New vs Used: some real life data for 2018

Oh yeah, I see it every darn day, man! Trucks from the 1978 era just zooming right by these modern era hunks of junk broken down on the side of the road

 

HE prob used a screen scraping software progam(try mozenda) to automatically take the data then excel to a spreadsheet/chart

 

Well, heres my thoughts on used verses new. If you buy new, you are going to eat a lot of depreciation, and it costs a lot. BUT, you are the first one to drive it, and anything done to it YOU will know about.
Buying a used truck. You'll spend less money up front. Depreciation has already happened. BUT, there is a reason that truck is for sale and you can go over it with a fine tooth comb and even have a real good wrench go over it, and you aren't going to find everything wrong with it. Its a crapshoot. Might have no problems, might have been run for 100,000 miles with a slobbering injector. And drivers tend to mess with stuff. How many drivers has the truck had, and how much tweeking did each driver do to a truck? I know from experience the time and effort and aggravation that comes from chasing problems and figuring out wiring messes created by truck drivers. I by far prefer an older 379 with a 2000-03 6nz CAT. But I don't want to go through the maintenance nightmare. And a couple year old truck with first generation smog nonsense on it? NO THANKS. Fleets get rid of their trucks at around the 400-500,000 mark, and there is a reason for this. Ill drive a new one for 500,000 and at least I will know what has been done and why during that 500,000.
THEN I can drive it for another 500,000.

 

Well it's more about the engine than the truck.

It doesn't really matter what year the truck is, or at least until the government outlaws putting in a mechanical engine.

Any mechanical engine can be rebuilt, any mechanical engine you can replace the block crank heads cam whatever.

But when you're finished it, you hit the starter it turns a quarter-turn and you're on your way without all the electronic nonsense to stop you dead in your tracks and cause you to reach deep in your pockets. Silly nonsense to me.

And there are some guys that order gliders with fully mechanical engines, also.

Simplicity is what works for this Dino Soar anyway.

And speaking of Simplicity I have a Simplicity lawn mower from 1964...

 

Yeah stuff like this blows me by all the time when I'm broken down.

 

Disagree.

I buy new because the older trucks are not dependable.

They live their lives being abused by owners and fleets just as the new ones do.

I don't have time to chase parts to recondition a truck so to make money, I need to make money now.

If older was dependable without the problems of reconditioning, then I would buy, I would make a lot more money with an older fleet, the same depreciation schedule, the better write offs and so on.

BUT reality sucks - my trucks have to be rolling to make money.

Downtime sucks time away from the bottom line and time is money. I can't absorb much per unit if it is always in the shop or having issues with parts.

AND right now I am like other fleets, I have a 3.6% major repair rate for all of last year, which isn't bad.

Some, especially those who are nostalgic for the past (even if they didn't live it), can have the older trucks but they will be for most part a minority, the new ones are making the money because they are dependable.

That said, I wonder where the OP went to, I wonder if he was going to respond to my post.

 

It's called survivorship bias.
While there are some old trucks still running strong on the road, you fail to remember the millions in the scrap heap.
Here is an article about it.
Survivorship bias - Wikipedia

 

Of course old trucks end up in the scrap yard.

The new ones end up there too, just not soon enough, lol. It's like they're just a pile of a scrap from the factory.

If the truck is bad you find a better chassis. And keep your nice easy reliable mechanical engine.

Yes I am a Dino Soar. You absolutely cannot compare a new engine to, say, a thirty-year-old engine.

I'll grab that 30 year old engine rebuild it and love every second of it. I love to see new engines in the junkyard. They can rest in peace in their rightful home with all the other scrap, especially with the computer and all the wiring right on top of it.

A mechanical injector cost me $65. The electronic version I believe is at least 300.

So I can set my overhead and put new injectors in literally for $210.

Electronic injectors will cost you a minimum of $1,800 IF YOU INSTALL THEM YOURSELF. Have someone else do it, add in a little more electrical Hookus Pocus maybe you need some other wiring maybe you had a few bad sensors or something that they have to put some time in to checkout on their machine.

Easy 3500 to $4,500+

The in frame on the mechanical engine is much cheaper. Heck you could probably rebuild two of them for that price.

Sounds like a great waste of money to me.

Not everyone can work on their own engines, not everyone can maintain an older truck.

But if those guys knew what they were in for, if they knew the expense and the downtime beforehand, they would probably learn to turn a wrench and they would find a new romance with the mechanical engine.

Hey if you guys make enough money to spend thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on electronic nonsense, good for you.

I'd rather take those thousands and put them in my pocket.

Good luck to everyone.

He drove 427 miles and has to spend $5,000. That's a very expensive trip. And it happens over and over and over and over again every single day to all kinds of people.

Yep I will take the mechanical engine every time.

 

I will say we do run other emission trucks and have not any problems with them. I agree with your mechanical theory, but I get paid to turn wheels not wrenches. I've got a small fleet of three trucks, and growing. I want them newer or new and run a good 4-5 years and cycle them for new. Once they get that 400-500K mile wear on them get rid of them. That's part of how I run my business and it works I think to the companies benefit. They are machines new or old they are all not manufactured perfect, they break.

 

Hey brother it all depends on what you've got to do.

Some guys are situated that it's better for them or easier to buy new trucks I understand that.

There's more to an old truck than an engine to keep up with, but the point of what I'm saying is that the government shouldn't do this.

Things shouldn't be forced upon us that cost money that are meaningless.

It's a shame because there was once upon a time if you bought a new truck you bought something good.

Nowadays not so much. It's the changing of the times, but you would think if you spend $150,000 + you would have something that's at least reliable.

One of the companies that I worked for Wayback when did a cost analysis of whether it was better for them to hire mechanics and refurbish their Fleet of trucks, or if it was better just to buy new or lease.

They decided for their operation it was better for them to lease new trucks.

But I will tell you that for anyone that thinks an old truck can't be every bit as good as a new truck, think again.

I drove for them I guess in the early 2000s and they put me one day in what seemed like a 1980s or maybe early 90s International. When I looked at it I didn't even want to drive it.

But that was one of the trucks they refurbished. That truck held the road perfect it shifted perfect it handled perfect it stopped perfect it Rode perfect.

When they closed up that shop I should have bought one of those old trucks that they refurbished.

It felt better than a new truck. Incredible.