Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire When do you decided to get a new truck

I called a mech Bud of mine back in '06 with ALL brand questions on a new 1 ton diesel dually, and decided on a '06 Dodge Cummins diesel 4x4 4-door dually, went and found one, wrote em a check, and drove it home, I couldn't have made a better informed choice for what I need in a pickup.

With the old style Bully Dog tuner, it leans the engine out for near 20 mpg and 500 HP, it has 140K trouble free miles, save a #4 injector line and regular maintenance, along with a couple small factory recalls.

Dodge does need their asses kicked for not picking up that Allison automatic trans when they had the chance back in the day, the factory Dodge [46/48R's??] are junk, I ordered a Firepunk Diesel trans and convertor good for 550HP and put in my truck.

I believe I have saved enough on fuel by running the bully dog to nearly pay for the new trans and convertor, or a great deal of it anyway, I wouldn't do a thing different.

It's a matter of want and need. You can get a new truck any time you want one, assuming you can afford it. Which brings us to the nub of the issue: You NEED a new truck when the monthly repair bill is higher than a loan payment.

Wife's Blazer is 17 years old, my Explorer is 20. When something major breaks on either one we will look at 8-10 year old used. Got no use for the new stuff.

I buy a new one when the old one breaking starts impacting my lifestyle. I work away so I'm only home about 50% of the time, if I come in from work and want to go hunting & the truck's down then that matters a lot more to me than a few hundred bucks for a repair bill. If someone is retired then they might have time to wrench on vehicles or shuttle them back & forth to a mechanic. I don't have time for that, I need my stuff to run when I want it to. When I was in high school & college I liked tinkering with old vehicles, now I don't have time for that crap.

My criteria to changing cars is when parts aren't available, or things just overcame the logic of fixing them again. My last car was a Pontiac 4-door Station Wagon, it came with the 389 cu in V-8, automatic transmission and acres of space inside. The Pontiac lasted from when I bought it used cheap about 1970 until the engine began spitting rocker arm studs in 1976. Enter my first new vehicle ever, a 1976 Chevy Van 20, with the 400 cu in V-8 and TH-350 transmission. I still have that old van, it has something over 210,000 miles and 40 years of age to claim, and it still runs, and well, but it has been modified, pulled a travel trailer all over the western states, went through the original engine, looks like the fastest rust on the road, and cost an original $5,360 OTD. Depreciation is not a concern.

For the final thirteen years of my career I had a county patrol vehicle (pickup or SUV) to drive to work, as I was on-call 24/7 so I really didn't need to buy another vehicle for my use. My wife however needed a new vehicle to replace her 1973 Dodge Dart. So, she picked up a new special order 1986 Ford F-150 that the customer never took delivery on, after the sales manager gave her a good price. That became her daily driver and our private transportation.

When I retired in 2005, I wanted a new truck to drive, but I was experiencing some paralysis in my right leg, so I needed lots of leg room. The GMC Sierra had the most front legroom, and I settled on a 2006 Sierra 2500 HD 4X4, Short Bed Crew Cab, with the DuraMax and Allison option. Now considering this was the last of the models without all the emission updates it was a good choice. Even though it cost $43,500 OTD, and I added AMP automatic running board steps, Autometer gauges, a GMC Performance Stainless Steel exhaust at $750.00, and a Leer Tonneau cover, depreciation was not a consideration given my retention time for vehicles. Yeah the diesel option added $8,000 to the cost, and the other stuff ran the cost up about another $5k, but I didn't want another uncomfortable gutless wonder like the F-150's 5.0l V-8 that sputtered and slowed going up hills. The DuraMax was anything but gutless or slow, and the whole thing made a great touring car for trips. So I'm set for 20-25 years or until I croak, whichever comes first.

Meanwhile, my wife's F-150 acts up on the freeway while we are enroute to pick up the GMC from a routine service, backfires and catches fire. Yes it burns up, total loss. So we receive the insurance payoff, and the GMC dealer has a nice new old stock 2008 Sierra 1500 with many bells and whistles, in stock that hadn't sold and now the 2009's were on the lot. It had the one prerequisite - it was red! Wife loves red trucks. We bought it, took a half hour and we used the insurance check from the F-150 (it had been restored and we had all the receipts) for a down payment and our credit union is in cahoots with the GMC dealer, he arranges stupidly low rate financing right from his computer.

So there you have it. I began with $50 - $200 cars, kept them running as long as possible, scrapped them out, and bought another. There is no depreciation on jalopies, and today there is scrap value. So, if a person likes a car or truck, keep it, maybe have it restored (the F-150 even had been reupholstered with the original Ford seat fabric from 20 years earlier - yes there are specialists that warehouse stuff like that). I wish I still had that 1949 Mercury 2-door I sold off, for that reason. Depreciation is not a factor when a vehicle is kept 20 or more years and maintained. Spend $20 -$40,000 on a complete restoration or resto-mod with updated drive line and brakes, and it's still cheaper than a new $50,000+ truck.

