I bought my 2002 s10, I wanted 4x4, but snce I lost my other car I seriously needed a new vehicle BEFORE christmas break was over, so I just bought this pick-up for gas milegde and so when I get the car I want in a few years I'll have a truck to haul my stuff. I love my s10, it's still pretty new, and runs great, peppy, but not fast with the 5spd. I've put some custom stuff on it, and keep it clean. I've taken it digging, the first time I tried to climb a 10 foot snow hill, got about 5 feet up and started to slide back down, got stuck of course, had a friend pull me out. The problem with the 2.2 is they're geared pretty high, and when you get stuck they'll just spin the tires and dig in. I put bf Goodrich all terrians on my truck, huge difference over the stock ones. You can go through rough trails and mud paths, just not the serious mudding and digging, keep your speed up going through it or it'll bog down. It's fun going 20mph or so and hitting snow drifts, fishtailing and blow snow everywhere, watch out for the hard packed spots or it'll mess up your truck, and always be thing of where your valance is, it's not ment to hold up to pushing snow. Just take it easy, chevy's/gmc's are pretty tough and relible, but don't abuse the poor s10, or you'll be spending money just on repairs. I blew my rear shock jumping it, not recomended. I was takikng it digging in the snow, and was dared to get through a particualry deep part, I figured I'd need some good speed and just plow through, was going about 30 and felt the truck launch off the ground and do a nose dive and LAND, had the guy next to me going pale. Pretty sure that's what messed up my rear shocks. If you like mudding look for a cheap 4x4, so when you take it mudding and hit something you don't hurt your main car, i.e samurai, wrangler.