Who says used trucks are going up in value?

If I do it again, I would try to buy new

 

Last artical I saw in commercial carriers journal said used truck prices are tanking due to a glut of 4 to 5 year old trucks hitting the secondary market .

 

400 to 650,000 is the worst time to buy a truck. During those miles all the original parts are going out on it. If you buy used get an used trk in range of 100 or 200,000 miles are an 700,000 mile trk. By then all the parts have been replace should be a good truck if its not an lemon.

 

I don't know how many o/o there are in America but you got to figure Swift has 17000 drivers. Schneider about 10000 drivers, Prime about 10000 drivers, Crete and Werner about 5-6000 each. And you figure they rotate trucks out every few years. Not enough buyers is why prices will continue to fall. Soon they'll give them away.

 

I sometimes feel like I should buy new too... but in a rather naive sense of deserving it. I never drove a brand new truck, and spent the last 16 years driving used and old ones. I might have left 20 years in this profession before I either die (statistically) or I'm lucky enough to retire. So buying a new truck, taking care of it, and sticking to it to the end would be pretty plausible idea to me. The only thing is that these nowadays trucks won't last that long. Maybe a new glider?...but it is not really new, is it? The engine in them is rebuilt and how long is it going to last? Can they guarantee another 2 million miles on it?

 

Part of the problem with these emissions nightmares is lack of maintenance and the tendency people have to run them to complete failure ...that's when things get really pricey .
Just had my emissions system gone thru and didn't wait for check engine lite or a derate .
Was 2000 dollars well spent .

 

Somebody told me once when you get a rebuild you get about half the life of the engine. Like if it went 2 million miles then got rebuilt you end up getting about another million. Don't know if it's true. But I still think it's just cheaper to fix as you go vs 180k God only knows what a new truck will cost in 5-10 years.

 

Is a lot of truth to the 500k to 600k increased repair and maintenance scenario.
I bought a 2013 cascadia from my boss with 511 on the clock for wholesale price of 34k .
At 578k on the clock now and all new batteries , emissions system gone thru , 4 new air bags , steer tires , front pinion seal and air dryer serviced .
Its been a good truck so far but I stay on top of things and closely moniter fuel consumption and oil consumption and don't drive it like an ape .
I got a couple pals with 4k truck payments on new trucks .

 

4K payments? That's crazy! How's that even possible?

 

New peterbilts speced to the max lol.