Should I buy this 387 Pete or wait?

Dude, you better listen to Losttrucker, he has the numbers down. At best you're buying a job for yourself with little to no security. At worst you wind up broke and in debt with ruined credit. Something in the middle is the likely result until you get enough experience to find ways to do better.

Regarding the original question of the thread, the price is principal plus interest, not the sale price. you can pay more for the truck and less for interest or vice versa but today a rare dealer will let you get away with both. 10% is a very good rate on a used truck in today's market. The price is a bit high but the miles are right. Be sure it's a finance and not a lease contract which it probably is. Leases are completely front loaded with interest. You might pay 50% of the term of the contract before you earn a dime of equity with a lease. That's OK if you plan to stay in that truck and trucking long term but I hate getting into a box like that. Also ask if there is a pre payment penalty. I didn't and now find that if I pay off the truck before the full term of the contract I have to pay a 10% penalty!

Personally i think a 387 is a good choice of trucks. Roomy, efficient and a PACCAR product. Storage sucks but you can creatively overcome that. I assume it has a Cat? What trans and rear ratio, tire size? You got to be thinking 2 things - FUEL MILEAGE. The Cat can get very decent mileage and be a good runner with some inexpensive mods you can find in this forum in the garage area. Get the VIN and serial number of the engine and run them both to see what warranty claims or updates have been done. Get the ECM readings pulled to verify the mileage and get the fuel mileage off it too.

The days of blindly stumbling into buying a truck and making money are gone. You have to start out armed with all the information you can get to make an informed decision.

 

I just bought a 2006 387 pete from Nalley in Atlanta, Ga. $35,249. Paid cash for truck (no truck payment) and im doing good, not great. Cat 475 c-15 with 2year, 200,000 miles warrenty on motor, transmission and rear end. I average 3000 miles/week and take home between 1800 and 2200 dollars/week. Fuel seems to be my biggest expence. It eats up about half of what I make. Now, I could lower my fule cost by driving below 65 mph, and spend more time driving, or I could continue on present path @70 mph and spend less time driving. As for maintenance, I put back $500.00/wk every week. 'cause sonner or later I will have problems. I also put back 500 dollars/week for truck replacement. That's 3000 dollars a month cause i only roll for three weeks and go home for a week.

 

The truck actually makes more money than I do. I figure pay the truck first. As a company driver I was making about 5 to 7 hundred dollars a week. So that's what I pay my self now.

 

werner would take it. they have qualcomm brackets.

werner has a lot of really nice trucks leased to them that were never werner trucks.

But hes not going to make money.

 

If you know your real cost per mile and still make 1800 to 2200 a week PLEASE tell me where! If I can do it too I'll happily send you a check for $500 for the information after 90 days. Really, I will. I will. I'm not kidding.

 

I should contribute a link to a very good CPM sheet, open the page, read it and at the bottom you can click on an Excel sheet, open it and enter your information. http://www.ooida.com/Education&BusinessTools/Trucking_Tools/costpermile.shtml

 

The .90c pm is before the fuel surcharge, that's why I'm figuring my cost for fuel at .18cpm.

LoneTrucker, I'm going to call the people in the link you sent tomorrow and see what they say.

I'm out here running everyday anyhow, may as well be in my own truck.

Again I appreciate all the advice. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do.

 

gman, the FSC helps, but it does'nt cover your actual fuel cost.

 

i had the same decision to make a litle while back. I bought the truck. i am making considerably more per mile and would never be able to keep in business at 90 cents a mile, or even with the fuel surcharge added in. the biggest thing i can say is you need to find a good place to get on, then buy the truck. dont buy the truck then try to figure out how its gonna make money. it wont make money at werner.

as far as waiting to save up and pay cash....yeah it sounds great in theory and im sure a lot of people started that way. but i could have never saved up enough money to do anything with as a company driver. i took a chance and now that i make decent oney i can easily save for the expenses i have. i would of spent the rest of my life trying to save at company pay rates.

 

If you got any kind of credit at all I an trying to sell me 06 Classic xl 482k on it all I want is someone to take it over. It has about a yr and a half warrnty left and running about 72 ish I avg 5.7. Pm me and I can give ya some details the bank is real flexible though if your interested