Penske Truck Sales...Would you consider this truck a good deal?

I your planning on ever going to Cali its a bad Idea, after Jan 1st you have to be CARB compliant to run Cali. 2004 is not CARB compliant. I think it has to be 2007 or newer. I sold my old Freight Shaker last year (Same year and model) to upgrade. I regret it now. It let me down once, turbo went out in Indiana. Other than that no problems. As long as your not running cali it should be a good truck to get started with.

 

Bought a F/Liner from Penske nearly 6 years ago, through a dealer. Paid a slight premium, but truck was a good one, as I figured. So far only a clutch, brakes,tires,re-build A/C, belts. Same batteries it came with, has been a good purchase.
Spend some time looking at the small wear items, and see if they have been replaced already.That is a good sign.As a deal clincher, have them align all 3 axles,new CB,wash and wax, new brakes,change gear box fluids,oil change w/ sample, have ECM set as you want it. Those trucks are usually set kind of slow, and you might want it a little faster.Dealers will often do some of these to close the sale. If tires are bad, have new ones put, and figured in the deal. Dealers will often sell tires at cost, to sell a unit. Some Penske trucks are kept better than others, I was told different locations treat maintenance differently.

 

Find out if it was a rental truck or lease return...if it was a rental, run for the hills...in another truck!

 

Screw running calli. You have the rest of the country to run. You can get a decent truck for a little over 20k just look around.

 

My very 1st truck was an ex-Penske lease truck. I ran that truck for 7 years without a single issue. The best part about it being a Penske truck is you get all the repair documentation when you buy it. Just ask them for the info, they have EVERYTHING. I'd day it looks like a really good deal to me. They also put new tires and brakes on mine as that is part of their policy when selling their older trucks. It's worth checking out for sure

 

Most rental tractors from Penske or Ryder have TERRIBLE powertrain specs. No matter how good the maintenance has been and documented, you will be facing poor fuel economy or at the least looking at gear ratio swap.

 

And they being stuck with these older trucks that have been put out of service because of CARB. Resale hit the fan a month or so ago.

Guy I learned a lot from in terms of setting up a carrier has a small fleet of all Penski trucks. When we looked at maintenance numbers I was shocked. But you also want to make sure that it was a lease and not rental.

I was looking at trailers from them but not at the prices they want for those.