Penske Used Trucks - Go or No Go? Would you buy one?

I will never buy another Def truck ever again. Was like you when I started.

 

What’s wrong with the Def trucks?

 

From my experience, I purchased my first truck through Schneider and aside from minor/ordinary wear and tear items. She has run like a champ and is still in very great shape. Just an FYI its a 2014 cascadia DD13 I purchased last year to give you an idea.

 

What is the price on it

 

just about everything throws it into derate and the cost of repairing that system is crazy expensive.
And only California requires trucks to have Def. So if you don’t plan going into California your better off getting 2000-2007 truck preferable a Detroit S60 engine.

easy and cheap to work on.

 

I have to agree. Especially since I’ve been running a 12.7 for 21 yrs now. I’m stuck in my ways. So dependable. So cheap on parts. Turn key operation. Just keeps going. The price of a repair for emission system, equals the cost of an overhaul. I’ve heard $13000 repairs many times. Seems to be the magic number. Must be the cost of throwing every part available at it, to assure its fixed. Add cost of downtime. Disaster waiting to happen. There’s exceptions, always can get Lucky. Why take the chance? Penske has good maintenance. I bought a Trailer from them. Good deal. It’s the Drivetrain on a Truck that determines most of its value. They all have shortcomings. You need to do research on the common problems, of the Drivetrains and the Trucks. They’re each getting more and more unique. Research the Freightliner One Box for example. Major cost to replace. Enough to keep Me from buying a Truck equipped with one. Plenty of parts still available for the old 12.7s Lots of aftermarket competition. Better than the newer Trucks Dealer Only choices. Finding the right Truck has never been harder. Anything newer, without a warranty is risky. I personally don’t believe in warranties. My inframe done by a competent Mechanic is my warranty. Newer Trucks are just much more complicated. Mandated Government EPA standards caused the Manufacturers to start adding more junk. It’s taken 14 yrs to finally get caught up, and work the bugs out. 07-17 basically 10 yrs of problematic engines.

 

I feel Penske takes good care of our trucks. Our first two end of lease turn ins had barely 300K after 7 years but I would be afraid of the 'unknowns'.

Sure the maintenance records show only one getting a clutch and tons of regular maintenance. unlike the next two years we had little DEF problems with them and they are in decent shape.

THE UNKNOWN:

We are a local north Jersey carrier doing LTL and TL all over the city and Long Island; so what if it took over 2 years to break 100,000 miles, they are still HARD miles with the occasional New Haven or northern Maryland to blow out the dust and back to the same grind day in and day out.

You can't really know the actual unknown service life of a long term Penske turn in.

 

everything, especially one that’s had 10,000 different monkeys beating the ever living #### out of it

 

That 13k was what my truck needed within the first 20 days after I purchased it.

Warranties don’t cover anything. They will look for any excuse to try and not cover it.


Best answer is pick up a Rig requiring an overhaul and get it done. Less then $25k total cost.


Second option is pick up a rig that can handle another 100k miles and overhaul once you have enough saved. Fix the rest while driving. Way better then a 80k pile of junk.