Foghorn, yes, and yes. When I can get it away from DH which isn't often, he uses it as his rolling office - Ford 250 Supercab. We always have had one, it's necessary for his work, replace it every 100,000 miles or so (that's about 3 years). Truthfully, it's so full of engineering equipment, maps, gear etc, you'd have to clean house to get more than a driver and one passenger in it (not dirty mind you, just full - he's OCD about his vehicles), but the seat adjusts enough directions I'm completely comfortable driving it and I'm about 15 pounds bigger than your wife. I had my own Chevy S-10 for a while so I would have something to drive off highway (berries, fishing) when DH was busy - He watched a water tanker roll a few feet down a hill one day into one and pancake it...he sold my little truck. I do have to tell you though, our gas bill can just about bring me to tears each month ($3.12 9/10 today at the cheapest pumps in town), and I don't pretend to be able to parallel park it!

"The 5.7 L in the 1500 should be perfectly adequate and get better mileage.." That is a inaccurate guess many consumers make. Just because it is a smaller engine they think that it gets better milage. Truth is, in the real world they dont. The smaller engine has to work twice as hard to get the same job done as a 2500 with a 6 litre engine. I am talking if you take a 1500 and a 2500 hook up a trailor to each of them that weights the same. With the same amount of fuel in the tanks. I will bet anything that the 1500 will have to stop for fuel way before the 2500 with the 6 litre engine will. "The 2500 rides like a dump truck.." If you are talking about a Chevorlet, You could not proove that by me. The Dodge 2500 and Ford F250 and F350's I have had did not give a comfortable ride at all. They were rough riders. DuraMax, Cummins, Power Stroke diesel's? Sure they are strong powerful engines. Cant afford to use them. 8 to 10 miles per gallon. Maybe 12 if you drive down hill a lot. Insurance nearly twice the cost of a gasoline in the same class. Parts..lol.. Take one $850 dollar fuel pump for a Power Stroke diesel, add a $250.00 cam sensor (wont run without one). I will stick with my Chevy 2500HD's.

well, it's been almost a year since I repurchased my old 96 Accord. Decided I'd give an update. The car is still going, but has had some issues. Not too surprising since the dern thing is on it's way to 400,000 miles. I'm sitting at a few clicks shy of 330,000 right now. I've really saved a lot of miles on the 06 and have driven the 96 on quite a few road trips this year. My biggest problem has been with leaks. I never realized just how many places there were for oil/fluids to escape from! Lol. I've had to replace my heater hoses, rear wheel bearings and a radiator fan. My driver's side power window is completely out of whack, the steering wheel is so worn and loose that I have to hold it at the 6 0'clock position, there is a hole in the carpet below the accelerator, interior door handles have broken off, numerous interior lights are burned out, interior rattles/creaks, ABS light stays on and the check engine light goes on/off randomly. The first time it was on, it was diagnosed as being a clogged throttle body/EGR ports. Now, I'm not real sure... probably a sensor, though my gas mileage is still what it should be and the car seems to be running properly. The engine continues to start every time and just keeps running on. The rest of the car is really starting to show it's wear and tear from the high mileage, but the engine still starts, runs and sounds the same it did when I first bought the car many years back with only 45,000 miles. I'm truly blown away by it. While I worry a little that something might break on me, I never worry that it's going to be the engine. I didn't think I'd ever put this car back on the highway for the long trips, but it is still able to handle them (well, the engine still can, anyway). The AC, cruise control and sunroof still work, though! The Honda reman. trans. has continued to disappoint... but it's still working, so I'm not going to complain too much. If it ever dies, I'll just have the engine yanked out and put into a better body. I'm really curious to know just how far this stupid thing will go. Also, update on the 06... just over 60k miles (I'd have closer to 90k if it weren't for the 96!) and it's held up exceptionally well. Still feels like a brand new car to me. It does have some rattles in the interior that have come back, but I haven't had to do squat to the car other than put gas in it, change the oil and drive it. It's still got a LOOONG way to go before it proves as good (hopefully better) than the 96.

You can just buy a used instrument cluster with the mileage you want it to show from a wrecker. I don't believe that'll work for some of the digital ones, at least not the GM ones, because they store the VIN inside all of the computer modules and that may include the instrument cluster. At power-on all of the modules compare their VIN with each other, if one doesn't match the vehicle may not even start. Supposedly the GM modules aren't reprogrammable once the VIN has been stored. But I noticed that rebuilt units are available, so I would think that someone has figured it out. So I guess the correct statement would be that they're not field-reprogrammable.