Skip the AK/AR crap, advice from guys who don't own A3's is not useful when deciding to buy an A3. But you will get plenty of it here.
If you buy an A3, you don't need to buy five parts trucks because your truck wont be rubbled out and rotting since "nam. All A3's were rebuilt into A3's in the mid 1990's, mine was 11 years old when I bought it with about 6,000 actual miles on it's first odometer. Every part on the truck was new or rebuilt to new in late 1998.
You will hear advice on the engine and "electronics" and all sorts of silly crap, 99% of it is wrong and given by people who have nebver seen the truck in person.
I had my A3 emissions tested Friday, passed with flying colors. Everything except the CTIS works fine and I do not like the CTIS so I could care less.
Want to "dial up" the fuel for more power? A3 has an extra 40 horse and tons more torque.
Want electric wipers" A3 has them.
Want real seat belts and a decent seat? A3 comes with them.
Want heat? A3 has in cab heater with fairly decent defrost.
Want power steering? A3 has that as well.
Real air brakes? A3 comes with thise as well.
Super singles? The A3 has them too.
There are plenty of good qualities with an A2, a deuce generally is a fun truck and not to tough to work on. All of them use the same parts to some degree and there are plenty of parts out there.
I weighed the options and went for an A3. A2's are far more common and far cheaper to buy from the GL. You get what you pay for and when you buy a fifteen hundred dollar truck, you can find yourself sitting on the side of the road fairly often.
Neither truck goes 65 from the govt and the guys that try it, post stories here of their engines exploding on the way home.
I bought mine, serviced it and drove 2500miles to the house with ZERO problems. Yet another to enjoy an A3.
Go buy a truck and have some fun. I'd buy it from the government. Why? Because that gets another truck into private hands for all to enjoy.