Questions for my first truck (Volvo)

My wife and I are looking to buy our first truck and we are heavily looking at 2 trucks and we want to get some opinions. Below I'll just list out the differences. Both are just under 500k miles.



2014 VNL 670
- $2K more
- 100K Mile Warranty
- I-Shift Trans
- Interior is decent but could use a different cabinet with an actual door on it.
- Front axle is rated at 12k lbs (seems low to me, but I've read that 670's are lighter so maybe it'll even out? I mostly drive light loads but occasionally pull up to 44k-45k)
- We'd have only a couple extra thousand from the loan once taxes insurance and fuel for a couple weeks is accounted for.


2013 VNL 780
- $2k less than the 670
- No Warranty
- 10 Speed Eaton (I tested on a stick but haven't driven one in the mountains yet)
- Unsure on front axle weight, waiting on an email back from the dealer.
- Interior is top of the line
- We'd have 2 extra thousand on top of what we'd have vs the 670 afterwards.


I'm currently at a company that I could pull in $15k a month and have expenses of $8k before paying myself and accounting for putting away money for tires and maintenance, so I could still squirrel away 3k-4k a month in addition to what I'm putting away for maintenance and tires. I'm mostly unsure of which to go with for two reasons though.
The 670's warranty is very tempting as it's covering the engine, transmission and diffs for 100k miles but the front axle weight bothers me.
The 780 is for sure a nicer truck but it wouldn't come with a warranty and us just starting out I feel like it'd be nice to have that safety net. As for front axle weight I'd be much happier if it was 13.2k on the 780 but I've yet to hear back from the dealer.

 

There's also another 2013 670 we are a bit interested in that doesn't have DEF or DPF. It's even $3k cheaper than the 780, so $5k cheaper than the 2014 670. No warranty though.

I'm guessing you'd say go all in on the non DEF and DPF truck?

 

I've owned enough modified cars that I know how much a pain in the ### that can be. Thanks for the advice!

 

Honestly the trucks I've looked at should all work just fine as far as them being spec'd out. I'm pretty good on vehicles mechanically. I've rebuilt several car and pickup engines and I've also done 10 years in the air force doing electrical on jets so I know my way around electrical gremlins as well. I know the basic principles of how the aftertreatment systems on newer trucks work but I don't have any firsthand experience with it.

I have no clue who the warranty is though, I'm planning on asking monday.