New truck "deals"

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>slipbob_nick wrote:</div>
If you buy an aluminum ford just make sure nobody leans on it.

My Lund boat is aluminum…should I not let anyone lean on it?

nhamm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>crappie55369 wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Nothing else you can do

Idk about that. I’ve owned 6 trucks in the last 8 years, 2 of which I still own now. Total cost for all of them was around 10k. I’ve sold 4 for a total of 5k. If I were to sell the other 2 I still own I’d be driving for free for the last 8 years. I’m not hauling a stable of horses around but I’ve been able to do all the winter activities and hauling I want and I’ve never been stranded on the side of the road. My vehicles ain’t pretty but they work. Part of the issue might be peoples expectations in a vehicle. I get truck envy all the time but there are other ways to get what you need and in some cases it just amounts to swallowing a little pride. Theres new, used, and used used. You shop around in the used used market and you can still find what you need at a good price

I think you’re the exception and not the rule. I’d count your blessings twice over for not having to invest any money into your older trucks. Most people I know including myself has plenty of repairs to go along with their used used vehicles.

And that speaks to the situation I had Nick. I was satisfied to drive around in an older “paid for vehicle” until the latest breakdown that followed a series of repairs. The last one was the demise of it. Sometimes your luck just runs out. When I went to look at “used” replacements, all I could envision was a repeat of the same cycle of repairs. That’s why I finally bit it and opted for the first new vehicle in my life. Was not my intent to impress with a new truck, but that was the direction that made the most sense at the time.

kabefisherman11 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>slipbob_nick wrote:</div>
If you buy an aluminum ford just make sure nobody leans on it.

My Lund boat is aluminum…should I not let anyone lean on it?

What do you mean? I was trying to turn this thread into a Lund vs Ford debate.

Interesting so if you could either win a brand new lund or brand new truck what would most guys pick?

A truck is a necessity for me to earn a living to enjoy my down time fishing. I am accustom to making truck payments 12 months a year and I also get to use the truck 12 months a year. The boat on the other hand kills me to make payments when it’s tucked away for the winter.

Give me a free boat I guess. Do I get to pick the colors?

I’d go new Boat I mainly have truck to pull the boat otherwise I’d be just fine in the van

Boat and truck colors for fictitious contest are mystery

suzuki wrote:

I think one reason trucks are so popular is there are so few true 4×4 SUV’s any longer. It’s low ground clearance AWD crap everywhere.Especially when it comes to mid-size. Many people in this part of the country want a robust four-wheel-drive vehicle and not a pseudo one. We are facing that dilemma now. I’m not saying the AWD vehicles are bad. I think most people know what I mean.

It’s not so much the AWD part but the fact that SUVs aren’t built on a truck frames anymore. Yes, they get great gas mileage now, but so do today’s trucks.

I think the reason trucks became so popular as daily drivers in the past 10 years is the addition of the crew cab. Almost every truck out there today is a full crew cab. Combine that with all of the luxury apointments and the smooth ride of today’s trucks, and it has everything of yesterday’s SUV, but one that also gives you a much bigger area in the back to haul stuff vs the small areas in SUVs. Yes, some of yesterday’s SUVs had 3rd row seating to squeeze a couple more people in, but how many people actually used that since it was claustraphobic and a PITA to get back there.

It is sad that the prices of new trucks and boats fail to even shock me anymore. I’ve just excepted it as the new reality and know that if I need to buy a new one in the future, I’ll have to have high payments if I finance it.

I’d get the free boat. Have a vehicle that can tow it and it would be awesome.

slipbob_nick wrote:

Interesting so if you could either win a brand new lund or brand new truck what would most guys pick?

I would sell both to cover the taxes and buy something worth more than status and a waist of my space. Sware to it!

I hate monthly payments on anything, especially things that depreciate. Instead of making payments to a bank, I save some each payday into my own cash stash. When I need a new truck I buy used from owners and pay cash. My current truck is a basic 05 F150 that I gave $5k for in 2011. The only thing I’ve had to do is basic stuff like tires, brakes, battery etc. I should be able to get at least 5 more years out of the truck and I’m already well under $1,000 a year truck expenses. Yeah, it would be nice to have power windows and locks so maybe I’ll splurge next time on a $10k beater truck.

