Where would you purchase your new or used truck?
 

I was talking to someone tonight and was telling him my experiences with SelectTrucks. I purchased a 1998 Century Class in 2002 that had 420,000 dash board miles on it. I never saw the hub. 1 week later on my way between Amarillo, TX and McAllen, TX the auto-trans went out and it was NOT covered under the famous 1 year 100000 mile warranty. I've had many other issues since. Blown motor, blown turbo etc. My question is, If you were going to purchase a new or used truck, where would it be? Would you go to SelectTrucks? Would you go to Freightliner? Or do you have experience with a certain lot? Thank you for your input?

I couldnt get a good deal from Select, but just my experience, maybe they will treat you better?
I bought mine at auction....traveled all the way from Cailf to your neck of the woods.......coastal auctions at Charleston SC
Many say i took a hell of a risk,, n even though i have mechanic experience i cant disagree much.

how much did you pay? and what kind of truck what is your total investment

I would NEVER buy a truck from Select Trucks. I have spoken with very few who were happy with the deal that they got from them. I don't have a particular dealer with whom I would do business. I just don't get in a hurry and look at trucks until I find something that I like and can get a good deal. If you have the cash you can sometimes get a good deal from one of the many auctions held around the U.S. I have known some owners who have done very well at the auctions. You will either need to have some knowledge about the mechanics of a truck so that you can check it out, or hire a mechanic to do it for you. Regardless of where you buy a truck, it doesn't pay to get in a hurry. You will usually make a bad decision or get taken if you get in a hurry.

hmmm let me do just the truck

I reasearched for a month, going around to dealers in the southern Cal area.
I made a lot of posts here and got input from many here, banditscuz, Rev, Steve, Gman, etc
I usually offered all dealers 8k or so less then their asking price, forgot who said it here, but someone advised me all dealers mark up at least 10k.
I paid 19.5 K for a 2001 century, 700,000 miles, and my best move was I didnt have to pay state tax, Ca said we dont require it cuz out of state and SC said no we dont require cuz your not a SC resident which helped on feul when I had to drive it home to CA D/H and wait for my authority to be in place.
Liked many freight liners from select, but they wouldnt give me any warrenty cuz the year I was looking they said was too old :-p so I fiqured they were useless.
WEll was negotiating once on a 2003 columban, they said much to my joy they would give a warenty, they wanted 43,000 tho....and laughed at my 36,000 cash offer....so that X'ed trhe deal.
I loved the really clean 2003 Pete they sold that day, but at 37k it went for, I fiqured I could pay less and save the extra $ for operating expenses.
I was hopping to get that Pete for 32K.....but was way out of my leaque bidding against experienced use truck dealerss and I was the only actual driver there as I asked around and felt like a sheep amoung wolves.

Most dealers selling used trucks are getting them at auctions or taking them in trade. If you have cash I would go to auction and out bid them. They have to buy it and resell it. You don't. With the money you save you can make repairs.

GMAN, you are absolutely right!! I was in a hurry. I had the money and did not do a whole lot of research at all, and I was "excited" to become an o/o. the excitement and hurry cost me. and to this day I am playing catch up. However, I have learned more from the experience, both financially and mechanically, than I would ever have, had I done everything right and things went smoothly. It's made me a better person, a broke better person!!!! LOL

He-he now I remember....it wa s Big who told me they mark it up 10k.....you should seen the look on their face when I offered them 8k less....n said Big told me you marked it up 10K! lol

I'll never forget Todd @ Charlotte SelectTrucks. I asked him " How in the world can you sell me that same exact truck over there for 52,000 and this one (the one I bought) for 32,000, when the one that's 32000 has LESS miles on it?!!!!" His response, "Son, those are PROGRAM trucks and that's the cost you pay to become an owner operator!" "You are pre-approved for the program truck but we can not get you financing anywhere else for anything else" I'll never ever forget that. I paid cash for the 32,000 truck in the end.

Carolina,

I talked to a guy at Select in Charlotte on day when I was bored and he said the same exact thing.

Pepe,

Glad you remembered. Don't forget the Lingerie show on Wednesday night at the Chino airport. :lol:

We learn from our mistakes, carolinatrucker. Unfortunately, in this business, mistakes can cost us dearly, as you have found. At least you didn't buy a Select truck. I am sure there was financing available, but they make a lot of extra money with those Select trucks.

