Lease new vs buy old?

I can guarantee you that you will spend more to lease a new truck than you will to find a good used truck. You will have maintenance costs in both cases. As someone else mentioned, most of the trucks found in dealer shops are new. So, not only do you have the expense of the repairs (not all repairs are covered under a new truck warranty), but you will be losing revenue for every day your truck is in the shop. The most I have spent, at least in recent years, on repairs of a used truck is a little over $11,000. That may sound like a lot of money, but it is less than half of what you will likely pay to lease a truck for only 6 months, not to mention the down payment on the leased truck. Once the repairs are made on the used truck, you don't have to worry about making big payments and those repairs won't likely need to be repeated for a number of years. Buy a good used truck (pre def) and let your truck pay for the new one, if that is the way you want to go. I have been in business for a long time. There is no way that I would commit to a major capital investment right now. The economy is very soft. If you have a cheap payment, or no payment, you can more easily survive a bad economy than if you have a big monthly payment. It is important to keep your overhead down, especially starting out. I have known some owners who have had to spend a lot of money on maintenance, but if you do your homework and take your time, you can find a good truck that will make you money. Even if you lease a truck from a leasing company, you will still need to come up with a down payment and if the economy goes south again, as most economists are predicting, you won't be able to afford the truck and probably will not be able to just walk away from the lease obligation.

 

Oh hey look it's another new vs old truck debate again.

It all depends on YOU, there is no right answer.

Personally I have seen and read about more drivers failing and going broke with cheap older trucks vs new trucks.
Why? A used truck can be a money pit.. throwing thousands upon thousands of dollars at it fixing all the time and hey guess what you aren't making any money when you're sitting at the shop either.
Or you can get lucky and have a great used truck that doesn't cause you many issues.
It's a gamble.
Don't get me wrong people fail with new trucks too but that's usually due to the driver not the truck. I've seen people fail because they have new truck flease payment but they're working at some cheap mileage rate.
Then something happens where they have to take time off and then have to dig themselves out of a hole while running at $1.10-$1.20 WITH FSC.

Point being just don't work for cheap or take cheap freight. Have a good job or freight lined up where you can actually earn good money. If you don't have that figured out it doesn't matter what truck you have.

 

Buy used with cash , it's the best way to go. I have done it and it works, it will be some repairs down the road, but with no truck payment, your money keep coming and soon you will have a new truck cause of the repairs. Plus, everything don't break every day, it's good months and bad months but I had more good than bad. Keep your overhead low, bank your money with a paid cash truck, it's the only way to go.

 

If you don't haul cheap freight things like MPGs and the kind of truck you have doesn't matter as much.
Just saying...

 

It goes beyond cheap freight too. Living within your means, if I paid cash for everything other than my truck I could more than comfortably afford a $6000 a month truck payment, doesn't mean I will.

 

That's very true, freightwipper. Cheap freight, and trucks don't mix. Fast way to go broke.

 

The guys that are saying you can't make money with the truck in the shop.....I'm unclear.....are you saying better to buy old than new?

 

There's no clear cut answer.
It depends on the person, their operation and their wants and needs.

 

No one, would won't to do that. Hopefully!! Spend more than what they can afford. But then again, it's some crazy people out here that would try it.

 

I've always subscribed to the theory of "It's not what you make, it's what you keep". I'm in a segment of the industry that has higher rates in general. I don't haul cheap, I don't have payments, and I don't work much. 102782 miles in 2014.