Driving a $58k truck off a lot and instantly turning it into a $29k truck would turn my stomach. I’ll let other people take that kind of depreciation whoopin.

Another option is to build an asset, before acquiring a liability.

jwellsy wrote:

I hate monthly payments on anything, especially things that depreciate. Instead of making payments to a bank, I save some each payday into my own cash stash. When I need a new truck I buy used from owners and pay cash. My current truck is a basic 05 F150 that I gave $5k for in 2011. The only thing I’ve had to do is basic stuff like tires, brakes, battery etc. I should be able to get at least 5 more years out of the truck and I’m already well under $1,000 a year truck expenses. Yeah, it would be nice to have power windows and locks so maybe I’ll splurge next time on a $10k beater truck.

Driving a $58k truck off a lot and instantly turning it into a $29k truck would turn my stomach. I’ll let other people take that kind of depreciation whoopin.

Another option is to build an asset, before acquiring a liability.

Doesn’t happen.

Best advice in new vehicle purchases is to buy end of the year models.The last week of December start negotiating,don’t be afraid to lowball price or ask for add ons or upgrades,show up at the dealership with money in hand on the last day of the year and ask for more.If they unwilling to come to an agreement just walk away.Very few Dealerships will let money walk out the door on the year end day close of buisness.Don’t ink a purchase agreement until the last Day of buisness for the year ending.

slipbob_nick wrote:

Interesting so if you could either win a brand new lund or brand new truck what would most guys pick?

That is a fun question.

I guess I’d take the cash option then sell the current boat. Use the combined funds to buy a new sparkly boat.

Driving a $58k truck off a lot and instantly turning it into a $29k truck would turn my stomach. I’ll let other people take that kind of depreciation whoopin.

Your point is understood, it’s just the amounts are exaggerated.

I bought a truck new 2 years ago, and traded it in last week with 45,000 miles. My realized depreciation was $5621.81 over 2 years or $234.24/month. With the monthly payment added on, cost of ownership was $856.72/month, with free oil changes and no service costs.

Not everyone’s situation is the same, and all perspectives on whether or not that’s a “good deal” are valid as people need to make the best choices for their own life circumstances, not someone else’s. It worked for me and my life to pay that much for the joys of new truck smell, creature comforts, reliability, and warranty. I traded it in for the exact same truck, just 2 years newer. Hopefully the market will stay strong so in another 2 years it can make sense to rinse and repeat. If not, I’ll just own it longer.

jwellsy wrote:

Instead of making payments to a bank, I save some each payday into my own cash stash. When I need a new truck I buy used from owners and pay cash. My current truck is a basic 05 F150 that I gave $5k for in 2011.

Certainly a good strategy…however, if by chance the motor hatched a week after you bought it, would you have available cash then to replace it?

As I posted before and Michael Winther also said…

Michael C. Winther wrote:

Not everyone’s situation is the same, and all perspectives on whether or not that’s a “good deal” are valid as people need to make the best choices for their own life circumstances, not someone else’s.

Timely thread…Ive been looking at a full cab lately. Since we have two car seats that have to go with and my wife’s Outback is not working for weekend excursions for the four of us. My ’05 F150 has 215K and its a super cab so the kids are scrunched right to the back seat which I dont think is safe in the event of a collision.

Started looking at used with less than say 70K miles and it was hard to find much under $30K..some, but not a lot.

Now I am seeing some new 2017 models that fit my needs that I can get into for about $32-$35K.

Doesn’t seem like there is a lot of depreciation lost in those first couple years. I could go with something in the 100-120K range and I wouldn’t mind that, but not knowing how it was regularly maintained is concerning.

Still torn on what to do

skinnywater wrote:

Now I am seeing some new 2017 models that fit my needs that I can get into for about $32-$35K.

