Take it or leave it!

I will start off by saying that i am a born and bred chevy man. My father owns 6 vehicles currently, and they are all G.M. He bought this truck in 1991 but it was not new, in fact it had about 8,000 mi. on it and it had been totaled but was fixable. (straightened frame, beat out back of cab, fixed front of bed and replaced the nose clip.) total investment $1500 plus time (35 man hours)he drove it for about 7 years and 75,000 miles before i bought it from him.
(he performed all maintenance including a clutch, brakes, computer, u-joints twice, water pump and starter) (he purchased a new 98' s-10, review on this truck is pending)
I drove it for about 1 year and many miles (about 30,000) with no trouble whatsoever, and then it started going down hill fast. No major problems mind you but a bunch of nickel-dime things started going wrong...Fuel delivery(fuel pump (mounted in tank), and idle speed motor, o2 sensor, MAP sensor, fuel pump relay, and for some reason i can not find, there is no juice comming through the fuel pump power line from the computer , so i have had to hard wire the electric fuel pump to a toggle switch in the cab) electrical(fuse block began to melt on my way to work one morning, and lights began to stop working or not work properly) These things are an electrical nightmare! The a/c compressor seized up.(harrison a/c componets are junk!!! and expensive) fuel economy and performance is extremely poor for the 2.5 litre (approx 20 mpg. uphill downhill and towing) go figure.
The gear ratio is far too close and short with the borg-warner 5 speed, top speed is in the low 70,s depending on the wind (seriously) and you can skip 1st gear all together when starting out.(i start out in 2nd usually)I might add that the computer self-diagnostic says there is nothing wrong with the truck. it has also started leaking rain water around the windshield (which may be attributed to the accident it was in back in 91' cant say for sure, it never leaked before)
But the truck has some redeeming qualities... It starts every morning runs all day, rides and drives like a luxury car! and although the 2.5 litre motor is not a great motor, this one runs well (although it does have some performance and economy problems. It does not use any oil, but for some reason it blows a little back through the PCV and into the air cleaner which makes a monthly air filter replacement nessecary. (i buy filters 2 or 3 at a time when they are on sale... $1.99 each) Other than the forementioned problems, mecahnically this truck is reliable, and seems to be well built. The sheet metal is strong, the frame and suspension seems to be even a little stronger than nessecary for a light duty half-ton. I feel that if GM put as much into this truck mecanically as it did cosmeticaly and structurally, it would have one heck of a little truck in the s-10, but in comparison it does fall short of the mark set by ford,nissan and toyota. i have owned 2 nissans and 1 toyota p/u and they all 3 put this s-10 to shame! but for the money, it has been a good truck and if you can get one cheap go for it, but i would not even consider paying retail...expect a lot of small problems and headaches.
This truck is mostly unimpressive and typical, it does not stand out in a crowd and will not earn any prizes...keeping u-joints well lubed will add to their life somewhat, but expect to change them on a semi-regular basis.