I'm sixteen, and I bought my m1009 for 2500 dollars as a first vehicle. It was already converted to 12 volt starting, and had a few of the more common parts fixed. It is pretty reliable, but you have to remember that it is over 20 years old, so things will go wrong. However, it is a very easy engine to work on, and you can do lots of fun modifications to it very easily. I put air horns on mine. If you live in a colder area, I suggest changing your glow plugs to a manual switch, which is a simple, 1 hour job at maximum. That will give you more control over the heating system. The m1009 seems to do pretty good off road. I haven't done any rock crawling yet, but it never has gotten stuck, even in fresh mud. Usually I don't even need four wheel drive if i'm just messing around in some mud or something. It is deffinately a better off roader than my friend's jeep wrangler. I think the m1008s would do better off road because of the detroit locker in the rear axle, but they can only do about 55 miles per hour. The m1009 can do about 85 but has a gov-lock rear differential and weaker axles than the m1008 However, if you were to put the 36 or 37 inch humvee tires on an m1008, which you can get for about 250 a set with rims, you should be able to gain a good amount of top speed. You could also regear the axles with a lower ratio. In terms of buying it, I think as a first time buyer you should try to find one privately. That way you have a better idea of what you are getting. With the government auctions you might not have a chance to start the truck before you buy it. A lot of places also sell m1009s or m1008s that have been completely re-finished and repaired for around 5-6000 if you want to shell out that much money for one. So thats about as much as I can tell you from what you asked.