Do tell. What trucks are you finding brand new for that price out the door? Dodge RAM is the only one I can think of that could come close to that cheap for a crew cab.

Michael C. Winther wrote:

Not everyone’s situation is the same, and all perspectives on whether or not that’s a “good deal” are valid as people need to make the best choices for their own life circumstances, not someone else’s.

@walleyestudent you quote this, right after you post this. Maybe a bit hypocritical?

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

Certainly a good strategy…however, if by chance the motor hatched a week after you bought it, would you have available cash then to replace it?

SO, are you saying it could cost more to drive an older pickup that might have the motor “hatch” than to pay more for a newer pickup?

reelman wrote:

Best advice in new vehicle purchases is to buy end of the year models.The last week of December start negotiating,don’t be afraid to lowball price or ask for add ons or upgrades,show up at the dealership with money in hand on the last day of the year and ask for more.If they unwilling to come to an agreement just walk away.Very few Dealerships will let money walk out the door on the year end day close of buisness.Don’t ink a purchase agreement until the last Day of buisness for the year ending.

FYI, dealers don’t care about “money in hand”. They’d rather you finance. Car biz is so competitive now that the reserve from the bank is more important then ever. Also, by December (at least in the General Motors world) most 2017’s will be gone.

crappie55369 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>skinnywater wrote:</div>
Now I am seeing some new 2017 models that fit my needs that I can get into for about $32-$35K.

Do tell. What trucks are you finding brand new for that price out the door? Dodge RAM is the only one I can think of that could come close to that cheap for a crew cab.

My 2017 Silverado Crew with the 6.5′ box was not too far away from that. I had a trade and the diff was $6800. They gave me $29,500 for my trade which was a 2015 Silverado Crew with 6.5′ box, 33K miles. It sold a week later for $29,900.
There are SO many incentives out there its crazy, but you have to be aware that you may not qualify for all of them.
Example, if you are a Costco member, you save like an additional $500 off the bat. GM does bonus tags periodically and those are usually $1k on certain vehicles. They have other incentives if you browse their website that you can get an additional $$$ off just by random chance. 3 years ago I was looking, but not ready to buy and they gave me a code for $3K off a new Silverado on top of every other rebate, etc already being offered.

tswoboda wrote:

SO, are you saying it could cost more to drive an older pickup that might have the motor “hatch” than to pay more for a newer pickup?

I believe he is saying that if you use cash to purchase a used older vehicle and something major goes wrong are you going to have cash to pay for the repairs? With new you have warranty. Some people save $5000 to pay for a $5000 vehicle and then it craps out. Are they prepared to pay for repairs.
I look at this whole finance vs pay cash differently. I prefer to keep the cash for true emergencies and finance purchases (large ones like cars). Yeah, I am paying a bank interest, but at least I have money to fall back on should something major like a major illness hit my family.

that brings up a good point Captain what is the easiest way to find out about these dealer incentives? Ive enrolled in a few email lists but it seems to me that its a complete jumble to try and easily locate incentive offers on new vehicles. Seems to me there should be a hub website comprising all manufacturer offers where a guy can go and see what deals are being offered on any given day. Maybe someone who is smarter than me can invent that

Browsing the OEM websites should be able to tell you the “advertised” offers from the companies. What it would not show you are “dealer” incentives that they receive from a company like GM for something like being a large volume dealer or inventory reduction or the like. I was lucky enough to see this at the dealer I purchased my truck at. I have a pretty good relationship with the guys there now. The salesman I purchased my ’15 from is now a sales manager and he actually showed me the entire inventory sheet that had invoice amt and each of the incentives for every vehicle. I don’t know that every dealer would do this, but they did it for me.
I was looking for the 6.5′ box too which is harder to find. They didn’t have any in the colors I would buy, so they ended up doing a dealer trade after all that.
In all seriousness the deal was just too good to pass up. I had no intentions of trading, but it worked out to less than $.21 per mile to trade up for brand new truck and it was easily worth it in my eyes.

