I bought my Sy with 77k 3 years ago for $9800. Bone stock down to the paper air filter (minus the mufflers which were replaced with straight pipe). It obviously had been driven (77k) and had some small chips in the front paint from road stuff. No major problems with anything though.
I just rolled over 150k. I've done fuel pump, IC pump, alternator, AC compressor, ball joints, idler arm, tires, wheels, and transmission. Twice on the trans because I tried to cheap out the first time (see my post in the Drivetrain section).
Most of that is standard S-truck stuff that I also had to do on my '93 S-10. They're 13 years old now (1456 was made in April '01), and stuff is getting old even if they don't have a ton of miles. The IC pump, wheels, and trans are basically the only SyTy specific parts that I've had to mess with. IC pump is a small easy fix. Stock wheels get bent easily, and you may just want some updated styling. Trans had to be rebuilt on my S-10 too, so I don't really hold that against the Sy (even though they're known for eating trannies).
It really depends on what was done to it and how well it was maintained. Did they try to turn it into a 10 second truck with bolt-on parts? Did they keep it stock and do maintenance twice as often as needed? Mileage is only one factor in the equation. I've seen some really nice high mileage trucks, and some really crappy low mileage ones.
All that said, I don't ever plan to sell the Sy. It's a blast from 0-60. I link to
http://www.sportmachines.com/magrack/car_craft_7-92.html a lot for topics like this.
So, the track test results don't point a finger at a clear winner. The contest comes down to which vehicle does the best job painting a permanent smile on your face and delivering the most satisfying kick in the pants.
Now the choice is easy. The Dodge Stealth is cool to be seen in but boring to drive unless your threshold of fun is playing with the climate-control's video screen. The GMC Truck Syclone, on the other hand, is a perpetual good-time Charlie: always in the mood for games. Its favorite prank is embarrassing high-profile hotshots (like a Stealth in the wrong gear) with its remarkable traction and off-the-line acceleration.
That just sums up my feelings about it so well. It's not necessarily the fastest thing around (especially 13 years later), but I bet the acceleration is still hard to beat, short of a lot of race mods.
Read everything on this site. Read it again. Know all the signs of the most common problems and know how to fix them. Go read the buyer's guides. Come back here and read everything again. Find out what mods do what. Find out what mods don't do anything, and can even hurt the truck. Read everything again. When you look at a truck, get as much detail from the owner as possible. This will help give you an idea of what all they've done to it, as well as if they knew what they were doing (i.e. did it right). Then read everything again.
Trust me, when you think you've read and memorized everything, you'll find something new the next time. =)
Whenever you figure a budget for fixing stuff, add more to that. Everything on these trucks ends up costing more for one reason or another...
As for aftermarket, not really. For bolt-on aftermarket stuff, there are really only a few vendors that I'm aware of that make SyTy-specific parts. There simply isn't much of a market for SyTy stuff. If you managed to sell an item to each and every truck made, that'd be 8,000 parts. Figure in the wrecked ones, the collector ones that won't get modded at all, and the people who simply don't want the product, and you're probably lucky to get half that. It's a lot easier to make something for Civics when there's a million of them out there. Depending on what you're looking at though, there may be stuff for the parts that were standard on other GM vehicles. Most of the truck is still an S-10. The 4.3L is basically a 350 minus two cylinders, so there's a decent selection of engine parts (which I know very little about). There were some Corvette and F-body parts used too.
