-six boasting truly excellent fuel economy by full-size truck standards. The old 4.3 was also phased out in favor of a 2.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, which sounds incongruous in a big truck but actually works pretty well. Given the age of these newer trucks, the diesel will be rare for this price, but the four-cylinder is widely available.
In both generations, the Chevy has a simpler interior, but both trucks are comfy and possess easy-to-use infotainment systems. On Chevrolet models, LT and LTZ versions are the ones to have, while on GMCs the SLE, SLT, and off-road-themed AT4 will present the best blend of features and price. There are many special editions, and both have luxury variants, High Country and Denali, but those aren’t easy to find at this price.
2015 to 2020 Ford F-150
This generation of Ford F-150 (the thirteenth F-Series so far) preserved all of the traits that have made this truck the best-selling vehicle in America for four decades, but it added lots of innovations. Primary among them were its high-strength aluminum body and bed, which meant a 400 to 600 pound weight savings in most trucks over the previous F-150. Big trucks are heavy, and lightening them up means better performance and fuel economy, and this F-150 got both. Though the aluminum was very strong, Ford also increased the use of high-strength steel in the frame from 23% to 77%. There were also lots of new available safety features, including surround-view monitoring, rear cross-traffic alerts and lane-departure warnings.
Ford did not stop there, adding new non-turbo V6s (a 3.5 liter with 282 horsepower and later a 3.3 with 290), a twin-turbo 2.7-liter Ecoboost V6 (325 hp), a 3.0-liter diesel V6 (250 hp), and making refinements to the existing 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 (365-375 hp) and 5.0-liter V8 (395 hp). Offering the widest variety of bed, cab, and engine configurations in the industry, there’s a version for everyone, though the mid-range Ford F-150 XLT is usually the sweet spot on value. There are also luxury Lariat models, King Ranches, and Platinums in escalating levels of luxury, with leather seats, sunroofs, and more standard features, but the top trims are hard to find for this price.
Inside, the cabin is huge and comfy, though only the crew cab is truly meant for family life. XL models have tiny, basic infotainment setups, but other models get proper screens and Ford’s easy-to-use Sync system. The most powerful and luxurious models, and the optional diesel-engine models, will be hard to find at this price, but the F-150 offers the highest tow and payload ratings in its class in these years, so it can do the maximum number of jobs. Since there are so many configurations, however, it’s worth researching the exact specs of the used model you’re looking at to know if it’ll meet your needs. These models are also still new enough that even among sub-$25,000 options, there are still some certified pre-owned choices.
2011 to 2016 Ford F-250 Super Duty
Think you can't get a Heavy Duty-class pickup truck for less than $25,000? Think again. There are a surprisingly high number of low-mileage F-250 Super Duty pickups from these years available for less than $25,000. These are mostly 10-year-old pickups equipped with gasoline or diesel V8 engines and 4WD, but it’s possible to find XL-level work grade Super Duty models as late as 2016 for this price.
These years encompass the third-generation Super Duty, but that’s a bit of a misnomer. By 2011 the basic chassis of the Super Duty had been around for more than a dozen years after being split off from the F-150 lineup in 1998, and this was the final major update to that the truck got before a total redesign in 2017. As a result, many of the components are rock tough and well-proven, but then, this is a Heavy Duty truck. Some versions have payload ratings of more than 4,000 pounds, had tow ratings of as much as 14,000 pounds and gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR) of more than five tons. It has to be tough.
Most Heavy Duty models cost considerably more than standard “half ton” (a historical term, not their actual payload ratings) models, and that’s also true here. Most F-250s you’ll find at this price are work-grade XL and low-to-mid-range XLT models. King Ranch and Platinum trucks will be very rare. There are also Heavy Duty alternatives from Chevy, GMC, Ram, and Nissan, but they don’t have as much capacity and usually aren’t quite as good a value.
2022 to 2023 Ford Maverick
Easily the most affordable Detroit truck in over a decade, the crossover-based Ford Maverick took the truck world by storm in 2022. It isn’t very big, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in overall value. For one thing, it starts (even in 2024) for less than $25,000 in hybrid form, and in that configuration, it boasts the best fuel economy of any pickup truck on the market. Nor do its crossover roots (it shares much with the Ford Escape and Bronco Sport) detract from its utility.
The Maverick looks and functions like a true dyed-in-the-wool pickup, even if it comes only as a crew cab. It even has a usable bed that’s 4.5 feet long—enough to get a dirt bike in if the tailgate’s left open. The standard 191 horsepower, 155-pound-feet-of-torque hybrid drivetrain is frugal, but you can swap it out for a more powerful 2.0-liter EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder (250 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque) in every trim level—another nice feature of the Maverick.
