Without revolving 15k to 30k repair fund forget about it

Someone is bitter, tell us how you really feel. Lol

Let it out, let it all out, not good to keep it bottled up inside like that.

 

Learn to DIY... even if you're not necessarily going to

Paying people for service on blind faith leads to all kinds of abuses.

4wheeler example: my SUV started making odd clunks and dying on attempts to shift into reverse... omg tranny problems amirite? Dealership prolly woulda taken me for $4k-ish for a tranny swap.

NOPE. Vacuum leak, either a $11 valve or a $21 hose (not sure, I swapped both of em in 2 minutes). All good as new.

What kinda mechanic would ever let you off with $32 in parts and the minimum billable labor length for a truck that don't shift into reverse? As if lol

 

WOW aint you a Debbie Downer. Why don't you make a few more excuses for you pathetic life. Don't like the industry then GET THE HELL OUT, it's just that simple. go get a job in the hundreds of other industries out there. Stop whining and get off your ##* and change your life. Good Luck

 

Op made a good point to have access to 15g or more for repairs.
Better that it is saved money.
A LOC is better than trying to loan money for repairs.

 

Depending on the truck and issues, $30k might not be enough. I know a guy that within 6 months, he had over $75k of repair bills on a 2013 Volvo truck. I saw the original receipts so it was very real. And his truck is still broke down and not able to run.

His story goes like this. Truck needs engine rebuild. Quoted 20k but turns out to $32k. After bill was paid, truck ran a couple of months and engine blown up. New shop put in a brand new crated motor with new turbo and lots of stuff. New bill $42,000. Old shop paid most of the new bill but owner still had to pay thousands. A couple of months later, Emission system went berserk and truck was constantly in and out of Volvo Dealer. Final word from Dealer said to replace the Emission system for $15k to $25k or warranty for new motor will be void. Now his truck is unusable and owner of the truck is out of money, out of a job and still owe payments on this truck. The bank is trying to repo th he truck and the owner is trying to hide it.

 

Nope

Lesson here is to google prices and businesses before writing random people 5-digit checks

 

You cannot google prices when it comes to engine rebuilds. My friend was afraid to get scam so he went straight to big Volvo Dealers who seems decent. These days, dealers wants to lure people in by quoting a lower price like 20k for engine overhaul. Then once they have the motor teardown, they will look for every excuse to charge more or warranty will not be honor. The standard overhaul does not include head, injectors, turbo, egr, emission systems and many other things.

For this reason, I will never pay to rebuild a motor again. I still have a truck at a shop that work was haulted due to this issue. I let the shop have my truck. The final rebuild will cost 2 times as much as purchase price of the truck.

 

Op made very good points. If you don’t have back up money your setting yourself up for failure with a used emmisions truck. I’ve seen first hand guys go belly up with very un reliable used emmision (DEF/DEF equipped) trucks . There’s reasons fleets turn them over after 3 years other than depreciation , they become financial head aches.
I have to admit that our current truck which is a 2019 KW680 with a paccar engine has been very reliable so far and has had very good MPG
, but it only has 71k miles so far. Our 2012 KW with an ISX was constantly in the shop and blew its first engine at 300k miles. Turbo replacement is around $7k . Yes $7000 for an ISX turbo . The out of frame major overhaul when the engine went ( dropped a liner and took out the crank and block was $35k. These trucks used and out of warranty can run you broke if you run into some
Major repairs and don’t have the money to repair them and float your bills while it’s down.
There’s a reason they don’t hold they’re value as much as older trucks did and why companies will lease purchase them off to unsuspecting newbies dieing to call themselves
Owner operators and “their own boss”!
They make a lot more money lease purchasing them and selling them for way more than they can get in the open market and they also make
A nice percentage off what the truck grosses
And don’t have to worry about , fuel , repairs , maintenance , paying workman’s comp , payroll taxes, holidays , medical benefits, vacations ,and on and on. Whoever invented the lease purchase in trucking was an absolute genius!
It’s a total home run for the company. A truck is a tool to earn a profit for a company. All it does is depreciate , requires repairs and maintenance and they also have to take on the burden of an employee to drive that truck and not wreck it and hopefully make a small profit.
With a lease purchase , the lease purchase contractor takes on all that risk to be able to call himself “ his own boss”! , but really just works for the company , but takes on all the risk and hopefully at the end of the lease purchase he finally gets the title to a worn out truck, if it’s not worn out already when he gets into it. I’m not trying to be negative, just honest
And sharing 32 years in this business . They’re are some good lease purchases out there , but most are financial nitemares for most who attempt them and they would be way better off with a good job and let the company worry about the truck and all the headaches that go along with it.

 

I know a guy that spent around $50,000.00 his first year on maintenance for his 1999 Volvo 770 and he still made a profit that year running power only. Fortunately he had the cash in the bank to pay for all the repairs that were needed.