I'm posting this for the benefit of anyone who has been considering a trip to this dealership. Maybe it will help you know what to expect if you go. Not trying to be critical here, just my factual experience.

Showed up there on Saturday morning, had to be in the Memphis area anyway on other business. The lot is large, many acres of tractors and trailers in various condition. Began looking at some of the tractors advertised on the 'net. I got up into around 25 different trucks. Maybe 3-4 of them had interiors that I would consider passable or presentable for sale. The rest smelled bad, either smoke, grease, musty from being closed up too long, other unidentifiable unpleasant odors, or a combination of all these, plus a general dirty condition. Most had little things missing or broken, inside or out. Most had dead batteries and would not crank at all, there was an employee riding around on a golf cart with a portable booster trying to jump one if you wanted to drive it. I had expected to test drive several, but ended up driving nothing. The only customer I saw attempt a test drive had some sort of strong air leak while trying to exit the lot and finally pulled back in, not sure if they ever got it going. None of the tractors that I was able to start had cold A/C. Almost none of the tractors in my price range were in decent enough condition to interest me, maybe one Volvo but it had ALOT of oil/grease on the frame underneath, ALOT.

On the positive side, SOME of the higher-priced newer Petes and KW's were in better condition, not all. The staff allowed me to shop a long time and never bothered me or tried to "sell" me on anything. There were 3 or 4 other customers looking while I was there. It appeared to me that most of these trucks are bought at auction and put out for sale as-is. Not sure if they are willing to fix anything for a buyer in order to help make a sale, didn't ask.

My opinion is that if you're looking for a clean, presentable truck for a cheap price, most would be disappointed in what you'll see there. Just a report to help any of you decide whether to make the trip.

yeah thats why I went to auctions, I know risky venture, but everytime I went to a dealer all the same issues you went thru, and I went to about 20-30 dealers in my area. :-p After getting thoroughly deppressed by dealerships, I fiqured if i get screwed on a truck buy, I might as well pay the least, and actually liked what I saw when I looked mine over before I bid on the one I bought.......but I must admit auction was a traumatizing experience :-p

The two places that I looked when buying a truck took a lot of time to get a truck ready. They obviously hired someone or had a person on duty that polished all the chrome and aluminum tanks. The inside was clean. The whole frame was steam cleaned and painted. This was done on all the trucks in the lot.

My truck smelled and so didn't all the rest but I think any car or truck would smell after sitting for a long time. My smell went away pretty quick. There was plenty of little things on my truck that needed to be replaced or just wasn't going to give a return on investment like the rip in the passenger seat which my jacket covers up now.

Dead batteries I can believe. The truck is drawing a small amount of juice all the time and battery replacement on a used truck is a given as far as I'm concerned.

I did look at the whole picture when I was looking. I would say, I can fix this or I can clean the crap out of this one.

Yes, I wasn't expecting perfection but it was obvious almost no effort had been put into making them presentable, less than any place I've looked at so far. Most were at least fairly clean on the outside.

Did I miss the details? Sounds like an interesting story, as I have never did a truck auction. What was going on with you?

I think Don Baskins is similar to a buy here pay here car lots, except I don't think they do anything to their trucks or hold the paper.

well one thing i can say about your describtion about the trucks... i would rather they are in that shape then for them to be all steam cleaned up. & me trying to figure out what they are trying to hide. if the engine has oil all over it somewhere then at least you know there is a oil leak somehwere. ever see a car motor detailed? it's hard to tell what original & whats been replaced. all looks nice black & shiny. i like the (here is my lot of wore out high mileage oil leaking smelly trucks )& what you see is what you get. than buying a cosmetically good looking truck that you find lots of things wrong that was rigged to work just tempararily now you got all sorts of bugs to work out of it.

Ya, your right. When I go out to a club I always look for the big fat smelly woman with greasy hair, leaking something?, dirt all over, uncut nails and just a general lack of putting her best foot forward. That way I know exactly what I'm getting.

There's no doubt that some people selling used vehicles clean them up so you can't see various leaks.

hey steve i've seen some of those women ya meet at bars & clubs & beleive me they doo look different the next morning. of course they look a whole lot worse the next day cause now your sober too . :lol: