Originally Posted by Guntoter

If you are buying a 389 or W-9...

$140K (minimum) + FET + sales tax + Shipping, etc... Bottom line $160K out the door. With good credit you need at least 10% down. Then insurance $4K down
So you've got $20,000 cash invested before you buy a trailer.
If your planning on buying a truck then leasing on to someone else dont bother, you may as well be a company driver.

Used truck? Good luck getting a 7 year old truck financed, because you know you cant buy a '08 thru '11 (DPF)...

This is a horrible time to try to be O/O.
I could get into what the bond market is going to do to our economy in January when taxamageddon hits but that is a whole other story ( you dont want to be a truck owner with no write offs).

That is why I ordered a 2013 Columbia glider with pre-egr Detroit 60 in it. Spec'd to the gills with everything I wanted. $112K out the door and no FET. 18 Spd, new Meritor 14x rears with lockers and aluminum housings, Alcoa Durabrites all around, Custom interior with Arctic insulation package and Premium noise abatement package, built in fridge, painted set back fuel tanks, custom painted frame rails and undercarriage, Dupont Viper Blue Pearl with clear coat body and tank paint. Dupont Viper Red frame and undercarriage.

Good call, THIS is where we see the advantage that the little guy has over supermegacarrierfleet. I dont mean to sound like the sky is falling, I just want small business owners to understand that the next few years could be pretty hard for people who are under-capitalized.
Small business NEEDS lending to help us through slow times or unforeseen expenses we will incur. That lending will be VERY tough even for the very well qualified borrower.

Originally Posted by Autocar

Credit hasn't been exactly free flowing and easy to obtain, for the last few years.

And that was with 50 to 1 leverage ratios. Dodd/Frank is requiring lenders to lower leverage ratios over the next few years way beyond what they have done for the last few years now that the out of touch members of the Congressional Banking Committee have decided that the economy is stable enough to slice lending by 75% (getting votes by going after those "evil" bankers).

One year LIBOR is at 1.07% now. One year ago it was 0.70%. It seems that private sector banking has started to see the writing on the wall. At this rate bond yields will be less than LIBOR rates this year!

I love hoods too, plan on leasing a Pete 389 with Werner, already have a 359 running local, and having a truck you wants makes you want to drive it and make the miles while enjoying it