I have 590,000 miles on my three vehicles. 2001, 2003 Silverados and a 99 Lumina. My biggest investment in them has been new brakes on the 2003. Not counting oil changes, gas or new tires these vehicles have cost me 8.1 cents a mile to drive. (That’s factoring in that all three vehicles are worth nothing.) I’ve never had a payment and I don’t ever plan to. They might have rust but for now these vehicles pay me to drive them.

I got some Dodge dealers mailing me offers in excess of $30,000 for my ’14 Cummins with normal wear and tear and mileage. I certainly would have responded but I’m afraid their offer wouldn’t be worth much with 189,000 miles.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael C. Winther wrote:</div>
Not everyone’s situation is the same, and all perspectives on whether or not that’s a “good deal” are valid as people need to make the best choices for their own life circumstances, not someone else’s.

@walleyestudent you quote this, right after you post this. Maybe a bit hypocritical?

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:</div>
Certainly a good strategy…however, if by chance the motor hatched a week after you bought it, would you have available cash then to replace it?

SO, are you saying it could cost more to drive an older pickup that might have the motor “hatch” than to pay more for a newer pickup?

No, that was not my point at all. What Michael Winther said was my point, “Not everyone’s situation is the same.”

Sure, it would be nice if we had cash on hand to purchase a vehicle…new or used, but some of us are not always allowed the luxury of being able to save up in advance for a replacement. Captain Musky got what I was saying in that if you save for a used and then the unexpected happens, what next? You might then find yourself having to finance a vehicle you didn’t plan on because you need something. If this makes any sense to your question, this is from my post near the top of this page:
I was satisfied to drive around in an older “paid for vehicle” until the latest breakdown that followed a series of repairs. The last one was the demise of it. Sometimes your luck just runs out. When I went to look at “used” replacements, all I could envision was a repeat of the same cycle of repairs. That’s why I finally bit it and opted for the first new vehicle in my life. Was not my intent to impress with a new truck, but that was the direction that made the most sense at the time

I believe he is saying that if you use cash to purchase a used older vehicle and something major goes wrong are you going to have cash to pay for the repairs?

I have long lived by 1 rule when buying vehicles to avoid just this scenario – either buy really cheap or buy new. Anytime you spend a fair amount of money on a used vehicle you are in that trap where if something major goes wrong you are faced with dumping a lot of money into it since you already have so much invested. If something goes wrong with my $500 car I’ll leave it where it is and walk away. Not so easy to do with your 10k vehicle.

crappie55369 wrote:

I have long lived by 1 rule when buying vehicles to avoid just this scenario – either buy really cheap or buy new. Anytime you spend a fair amount of money on a used vehicle you are in that trap where if something major goes wrong you are faced with dumping a lot of money into it since you already have so much invested. If something goes wrong with my $500 car I’ll leave it where it is and walk away. Not so easy to do with your 10k vehicle.

That is very good advice and makes sense. I had a 2007 GMC Denali that I was completely fine keeping for many more years as it was paid off, but then the little and somewhat middle size crap started adding up.
First it was the annoying tire pressure sensors, then the chrome flaking off the wheels, yes, I could have easily just ignored those, but the chrome flaking actually resulted in the tires losing air and in -35 temps in the middle of lake of the woods wouldn’t be a good place to be when your tire goes flat.
Then the autoride air shocks started acting up which resulted in the override of stability control and traction control.
To repair the system would have been in excess of $2000. To override it with just regular gas shocks would have been about $1500 those are parts alone.
So, I decided that was enough. I had a rust bubble and it was time to cut my losses and upcoming headaches.
That is when I traded for my 2015 Silverado.
What I learned is I will not buy another vehicle with all those dang fancy gadgets.
I would like to not have a payment, but its also piece of mind that I wont have to worry about paying for repairs or any maintenance for several years since its included. That’s worth something to me, but again, may not be to others.

crappie55369 wrote:

I have long lived by 1 rule when buying vehicles to avoid just this scenario – either buy really cheap or buy new.

yep: trade it in before 50k miles or keep it past 100k miles…