Best used pickups 2024

Written by Richard Kilpatrick Published: 22 March 2024 Updated: 22 March 2024

The cost of a new pickup has risen dramatically in the last four years, and it’s not just the list price. Cheap lease deals are few and far between, and there are fewer new models on the market. This means that buying a used pickup can offer more than simply saving money – there’s a greater choice of models with different capabilities.

Which pickup is best for you depends on your planned usage. Double cab 4x4s such as those in our 2020 pickup group test are often chosen as true dual-purpose vehicles with family in mind. They’re a cost-effective alternative to an SUV for sole traders, companies or directors who can put it through a business.

Utility pickups with a single cab offer larger load areas for carrying bulky plant, equipment, or waste. Some models offer extended cab versions too, which aren’t really suited for regular passenger use but offer a secure storage space with occasional seats. They are popular with utility companies and emergency services and converters who want to fit demountable pods of specialised equipment.

Best used pickups in the UK

What are the best used pickups for £10,000

This is a difficult price point, so we’ll look for some Euro 6 options and leave you to do the haggling. Many of these are typically advertised by dealers at around £13,000, so you may get a good private deal or find prices fluctuate with seasonal demand.

To get the best, look at the higher mileage ones that have probably lived on motorways, rather than the usual wisdom of favouring low mileage. Find examples with a comprehensive service history and plenty of receipts, and buy on your eyes, ears and instincts – make sure you check everything, and buy from a dealer if you can so you have some degree of consumer protection if you discover something that shows up only when fully laden, or on a cold morning.

Can I buy a used pickup for less than £5,000

Obviously you can, but how much of it do you want to work? We scoured the classifieds and would suggest luck has as much to do with it as the model you choose, with pre-2012 Ford Rangers (known for head gasket failure), early Nissan Navaras (known for chassis snapping and rust) and L200 Series 3s (crude, known for head gasket failures and chassis rust) all still hovering around the £3,000-£5,000 mark.

So we have a simple recommendation, based on experience. Speak to your friends and neighbours, and keep an ear to the ground for a working vehicle that has had an annoying, but repairable issue – before it has been passed around people trying to flip it or repair it and giving up. Clutches and head gasket failures that haven’t been overheated on a Ford Ranger, and fuel pump, injection and power steering problems on a Toyota Hilux would be worth tackling if the rest of the vehicle is good.

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You’ll find a few green-lane, modified L200s and similar at this price point – search forums for the term ‘OLLI’ for examples (it means one life live it, a sticker often applied to such 4x4s). They might be done well, they might be wrecked, but they’re worth looking at as they’re essentially just giant toys for their owners. Remember you’ll need to declare any mods for insurance purposes though.

Realistically a £5,000 budget for a 4×4 that can tow well and is strong (and easily modified) is probably better spent on the SUV equivalent. Look for the Mitsubishi Shogun Sport or Nissan Pathfinder, SsangYong Rexton, and the Toyota Land Cruiser.

How much should I pay for a used pickup?

There are many exemptions for double cab pickups – reduced benefit-in-kind, the ability to write them off against income for sole traders under Annual Investment Allowance in many cases, and fixed rates of VED regardless of emissions. These can often be applied, or be useful, even when buying pre-owned vehicles. But those benefits may make buying a new pickup more economical if you need to work or drive in cities.

Pickups are subject to emissions-based road charges such as clean air zones, and this means you’ll struggle to find a ULEZ compliant used pickup for less than £17,500. Older (pre-2002) pickups will incur charges within the London LEZ (low emissions zone) as well as ULEZ. Most 2016-on models meet Euro 6, but the cheapest models are often well-used.

Drive a pre-2002 pickup into the centre of London and you’ll need to pay £127.50 across three separate charges (as of March 2024) – four days of that per month and you could easily justify a new one.

For rural workhorses and second vehicles, you should be able to find a good, usable 4×4 for less than £10,000. Finally, if you’re doing some house renovation, want to explore green lanes, or want a farm vehicle there are some pickups you can find for less than £5,000 with a bit of life left in them. On the whole these are working vehicles, and people don’t sell them until they’re uneconomical to keep going, so expect to get some repairs done.

