Penske Truck sales

You need to find out if the truck was used in their rental fleet or if it was assigned to a dedicated customer. The rental fleet is beat up pretty bad, may have had a few hundred drivers in it where the dedicated fleet may have only had 15 or 20 drivers, big difference in how the truck will hold up. Yes, their big discount is on the trucks in less than perfect shape, you get what you pay for. Overall, Penske or Ryder are no better or worse than buying a former big fleet truck, really it is just luck of the draw.

 

I used to work for PTL. They don't sell junk without fixing it first, legal liabilities are too high. You can get full maintenance records, and you will find out that 25k miles on oil changes and grease jobs are normal for them, and for newer dpf trucks probably 50k. They get rid of them at 5-6 hundred k for a reason. No better or worse than any fleet truck. Generally they "package" a group of trucks together to sell to a dealer, some good, some not so good. When they have to market them individually it costs more, they would rather get rid of them in bunches. Market is saturated with new and used trucks right now, so they have no choice.

 

I would get trucks from smaller dealers only because from what I found when truck shopping showed that smaller dealers usually had trucks less likely to have had an accident or problems that showed up during an inspection.

Run a rigdig report on every truck your considering. Its not going to be cheap but very worth it. Its like a carfax but will also usually tell you what companies used the truck and maybe the fleet size, dont remember.

And of course you have to do a good inspection. If youre very far get a mobile mechanic to do it, they'll do it if you offer enough cash. Penske does have some good trucks but you will have to take hard look to find them.

 

I got my tractor there. Highly recommended them. There trucks are probably the best maintenanced / maintained of any place.
You can view all the records as well.
I had 0 big problems.

 

Dave you ever have any problems with def

 

my job is dedicated. all our trucks are Penske, and so as a result, one driver per truck (unless it's a team, and we have a few).

only about 3 "fill-in drivers" that may drive our trucks when we are on vacations, out sick, etc.

very well maintained, the local Penske shop takes care of the usual PM's, and warranty work has been at the dealership, even some work out of warranty due to Penske shop being backed up with other work, oor jobs they just do not handle.

 

Fortunately no. My Volvo had a clean idle system and regened all by itself when you put it on idle for the night ( no APU ).

Volvo in Phoenix is a TOP service shop, and they recommend having the DPF serviced every 150K miles or 18 months.
This on a Volvo with a pure D13 system.

My Cascadia I have now has an ISX and has been very reliable as well. From everyone I've talked to, I think it will be better just to get a new DPF when this one goes bad.

Penske has all maintenance records. You could probably grind them down a solid 10 to 15 percent on price as well.

Good luck.

 

I have inspected a lot of used trucks before purchase. Many of the trucks purchased came from one of the two companies mentioned. Also as mentioned some are one driver units very well taken care of. Others were hammered and doll babied up.
It used to be we could make an appointment and go to the shop that truck or a group operated out of. Often times they were still running them. Some times catch the driver or techs that maintained them. Do an inspection and they would fix most anything found wrong. Warranty was usually 30 days for major components.
Now they like to send them to a sale lot. That is not much different than buying a truck from any other sales outfit.
On the maintenance they have company policies but I have been to some shops that did not follow them very well. The last one purchased came off one of those lots and could not even drive it on the road. It had an great price. Took it to their local shop on week 2 for high gear shift problems. They repaired it but kept it for two weeks. Now I did not and will not say who they were.
In my opinion paying an experienced person to do a through inspection is money well spent. If the seller will repair problems found as part of the purchase or come off the price more you saved money.
Suggest you make a shopping list check sheet for what you want. Tire size, ratio, trans, tires, brakes , slider, twin stacks, fuel capacity, etc. Fill one out for every truck you look at. I regret the Columbia with a small back window a little. Did not notice it with the wind speed of 30 and spitting snow. It was not on the list.

 

Ooh a white volvo!