Please give me your opinion on first truck purchase

I would go with the KW. It has more miles but you can get a warranty.

 

There's a lot more to think about than just what you have outlined....

What kind of freight will you haul?

How heavy is the average load?

Where is the local KW and Freightliner dealer?

What kind of service experience have you had with each brand of truck?

Which engine do you prefer?

What brand of transmission and rears? Do you have a preference?

Can you get a dyno reports and an oil sample from each truck? Can you get service records?

What is the empty weight of each unit?

Lots of things to consider... personally, from my experience with both brands, I'd buy a KW hand downs... FL parts and service is abysmal IMHO....

Drive each truck WITH A LOADED TRAILER....

 

Warranty isn't everything it's all cracked up to be. And since it has an additional cost, it may not be worth it. If it is a Premium 2000 warranty, then you may as well use it as toilet paper.... Cause that's is all your going to be using it for. I speak from experience on that!

With the little info given, I'd say go with the Century. You'll probably get better fuel mileage with the 515 Detriot. And the Century is more aerodynamic.

Check em both out though. carfax em both (yes, you can do that with big trucks). Call the dealers & ask the service shop to run the VIN's to see if they can tell you anything about the trucks themselves. Call detroit & cummins..... Have them run the engine serial numbers & ask them if they can check their computers to see if there has been past issues with those engines. Have the ECM printed out on both & compare notes between them. Pay for a dyno on both if you have to.

 

I say the detroit engine would be better.

 

tough call there. Too bad the KW doesn't have the apu, then it would be an easy choice

 

The KW would hold its resale value better, but I'm not a fan of the ISX.

The fleet maintenance at CFI/Conway used to be better than industry average when I worked there in 2005 (before the Conway buyout).

As mentioned by the voices of experience before me, there's more variables to getting the right truck.

CFI used to be all 13speed trannies. Guess that's something Conway changed.

 

make sure to compare idle times--will be low with the shaker as it has a tri pack--idle time equelas wear as well
like the other guys said--check that warrenty--you are already 1500 into it by buying the warrenty--and if it is a crappy warrenty you are kinda paying for nothing

 

Exactly on both points.

MOST non factory used truck warranty programs aren't worth the paper they are written on. They dicatate repair facilities some times and don't pay tow bills. Save your money.