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With high interest rates on loans and used vehicle finance, and the ongoing costs of maintenance on an older vehicle, it’s worth taking the time to consider your total cost of ownership for how long you intend to use it. New pickups might not be as cheap to lease as they once were, but they may offer better value when reliability, comfort and safety are taken into account.

Choosing your first used pickup

If this is the first time you’ve bought a pickup, such as considering it as an alternative to an SUV or small van for lifestyle or camping, there are a lot of differences compared with living with a car or SUV. Some are obvious, some less so, and they are all more obvious the older the pickup you choose.

As a rule, models released after 2019 are better in terms of safety, refinement, and handling. Pickups made before 2015 are often quite agricultural to drive, even in dressed-up double cab ‘lifestyle’ form.

Don’t forget that many used pickups are still subject to VAT, so if buying privately from a dealer or business you may need to add 20% to the advertised price. This applies to many advertised lease prices as well, even if the lease firms are including VAT on car figures.

1. Braking and tyre choices

Pickups are designed to perform well while carrying or towing – commercial vehicles often have less predictable braking behaviour when unladen or fully loaded. Traits such as skidding or locking up the rear brakes, bouncing, or pulling to the side in an emergency are not unusual, and they’re not necessarily a fault.

On some models this applied even on brand-new factory tyres, so imagine what those part-worn mud tyres will be like – particularly if the truck has been modified with things like a lift kit. If it’s safe to do so, check how well your potential purchase behaves in an emergency stop (or ask the owner to show you). It’s better to know before there’s an actual emergency.

2. What do you want 4×4 for?

If you only plan on using 4×4 for off-road use, nearly every used pickup has the right technology. If you’re thinking of it as a benefit for driving and commuting in snow, or towing for exhibitions on a mix of wet grass and tarmac, having a permanent all-wheel drive option is a benefit. It lets you keep both axles engaged while turning corners even on grippy, dry surfaces.

Not all pickups have it – Mitsubishi Super Select II and VW’s 4Motion are the most easily found. Other pickups are rear-wheel drive on tarmac and 4×4 should only be selected when the vehicle is going to get stuck or when driving on loose surfaces.

3. Payload and towing capacity considerations

While almost every pickup sold in the UK has been designed to carry over 1,000kg (usually 1,050kg to allow for a load cover), the amount left while towing can vary a lot. Some may allow a 3,500kg trailer but then only have enough capacity in the gross train weight for four adults in the cab.

Make sure you know what your load and towing requirements add up to, particularly if considering a demountable camper pod and trailer combination.

4. Parking and practicality

Pickups might feel small in the cab, and don’t be surprised if you come back from IKEA frowning at the typical 1.5 metre long loadbed’s inability to carry a stack of flatpack as well as your old estate car. Yet they are usually around 5.3 metres long – that’s more than the largest estate cars, most SUVs and even a new Range Rover. Unless you regularly carry items you don’t want to share passenger space with, a pickup is not very space efficient.

They also have poor turning circles as a rule – not because of the steering, but the amount the body overhangs at the back. More recent models have reversing cameras; as these are an inexpensive accessory we’d recommend fitting on any used pickup.

5. Insurance – check before you commit

Finally, if you’re coming from a passenger car history, particularly if you don’t have a business to attach to using the pickup, you may find insurance is very high and some firms may refuse to quote at all – you could be in a position of your existing insurer not covering the new vehicle and losing a lot of money to change policies.

The insurance companies pay attention to this because pickups are commercial vehicles, and they may need to use different underwriters or assume completely different risks your current underwriter can’t cover. They’re not being awkward for the sake of it, and you’d probably have the same issues insuring a small van too. Insurers are suspicious of private use of vans, pickups and hackney cabs (purpose built taxis), particularly as they get older and cheaper. They’re also a popular target for thieves and export, with relatively poor security on older models.