Inside, the Maverick is on the basic side, as you’d expect given its low, low price. But it actually has more back seat space than many larger crew cab midsize pickup trucks. Like the Hyundai Santa Cruz, introduced at the same time and a little nicer to drive, the Maverick is also a very good handler by pickup truck standards, with dynamics not unlike the Escape. The only downsides? The Maverick can’t tow very much, and it isn’t necessarily easy to find. Early examples have held their value as this is still a new-ish model in heavy demand.
2006 to 2011 Ford Ranger
A compact pickup legend, the Ford Ranger was canceled in 2011 after a 29-year run that saw only two major updates. Underneath, some of the same early eighties mechanical pieces remained. But in other markets, the Ranger never went away, and seeing the success of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, Ford revived the model in 2019. This time, it’s based on the international Ranger, designed in Australia back in the late 2000s and on sale there since 2011. Despite its fundamental age and basic interior, this Ranger is a very good midsize truck.
Unlike most of its rivals, there’s only one drivetrain, a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission. The engine makes 270 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, which on paper doesn’t seem like all that much, but in reality is enough to evenly match this truck with V6 versions of the Colorado, Nissan Frontier, and Toyota Tacoma. It also provides for a 7,500-pound max tow rating when properly equipped, and it helps lug around its class-leading payload capacity (1,860 pounds), while getting very good gas mileage for such a vehicle.
All this makes the Ranger a very credible rival for the other midsize trucks at a relatively low price. The interior feels old and basic, the styling is bland, and the crew cab’s back seat isn’t huge, but it has lots going for it as a traditional truck. Ford also offers more extreme off-road trims like the Tremor (added in 2021). Since every Ranger has the came capabilities, in its most basic trims, the Ranger makes a very good work truck, much better than the stripper versions of the Colorado or Tacoma.
2006 to 2020 Honda Ridgeline
Pickup truck buyers have never entirely warmed to the Honda Ridgeline, in part because it has never looked very “truckish.” The company remedied this in 2022 by giving it a bluff new front end that a Kenworth would be proud of, but those trucks are still too new to be widely available at this price. Instead, these years cover two earlier versions of the Ridgeline, the 2006 to 2014 original and the second-generation model introduced in 2017. The newer ones look a whole lot more like “normal” crew cab pickups but still wear stubby front-end styling similar to the Honda Pilot SUV.
The original Ridgeline shared little other than its engine and a few mechanical pieces with other Hondas, but it wasn’t so philosophically different from a crossover SUV with a big bed on the back. It was a unibody, integrated-bed design, not unlike today’s Rivian R1T or the Ford Maverick. It still had a five-foot bed (6.6 feet with the tailgate down) and lots of utility, but it didn’t seem as rugged as a traditional truck, so sales were slow. It was, however, very practical and well-made, and 200K mile examples are common. It also had some nice innovations, like an in-bed lockable trunk and a multi-function tailgate.
In 2017, Honda launched the second-generation Ridgeline, which was now based directly on the Pilot to share economies of scale in production. Like the original, by midsize truck standards, the Ridgeline’s interior is huge. It has a back seat that families with teenage kids can actually use, unlike a Tacoma or a Ranger. It also drives like a crossover, with decent mpg and much better handling than truck buyers are traditionally used to. Despite its unconventional design, it can also still tow 5,000 pounds and, when fitted with the optional all-wheel drive (AWD) has a decent amount of off-road capability. This newer truck also has a modern infotainment system with Apple Carplay and Android Auto.
While not a traditional truck in any sense, nor visually conventional, the Ridgeline does most of what conventional trucks do without the weight, handling, or room penalties of their construction. It also has that typical Honda quality, so expect years of reliable service.
2007 to 2021 Nissan Frontier
When it was new, the second-generation Nissan Frontier felt like a futuristic design thanks to its sleek styling and upscale cabin. But that was in 2007, and time waits for no truck. Its styling still looked good in 2021, but by then it was the oldest and smallest truck on the market, and it felt it. Nissan redesigned it a year later, but the long production run for these trucks, almost entirely unchanged until very late in the run, means that they are plentiful and cheap. Despite feeling old, they’re also pretty useful.
For many years there were two engines available, a 152-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder and a 261-horsepower 4.0-liter V6. While the four was standard and cheap, it wasn’t very powerful and most buyers chose the six. In 2020, Nissan replaced both engines with a potent new 310-horsepower, 3.8-liter V6 designed for the upcoming 2022 model. This last engine is by far the best of the three but wasn’t in production for very long.
