AUCTION .VS. DEALERSHIP when buying a truck?

you buy at an auction...you buy "as-is-as-seen", no implied warranties.

you buy from a dealer, you have a chance to buy a warranty and at the very least, have them do a DOT inspection and an oil analysis..

auction trucks are "sometimes", repo'd trucks. if an o/o DID NOT keep up with the monthly payments, due to failing in the business, do you think he took care of any PM's the truck needed..??

god only knows how he treated that truck, knowing full well, it was going to be taken away from him....

"pothole city", here i come......

 

When we put big rigs through the auction, they go as they are from the parking through the barn for bidding. Once in a while the owners leave them short on fuel and we have to go through the usual recovering from running out of fuel. That led to a rule not to crank them until 3 minutes before sale which led to a batch of rigs not quite warmed up yet.

There were two rigs I remember well, one I took through was a long hood pete with about 350,000 on it and flawless in every way. Bidding took off on it to about 30K on up. Whoever bought it will probably still have it to this day.

Once in a while I would be the one stuck into a truck that is sick. The computer will shut engine down in a minute and half at idle. Override fire it back up again and so on baby sitting the thing until auction dealing with whatever else goes out along with the engine.

More than a few trucks with trailers, would exhibit a airleak back there, usually applying trolley would keep the trailer supplied in spite of the leak. Something like that can be heard inside the stall easily enough. Just a few workarounds to problem rigs to get them through the sale at all.

 

My employer took me to a Taylor-Martin auction and had me pick a truck, later on I went and picked a truck for myself. The first one I picked was a Walmart truck, zero issues, the one I picked for myself was a PAM truck. My friend went later and picked up a Prime truck. My truck had all of its recalls done, my friends didn’t. Freightliner won’t fix a truck total damages under recall if it fails. That’s what you need to look for, recall stickers are on door side on a label either side. If all recall labels are there, your truck has been maintained. I had no issues mechanical on either except for what the engines were known for. Detroit S60 is known for oil leaks, DD 15 is known for the same, just harder to fix, you will touch every gasket on a DD15, every gasket.

 

I don’t know why you assume trucks at dealers will be better. I test drove a 386 at the Pete dealer and it had 13 things wrong with it, including 3 lights out (even the headlight) and the Pete dealer wasn’t interested in fixing anything. Truck is still there I believe.

 

I thought you could show up a day or two in advance and look at a truck before auction. I was also told that mechanics hang out at RB and you can pay them to go over a truck with you. First go-to an auction and see how it works . Find two or three trucks and pay someone to look at them with you. Then figure out how much money you want to pay . Finally go bid and get one, if there is something you like.

 

As for the risk factor, alot of times you are no better off with most dealers than you are buying from an auction. That's where alot of there trucks come from anyway and then a huge mark up with a quick scrub fluid change and good luck with those warranties. Used trucks are a gamble no matter how you look at.

 

OK I guess somebody doesn't seem to get what others say.

Auctions are for people like me who can spot junk a mile away and know how much these truck are really worth.

The naivety of your assumption - "And it seems to me like it might be a better deal to buy a truck at an auction versus a dealership" demonstrates a lack of knowledge on truck buying.

An Auction is the worst place to buy a truck, I get some people (including myself) have had good luck but for every good luck purchase, there is maybe three bad luck purchases that had to happen.

To expect it to last a year or two before you have to put money into it tells me you are clueless to how this works.

Everything you do, you have to limit the risk of a breakdown, as mentioned this starts with due diligence on the purchase - dyno/blowby, ecm dump, mechanic going through it, etc. ...

Why? what's going to happen on 12th of April?

Aliens coming from Klaatu and Gort going to arrive and fix the FMCSA?

 

Why would you want to buy a truck today if you believe there is so much wrong in the industry today?
I say that because you gave a hidden reference to“Black Smoke Matters” day.