Our car is an 04 Pontiac van that we bought from my mother when she gave up driving 8 years ago. We're up to 150k miles on it now. We just spent $1500 on it, mostly for a new computer. That's not a DIY job because of the required programming. It needs some more work but nothing serious or that I can't do myself. I paid my mother cash for it so we don't have payments. I haven't done it (like most car owners) but I should lay away $100/mo for repairs.
It runs as well as a new one but without payments.

First half of my adult life I bought used, did my own mechanical fixes and drove them into th ground. No more. Now buy a new one every three or four years, never twist a wrench, enjoy the hell out of my vehicles. The 2013 Tundra Rock Warrior's got almost 70K on it. Gonna be a new TRD Pro in the driveway pretty soon.

I did decided to to buy a new truck when they had 0% financing for 5 years.

And they knocked 7K off the sticker.




Dave

Financially you are nearly always better off to keep what you have, but that is only true if it still does the job you need to do. If you really have a need for a new truck, a better question is why buy used?

I agree with some of the other posters that say used trucks that are 1-4 years old with less than 100,000 on them are priced so close to new that it is hard to find a deal. With new they come off the sticker more, typically offer better financing, and you get the full benefit of the warranty. In addition, you don't have to wonder if you are buying someone else's problem child.

I also agree that the price of a new truck is insane. Buy new and keep for a long time. Or figure out how to sell it every two years to some sucker for 90%+ of the price of a new one and constantly trade. That doesn't appeal to me so I tend to keep something until it doesn't do the job anymore or starts to become a pain.

I bought my latest, a 2014 Tundra, when I retired just because. I traded in a 2008 Chevy and wrote a check for the rest. I still own my first truck, a 1999 Ford, that resides at the home in Idaho.

Buying "brand new" vehicles were the worst financial decisions I ever made in life. Thousands of dollars wasted in depreciation the minute I took delivery and drove off the lot. Thousands of dollars lost to finance charges and interest. Thousands of dollars lost to investment opportunity gains of the squandered money associated with buying brand new vehicles I could not afford. Even if I could have afforded to pay cash and avoid the finance losses over the years, I would still be throwing away depreciation losses as well as lost investment opportunity with the capital. Of course, now, decades later I understand it all and try to teach it to my married children. Dave Ramsey was the source of my enlightenment over a decade ago.

If you want a new truck, you go get one

I can't stomach the numbers on a new truck. I drive more than average, around 30,000 miles a year, mostly business. My first Toyota was bought new and scrapped at 360,000 miles, for less than $0.05 per mile depreciation. The current one was bought at 75,000 miles, and will probably end up around $0.07 per mile depreciation.

If depreciation is more than $0.10 per mile, I'm not buying, and it better be pretty much bullet proof while it drive it, too.

Just paid a few bills including our SUV. $2500 left on that thing and the only other payment we'll have is our mortgage.

Bills suck.


Kinda makes a guy wonder how many people are underwater on their vehicles let alone house.

Reasons to buy a new truck, in my case, a 2016 2500 diesel-

You need the springs, horsepower, and torque to safely tow something big, and your mid-size, 1500, or gasser won't cut it,
You cannot find anything reasonably late model, lower mileage, to buy- try finding a diesel truck in my area like that, for less than near-new prices.
You can afford to pay cash- new with no payments can equal used plus interest.
You just want to do it, and after all, this is 'Merica', man!
You would just as soon enjoy some of your retirement money yourself, rather than leaving it all to your kids.

Bighorn, in your case I am pretty sure you have the right idea!




You go with a Dodge or Chevy?

GMC, 2500HD Duramax. Tows my travel trailer up Colorado's mountain passes with ease!

The new GMC's do look pretty frikken sweet....

Exactly. I could give a ratz azz about depreciation, interest on a loan....any of that schitt. I've worked my whole life, I like to have a nice truck to drive that does every thing I want. Life's too short to make an accounting exercise over every friggen thing you do.....If I need more money I'll make more money.

I'm 75 and on fixed income, so what I have is what I will continue to have. New trucks cost 4 times what we paid for our first house.

2004 Dodge Ram 3500 4wd with the Cummins engine. 96000 on it, just getting broke in good, never been elk hunting.

2003 F150 single cab 4wd. My beater, bought it several years ago for 7000 and maybe have another 3000 into it. Looks great, runs great.

2003 Buick Regal, wifes car. Paid 6500 for it several years ago, very nice shape, only 82000 on it.

1998 Camry, our beater we keep in Yuma for when we go down there for the winter. Looks beat, is beat, keeps on ticking.

Neither of these vehicles gets driven more than about 5000 miles a year, the camry only about 4000, along with the Ford.