Lookining at his truck and trailer today any thoughts welcome

Well you won't save crap on the insurance just by keeping the name because the insurance is looking at your MVR and experience. You don't mention either of your experience in the business or anything so proceed with caution

 

No such thing as aa protected business. I would walk away just based on that statement. Then t here iss t he autoshift and volvo aspect.

 

OK I do this for a living, buy distressed companies and fold them into my fleet so you understand where I'm coming from.

To me this is a joke, I wouldn't even consider it because he is asking for a trade as part or whole payment of the sale.

No mention of a company entity, or any other legal requirements, discussion of options is leaving it open to ambiguity at best. Keeping the company name is just to me meaningless.

If you are serious, then an NDA would be the next step for you, and he would have to open the books up to you to see if he is really making all the money.

I would dump the truck, it isn't worth the $10k he is asking for, the trailer is questionable, the authority if it is turning net revenue about 8% of the billable, then it could be considered as the only real viable part in this. The real asset should be the authority and company, not the truck and trailer.

If I was going to buy it, it to me is a $25k company with the truck and trailer.

 

Agreed 100%.

Also, be very wary of buying used car-hauling equipment. Auto carriers already require more maintenance than the usual tractor-trailer as things go. More stuff to have to repair or replace, and more chances for things to go wrong. Cheaping out on the equipment is never a good idea: the initial outlay may be to your budget's liking but, down the road, the money you saved is just going to get ate right up in possible violations, repairs and lost revenue (due to downtime).

Cheap equipment really isn't so cheap after all.

 

What's the story behind the low odometer mileage?

Is that a decimal I see before the last digit? If so, then it would mean that the truck has just UNDER 163K miles (and not turned over 1MM) -- or was the cluster changed?

If you run the vin via rigdig, do the sequence of reports appear logical and does the owner have supporting maintenance records indicating such?

I'm not gonna beat up on the truck, since I got me a 1998 VNL with 690K fully documented miles, and only put in $2K in repairs so far (rusted out air tanks/brake chambers). Sometimes being overly skeptical will make you overlook a good deal.

This truck seems well taken care of, so I reserve giving a blanket judgement on its value.

 

I see analysis paralysis creepin' up on ya...