Manual is good theft deterrent. People told me auto is better for off-road so I looked for that, which isn't hard since most of them are such.
No power windows/locks. I have both with and without and as long as they both work I want power. To fix, no.
I think for the dollars the earlier trucks were a better value. If you translate let's say 20k that truck was new, probably even less than that, to today's dollars that's 33k and you can't get a nice 4x4 Ranger for 33k new.
The problem is when you have 9% or even 5% inflation, the dollars are devaluing faster than the truck because at that age it's losing only a few percent a year. So even though the truck ages, it becomes more expensive in current dollars even though in fact it's depreciating in real value.
And the rising vehicle prices fuel inflation. It feeds on itself.
Just as a ballpark I'd venture a decent '03 should cost about $4 to $5k. You have to add for low miles. Maybe add 3k for that. It looks pretty clean, but on the other hand you have things like ripped seat which right off you would be wanting to fix. So I wouldn't really add more to 7 or 8k unless it had something a person specifically wanted even then, I can't see going to 12k.