Best midsize truck?

Sad to say, but in my observation it was directly correlated with them bringing their production stateside. There was a marked difference in problems between vehicles whose VINs started with a J and those that started with a 2.
A VIN starting with a 2 is made in Canada. American made vehicles VIN starts with 1. I think the drop in quality is more related to how people think of vehicles now. People like to trade them in before even paying them off. I’m always amazed when someone brings me a vehicle for a standard maintenance repair like brakes, water pump, timing belt, etc and they decide to just get rid of rather than spend a few hundred on a normal repair. Why make cars last forever if they’re going to get scrapped in 5 years?
 
A VIN starting with a 2 is made in Canada. American made vehicles VIN starts with 1. I think the drop in quality is more related to how people think of vehicles now. People like to trade them in before even paying them off. I’m always amazed when someone brings me a vehicle for a standard maintenance repair like brakes, water pump, timing belt, etc and they decide to just get rid of rather than spend a few hundred on a normal repair. Why make cars last forever if they’re going to get scrapped in 5 years?

Good catch, my mistake. Been out of that business for almost 2 decades now.

I was always a dealership guy and saw the change you're talking about over the course of my career, at least at that level. I think consumers have become so conditioned to having a car payment as part of their budget that when it comes to the point of having to shell out for repairs they'd just as soon get something new for a slightly larger payment than spend money to keep the thing going.