Which truck, which engine, and how to avoid emissions issues?

I am a small carrier. The truck I own is an 06 Freightliner columbia with detroit. I am not mechanically inclined so I cannot tell you the type of detroit but I know it is one of the good ones. The truck is approaching 1.1 million. We bought in 2012 with about 550k to 600k miles on it from Arrow Truck Sales. We did the dyno. This truck has been a GREAT truck. My dad drives it. We have only had issues with a/c and a/c components up until this summer when we decided to book a load out west. We have not went out west much in years but this was a hard one to pass up and it was the week Phoenix AZ cancelled flights due to the heat. We had to replace ecm, a/c compressor, and a few other things. Turned into about 12k and total shutdown in 3 different states of about 3 weeks. Dad missed father's day. At some point after that he stated that it just didn't pull as good and he thought it was time to consider selling or rebuild which we priced from our trusted mechanic at 11k. We love detroit mechanics. Freightliner is slow and backed up so we avoid like the plague, but detroit is everywhere and seems to have it down. This truck has been good so we know what we would be getting with a rebuild (if it actually is about to need one). I mean this truck is worn, but we know that everything seems to be in good shape for the 1.1 million miles. I hear about trucks at 600 to 800k getting rebuilds so we could buy a used and still need a rebuild!

I mentioned buying a 99 which I already knew would be hard, but dad is terrible with technology. It took me 2 years to get him to learn to text correctly. He still has not mastered taking a good quality picture. Althought he has mastered texting said picture. No matter how easy you think the elog is, it will NOT be for him. He shied me away from that thought. I love freigthliner. I want that. Supposedly some of the newer detroit engines aren't as good. Maybe they were DD15 or something like that. I just know when I was getting prices on used trucks he was like not as good as my detroit when I mentioned those. He was mentioning volvo but to me they just seem to be smooth and good mpg. Not that mpg is not very important but smooth is on the lower priority list. I want minimum break downs, safety, good mpg, good options to mechanics when break down, not to pay arm and leg if I can get away with that. I was thinking 20 to 30k used truck. Dad was leaning toward new. I said NO WAY. I don't like debt and we are debt free, company wise. Unless you count the home that was refinanced to start the company about 10 years ago. The newer trucks are scary. They seem to be a great price too, which makes them even more scary.

I don't know if we should sell next week, rebuild the 06, or what. But if we buy a newer truck (looking for 500k miles or less so whatever that brings) what should we get for the features we want. Let me mention that the added bonus of truck self diagnosing seemed to be great feature of a couple of brands. But that was really all that seemed to give them an advantage and was it worth the bang of bucks. If we had a better ecm on the freightliner that 12k would have only been like 3 or 4k fix imo. But I know the trucks that have things like that are very expensive. Is detroit still the best engine and which ones are the best detroirts? I hear cat is good but too expensive for parts and repairs. What about the paccar? Which trucks do we stay far away from year wise, brand wise, engine wise, etc? I do not care one bit about going to Cali. We lost that ability a few years ago and have not missed it for one second in all those years. We mainly stay east coast now.

Let me just say if any of you happen to ever find a 2006 detroit freightlienr with very low mileage that is just sitting somewhere, jerk somebody's arm off to buy it. That is all I can say about that one. We did not know how many miles we would get. We thought maybe 800,000 to a million. We have been blessed!

 

No offense taken. Everybody should be honest about their knowledge or lack thereof. I am leaning toward rebuild or used truck around 3 to 7 years old with around 500k miles for a few reasons. Dad does not know if he will be doing this 2, 5, or 10 more years (and 10 would be pushing it). We have been truck/trailer debt free for about 2 years and the relief is so wonderful. I know we are going to take on some debt, but the less the better. If we could get a truck that would stay on the road and the payment wouldn't be missed due to mpg saved, it would be worth it I guess. A warranty is great, but having a truck that is not broken down much means as much or even more. I've heard of 2012-2015 trucks bought brand new and broke down weekly to monthly.

We run east coast, mainly south east and I do know detroit and freightliner are all over. Not sure about the others, but we have rarely needed a detroit mechanic and not had one within an hour or 2. Dad thinks that the engine and clutch will go out at some point in the next 6 to 12 months. This is all he is sure of. We did the 12k repairs mentioned above which included the a/c compressor and the ecm. A/C compressor will be going out soon but it will be warrantied. It is at least every other time it goes out. Then we did an expensive hood repair about 3 months ago. I mean at 1.1 million miles this truck has taken a beating so who knows. Dad said today, "this truck always cranks up" and has always been dependable. He said he listens to drivers at the truck stop trying and trying to crank truck. No matter what mechanical issue, this truck still cranks up.

So you think post 2010 is indeed best? As for post 2010, I do not think I would buy anything but a freightliner. I have just felt so blessed and fortunate with that 2006 (but am clueless with newer trucks). I have seen some 09 trucks with fairly low mileage.. Our last used came with a 1 year and 100k warranty. I think we used the warranty for some a/c repair. I was thinking about just buying from an individual this time, but yes having a warranty might make it worth paying a bit more to a dealership.