Yeah I cant say Ive made out to bad, following the advice I got here from Big, Gman n others to at least give auction a try.
N I want to repeat I do have at least some mechanical experience going into that venture, I was very grimy and dirty by the end of the auction day I will tell ya from crawling around and under trucks......i think the dealers thought I was crazy going under them but when I told them I had a few years experience working as a suspension man with 4 wheelers they started coming up to me latter and asking me what I saw when I came up for air lol.

I prefer to buy my trucks from individuals, trailers I buy off the lot b/c I buy new.

I purchased our truck through SelectTrucks in McDonough, GA and did not have a problem and here is why.....financing was already done through my commerical bank where I have other businesses, researched the market value of the truck that we selected, my husband new the company that SelectTrucks purchased them from so we had some inside information about how the company maintained their trucks and the configuration. We had a diagnostic test done and whatever problems were shown, SelectTrucks fixed them, we had it re-tested, we purchased it below market value and we have been happy with our truck ever since. I used to sell SUVs so I had some sales background experience. I knew what to say and why not to say. I knew how to approach the deal without having to finance through them gave us the upper hand. I would use this approach whether I was purchasing from a private seller or a dealer.

I do have to admit Joy, you are dealing with more reputable people usually working with Select Vs the shaddy auctioners I dealt with where I was constantley rechecking if my shirt was still attached :-p

How about ebay? i've seen a couple of good deals up there too...

I'm starting to look into getting my own truck, i'm planning to get it in the next couple of months, but by spring the latest...

I bought my truck from a small dealer and he let me (insisted), I have it checked out, so I had it dynoed, oil analysis, and put 300 miles on it driving around Dallas in all kinds of traffic. I would hate to have to do that more than once, but it's too scary to me, to not check one out thoroughly.

Its a 2001 FTL, Cummins ISX 450, Smartshift, with 526,000.

I paid 29K, but the truck was exceptionally clean and had no signs of abuse. I looked at a lot of newer trucks that I rejected because of mileage and abuse.

Congratulations on your "new" truck jonboy! Can I ask where did you purchase it? Are you leasing it on to another company? Or are you completely independent? Good Luck

Another option...

...that I'm aware of is where you actually buy, not lease, an older fleet truck from the company you are currently driving for. I know that several chemical tanker companies offer this, mine included.

Here at Superior Carriers company drivers do have the option of outright buying any of the fleet trucks ready to be sold/retired from service. The trucks on the "chop block" so to say are primarily 2001 models (FLD 112's, Intl. 9200's, and a few Mack CH613's) with 550,000-700,000 miles. They have been serviced every 3 months or 20,000 miles, and of course are still outfitted completely for performing the duties we are assigned. The average cost for each truck is $12,000 dependent upon the mileage, and will be paid in full over the course of a year. There is no down payment required, no credit check, and minimal interest.

If a driver were to do his/her homework and know fully what they were getting into (especially with the guidance and assistance of other successful I/C's), this could potentially be a successful business venture in my opinion... :wink:

I bought my 2003 KW T-600 from MHC Kenworth in Tulsa. Did alot of shopping around and talking to other drivers plus many phone calls. Frank Nichols at MHC really took care of me and is a great guy (I attended church with he and his family over the Easter weekend I was there). I bought an ex-Melton truck as I was working for them before becoming an O/O and they really take care of their trucks. MHC gets first dibs on Melton's sell backs (no, they are not leased from KW) so I researched mine while still employed at Melton. I live in Tucson and saved over $10,000 by buying in OK (5k on sales tax and 5500 on price of truck in AZ). I will buy my next KW from Frank at MHC Tulsa in a couple/three years. I also bought my new 2007 Utility flatbed in Tulsa (great folks too).
I'm leased on with Mercer Transportation and doing very well flatbedding. This site and forum are great learning tools as well as learning from the many seasoned drivers out here who are sincere and love to pass on their knowledge. Life is good! :D

The only thing i would say about e-bay is certanlly dont make it your single source.
I bought my trailer from e-bay, but was more lucky thing of right place, at the right time.

I work for Arrow Truck Sales in Atlanta. No sales pitch here.....but if you are in the Southeast U.S. send me a PM and we can talk.