Like the Toyota Tacoma, the regular cab Frontier left a long time ago, and the smallest, cheapest Frontier available is the King Cab (an extended cab configuration), with a four-cylinder engine. This is about as close as you’re going to get to a classic Datsun pickup, but most buyers will prefer the crew cab and the V6. It’s pretty small in back and its in-vehicle tech offerings are antiquated in the extreme, but as a working vehicle or just a simple runaround truck, it’s honest and easy to live with.
From 2008 to 2012, a reworked version of the Frontier was also sold as the Suzuki Equator. They’re rare, but cheap if you can find one.
2009 to 2018 Ram 1500 and 2019 to 2021 Ram 1500 Classic
If you remember 2008, it was not a great year to be building big pickup trucks. High fuel prices and the Great Recession saw this generation of the Ram 1500 (still called the Dodge Ram before 2011) get off to a slow start, but it was a very good truck in lots of ways, and it still is today. That’s because there are loads of different variations of this pickup available for $25,000 or less, and customers liked it so much that Stellantis continued to build low-end versions of it alongside the redesigned circa-2019 Ram 1500 until 2023. Those continuation models are called “Ram 1500 Classics.”
This Ram’s biggest innovation was a coil-spring rear suspension, deviating from the typical leaf springs on previous Rams and alternatives from Ford and Chevy. This gave the 1500 a much smoother ride when unladen, and better handling than its opposite numbers without really sacrificing towing power, though it does have a lower payload capacity than equivalent F-150s (but not by much). Ram’s trademark semi-truck-in-miniature styling continued, as did some familiar powerplants. Until 2013, you could choose from a 215-horsepower 3.7-liter V6, a 315-horsepower 4.7-liter V8 or the 390-horsepower 5.7-liter “Hemi” V8.
After 2013 Ram steadily upgraded the truck, adding a frugal Ecodiesel V6 (240 horsepower but a brawny 420 pound-feet of torque, the most of any Ram 1500 motor at the time) and the 305-horse 3.6-liter “Pentastar” V6 as the base engine. The Ram’s upscale cabin and increasingly sophisticated infotainment systems lent an air of luxury to the higher trims, but Ram also offered lots of cool sport trucks in this era, as in the previous generation. Unlike the 2019 redesign, this version also offered a full array of cab and bed combos, including a single-cab with six- or eight-foot beds, though the stretched “Mega cab” was only for HD 2500 and 3500 models in this generation.
When the new 1500 came along in 2019, Stellantis (then Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) decided to keep building its popular predecessor as a lower-budget alternative. The “Ram 1500 Classic” is still available new and by far the cheapest full-size truck on the market. This means used models from 2019 to 2021 are now entering the sub-$25,000 zone. While most are work trucks, there is a stylish “Warlock” model that’s pattered on the newer Ram 1500 Rebel.
2012 to 2017 Toyota Tacoma
The best-selling midsize truck on the market for well over a decade now, the Toyota Tacoma is hugely popular for its off-road chops, durability, and seemingly evergreen style. It got its first total redesign in nearly two decades for 2024, but that only means that there are many very familiar examples of its two predecessor generations, built from 2005 to 2015 and then from 2016 to 2023. While the 2016 version was a major upgrade, it reused a great deal of the earlier version’s components, including its sturdy frame, engines, and some of its body panels.
Tacomas keep their value very well and the most desirable trims, particularly the rugged TRD Off Road and TRD Pro models, aren’t cheap to start. If you want one of those for less than $25,000, you’ll have to seek out an older pre-2018 model or tolerate one with more miles on the clock. Both of these generations offer 2.7-liter four-cylinder or V6 engines, and in both cases, the 159-horsepower four-cylinder models aren’t very desirable. They’re just not powerful enough for the heft of this truck. The V6s (4.0 liters and 236 horsepower until 2015, and 3.5 liters and 278 horsepower from 2016 on) are much better but don’t get great gas mileage.
Tacomas come standard with rear-wheel drive but the most desirable ones are four-wheel drive (4WD). It’s a very good truck in the dirt, but the most hard-core models don’t handle very well on the pavement. Rear-drive models have the same rugged looks, but they can’t tow as much as other midsize trucks. There are XtraCabs and Double Cabs (crew cabs), and a variety of cab and bed combos not offered by some newer competitors, but the crew cab’s back seat is among the tightest in its class. Toyota also offers lots of standard safety features that are largely absent from older competitors.