The BEST vehicle I ever owned (and I've had my share or more) was a 1964 GMC Heavy-Half pickup that I bought for $600 in 1976. I put 100,000 miles on that baby hauling everything. Multiple trips to the mountains for self-cut firewood, several trips for self-cut Christmas trees, too many trips to the material dealer for tons of landscape rock*, many-many-many trips to the lumber yard for tons and tons of sheetrock, lumber, concrete, and other building materials, and of course - countless trips hauling engines, car parts, chassis parts, and huge AA Ford wheels/tires to and from the tire dealer, etc., etc. She moved me, my growing family, and a player piano 5 times over the years.
She was a hauling beast ~ carried far more than I ever expected from a $600 truck. All I ever put into her (besides fuel and fluids & insurance) was one set of new Firestone truck tires and two tune-ups. She had a 4-speed with stump-pulling low gear (yep, I KNOW that from experience, too). She ran forever with that little V-6!
And, she carried me to and from work for a considerable period of time, too. Saved some mileage on the Z-28. One afternoon, she was taking me across town when I spotted my stolen motorcycle being operated by a blanket-blank perp. She even held her own in a little 'pursuit' driving!!!!
Saddest day in our history was the day I had to part with her. Just no room nor justification for bringing her to Arizona and I knew she'd be happier hauling firewood in the Rockies than living down here in the heat. Sold her to a friend who was eager to give her an appreciative home . . . for $600! That was 20 years after I bought her.
*Funny story about the landscape rock. She was a 1/2-ton. They called it a "Heavy Half." I wasn't sure why. I did notice she had 6-lug wheels that were bigger and more substantial than most of the 1/2-tons her age, and she stood up a little taller than those.
One Saturday not long after she came to be with me, I was working in the yard and I was ready for a load of landscape rock. The material yard was only open 'til 2pm but the bank was already closed. The material yard didn't take credit cards or checks. I had only enough cash to buy exactly one-half ton.
So, I took my 1/2-ton (okay, Heavy Half) pickup to the material yard with just enough money to buy 1/2 ton of rock. I said, "Fill 'er up!" They did. When she started to settle on the springs, I cut them off as she was at her load capacity. Went to the scales and found out I had 1-1/4 tons of rock!! Not enough cash, but fortunately my employment as a law enforcement officer convinced them to take a chance on my check.
That's when I found out what "Heavy Half" really meant to GMC ... back in those days!