Oh really? care to elaborate?..... 8)

patience is the key. i waited & looked,& looked & looked for months before i bought. get to know the ave selling price for the type of truck your interested in. when i was looking at mine... a 95' walmart cabover with 400,000 miles. i checked other trucks, same year, same miles,cond e.t.c. every pete, k.w. i checked on was 30-35 grand. i paid 15,000 cash for my intl cabover. i'm still driving it. over 8 years now. buy to make money not look good. the thrill of a newer truck wears off long before the payments do. want value ? remember peace of mind is priceless. driving without a truck payment is like walking in your home knowing your house is paid for. this is my experience anyway.

Good advice, heavyhaulerss. Buy to make money, not look good. There are still a lot of those old Walmart cab-overs on the road. I understand Walmart does a good job on their maintenance. I almost bought one of them myself, several years ago.

I dont know how to say this without acting like i'm bragging. so please take my word for it i'm not trying to. people have told me from the beginning. i needed to have a truck payment to have a tax write off.??? instead of putting my money into something that depreciates, i put my earnings into something that appreciate & get my wrtie off that way. my old $15,000 cabover that other drivers had & still make fun of. has enabled me to purchase 8 homes. I own the entire block that i live on. so instead of showing the irs all my big truck payments & related expenses.. i show them maintence, taxes, ins, mortgage % e.t.c. i get the same write off but have more to gain. so thats my story on why i wanted the inexpemsive, hard riding, not so populiar cabover. :lol:

ohh and thank you g-man for the compliment

You are welcome, heavyhaulerss. Good for you on the investments. I have been trying to tell some of these guys for years that they don't need big equipment payments to do well. There are other types of deductions which work much better. You have gotten your money out of that old cab-over many times over by now. 8)

mike3fan wrote:Well, I know a driver here at Superior who is probably going to buy one of those old FLD 112's for an even $10,000 (it's a 2001). Apparently he has been doing some serious homework and number crunching on the issue for the past several months, and has been speaking regularly with several I/C's who are involved with and, quite successful with chemical tankers. :roll:

From what I know, the truck he's looking to buy has had some major work performed on it over the last couple of years (apparently he was able to go over the entire maintenance history of it with the terminal manager and lead mechanic) to include the following...
-Recent overhead
-New head
-New rings and seals
-New clutch
-New, remanufactured transmission
-New turbo
-New A/C compressor
-New alternator
-New E.C.M.
-New product pump
-New cab leveler
-New tires and brakes on front drive axle
-New shocks
-New hood
-New front bumper
-New air dam
-Recent front end alignment
-Rest of tires are about 95%

Now the one thing he's not too keen about is that the driveline has aproximately 970,000 miles on it, though the truck did run pretty much non-stop between several drivers on a dedicated account, with many of the miles being empty. But still, that's a lot of miles!!!

Apparently he feels that there's money to be made, especially if he can keep the truck up and running. I know he's over-estimated several of his expenses (namely fuel), and is going to be contributing a lot of extra cash towards his maintenance escrow (abut $250 per week versus the company required $75 for WHEN that rainy day comes!). Basically, it seems that he wants to keep the truck well-maintained, pay the truck off asap, do whatever other major work is necessary (i.e. in-frame and driveline), and just continue running it as long as it can be a dependable, effective money-maker provided being an I/C is as successful a venture as he projects it to be. If not, he will simply go back to being a company driver again with them once a year is up, and will have a truck that is paid for to do with as he pleases.

:wink:

this "freind" of your's sounds completely insane........ :D

Heavyhaulers wrote:

instead of putting my money into something that depreciates, i put my earnings into something that appreciate & get my wrtie off that way.

The sign of an smart business man...I have never owned a new vehicle. And don't plan on it since they are nothing more than a tool. Would I love a New Truck? Of course, but as stated patience is the key and whats a few easy miles after someone else pays the depreciation for driving it off the lot new. As long as it meets your needs, been maintained with records,passed the tests and clean what more can you ask for?

What is considered High Milege on a truck. I understand they last a long time but don't know how long. I see many ads with the miles posted and more without so I consider the ads without the Miles posted are way high.

Newbie here just looking at options because nobody wants to hire me at my age and may have to do it all myself. I drive a 32 ft Tag axle motorhome and the last rig was a 5th wheel so not scared of it.

Thanks

You got a picture of your Cab Over? I would like to see it and tell me what kind of loads do you get and from who do you get them if not you do your own load deals.

Thanks