Financing with not so good credit.

Best thing for you to do is:
-wait a year
-during that year, pay your bills BEFORE they are due. Dont wait till the last date listed on the billing date. Send it when the bill arrives!
-call people whom you have outstanding debts and restructure what you owe, and stick with their plan or even better pay $5 over what is expected.
-if your delinquent with a house loan go chapter 11 bankruptcy. It will force the bank to the negotiating table. Mind you lawyers wont proceed till they are paid, so get them paid in full quickly.

-after chapter 11 pay EVERYTHING on time when the bill comes. Stop waiting, build up some reserve for next bill to come and dont spend it.

In one years time your credit score will be 800+

 

It is always a good idea to have money set aside for major repairs. I suggest at least $10,000. But, most who buy a truck won't have that much money before buying a truck. The point I was trying to make in my previous posts was that you can have problems with any truck, whether new or used. You should never judge the condition of class 8 equipment by the age or price. Most of the newer trucks spend a lot of time in the shop. As I stated, I have only had a major problem with one truck that I have purchased at or under $20,000. I would not want to buy one of the newer trucks, just because of all the problems with the def, etc., Maintenance for filters is very expensive. I will stick with my older trucks. Any time you buy equipment you take a chance. You can minimize the risk by giving the equipment a good going over by yourself, if you are good mechanically inclined, or by paying a reliable mechanic to check it out for you. I owned a truck that had a new inframe with less than 150,000 miles on the over haul. I dropped a couple of valves and had to pay almost $7,000 to get the repairs done. It had just gotten out of warranty. Things happen. I have known owners who have had to rebuild an engine with only 150,000 miles on the odometer. If you are thinking a warranty will protect you from what may go wrong with a truck, better think again. Not everything will be covered under a warranty. You need to read the fine print very carefully. Had I had an extended warranty on the newly overhauled engine, the repairs would likely have been covered. But, the extended warranty would have cost $4,500.

I have a number of friends in this industry who are owners. Few of us would go out and buy new equipment. It simply isn't cost efficient for most smaller carriers, independents and owner operators. You can buy a truck with problems. Unless you take the time and money to thoroughly check out the truck, you might not find things that should be addressed prior to writing a check. The most expensive repair you will make on any truck is the engine. Next will be the transmission. If you check out the engine and drive train you stand a chance of being able to run for a while before you start spending a lot of money on repairs. There are other repairs that can be somewhat costly, such as king pins, fifth wheel, various bushings, turbo, etc., Those items would not be covered under a warranty. A turbo is usually only warrantied for 150,000 miles, as I recall. You could finance your purchase with a good down payment and then pay it off as quickly as possible. I think it is good to have your equipment free and clear as soon as you can. When you have low or no payments you can survive during a down economy and can afford to wait until a better paying load comes along. Those who tend to run the cheap freight are the ones with the big equipment payments. They are so scared of not being able to make their payments that they will take anything to keep the wheels rolling. In reality, they are spinning their wheels and losing their shirt.

The key to finding a good buy is to take your time. Make a list of things you must have in a truck and another of things you would like to have in a truck. Writing down your wants and desires is helpful. It provides some focus.

 

I am glad that I have been able to be of help to you. Experience can be a great teacher. It makes much better business sense, if you decide to finance your purchase, to have as low of a payment as possible. You can always double up and pay off the equipment early. I would not go to the expense of having a dyno or other testing performed until you settle on one truck. You might even have the seller pay for the testing as a condition of the sale.

 

what year was your truck and your down payment thanks

 

I'm not sure if they still have the program, but Arrow was also doing a match of your down payment up to $3 or $4k too. This was last fall, right now I'm not sure.