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The run from Panama City out to Panama City Beach on US-98 is barely 10 miles, so it's fair to wonder why picking the wrong truck feels like a much bigger mistake.

If you're shopping for a used off-road rig near Rick Seltzer Park and the Gulf, the short answer is that the Gladiator wins on towing and utility, the Bronco wins on interior space and open-air fun, and right now there's a critical Jeep recall every used Gladiator buyer needs to understand before signing anything.

If you live on the beach side and work your way over to Panama City every morning, you already know how this goes. From Panama City Beach to Bay Cars on W. 15th Street runs about 10 miles. That should take 16 minutes. Some mornings it takes twice that. The Hathaway Bridge construction zone is real right now (the US-98 widening project has the bridge down to a 35-mph stretch), and summer tourist traffic stacks up on Front Beach Road before you even reach the bridge.

No new Challengers are coming. Production ended after the 2023 model year, so every Challenger on the lot today is a used car, and the model year you pick matters more than it would for one still in production. Land the right year and you've got one of the most characterful two-door coupes ever built at used-car pricing.

Load your gear the night before, pull out of the driveway by first light, and you'll be backed up to Carl Gray Park's boat ramp before the August heat turns serious. That plan works, and the Ram ProMaster 2500 is what makes it painless. We're not talking about a luxury hauler here. We're talking about a used work van that fits the way Panama City's contractors, mobile service operators, and waterfront-bound weekend workers actually live.