Calling on Eldon (WA) for a truck question???

Eldon You bought a plain jane ton truck last year. Do it have the ON-Star crap on it??? As the used trucks keep getting higher priced, as the majority seem to loaded with stuff I do not want or need, I am leaning towards a new WORK truck over used.

All I want in a truck is cruise control, AM-FM radio, Air conditioning, vinyl seats and floor mats. No power junk and zero fancy electronics.

(quoted from post at 21:47:03 02/23/18) Eldon You bought a plain jane ton truck last year. Do it have the ON-Star crap on it??? As the used trucks keep getting higher priced, as the majority seem to loaded with stuff I do not want or need, I am leaning towards a new WORK truck over used.

All I want in a truck is cruise control, AM-FM radio, Air conditioning, vinyl seats and floor mats. No power junk and zero fancy electronics.

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That is about what mine has, has power locks but no remote (which I miss) and cloth seats. Power mirrors would be handy, but for $11000 extra I passed. Spent the money I save on a WT for some wheels, graphics, running boards and window tint. Lots of compliments last year, not a bad diesel truck for under $48k total.

Cloth seats, tho. Not sure if vinyl is available. Cost included 8.6% sales tax :-(

No electronics. . . . That goes back to pre 1974 FM and Ford to stay away from electronic ignition. Now if your willing to conceded to electronic ignition, the next step is catalytic converters and from there into computers. Ford ran the 460 in the F250 up to 1986 with no cats and only electronic ignition. You can pull out the electronic ignition and drop in a points system if you so desire. 1988 in the Fords finally got into the computer games. Th F150 started the computer games earlier than 1986. As for the GM stuff, I have long forgotten.

Now if your looking for Diesel without electronics, the Ford made the 6.9 which became the 7.3 from about 83? to mid 94. By mid '94 the power stroke 7.3 (totally different engine with same displacement) came out and the electronics once again took over. Good luck finding a lower mileage one.

Oops, that should be $1100 for the power mirrors and a few minor things.

Bruce I am talking about needless stuff. Example is touch screen for anything. Climate control and other things like this. I can adjust the fan speed and chose hot or cold. It seems that everything I am finding used has the top of the line stuff like leather seats, touch screen controls, On-Star , and other of that type of things. So that make the used truck cost more than a plain equipped new one.

Eldon I like the look of your truck. I do not need all the bells or whistles in a truck. I am not sure if I am even going to go with a diesel motor. The extra cost up front, the higher fuel cost per gallon, DEF to worry about, and the other stuff make the gas more attractive. I am currently only putting 7-10K a year on my heavy pickup. Hard to justify the cost of a diesel.

I am leaning towards a Chevy because they are lower than the darn Fords. You can not reach anything over the side of a Ford pickup anymore. Two years ago I came real close to buying a Dodge work truck level of pickup. It is a basic truck made for work. I would have bought it if the dealer that had it would have played straight with me. I knew that what I wanted would need to be ordered. He kept pushing the loaded trucks he had in inventory. They all cost $15K more than what I wanted. So no sale.

You might save yourself and the salesman a lot of headaches and frustration by working through the online options list at home, print out the exact configuration that you want to order, and then hand a copy of that printout to your salesman to negotiate a price and delivery date.

http://www.chevrolet.com/byo-vc/client/en/US/chevrolet/silverado/2018/silverado-3500hd/config

I agree with some of the others that asking the salesman to find you what you say you want is giving the poor guy a nearly impossible task. To get a brand new pickup with no electronics you would have to go back to about 1968, they don't exist anymore in 2018. You probably need to work out what you can live with on your own. Imagine if a person walked into a John Deere dealership today and wanted to buy a brand new 1960 two cylinder JD 730 LPG with none of that New Generation stuff, the salesman would likely walk the customer out to the lot to show him what is actually available today.

Good luck.

I did see below about not wanting a Ford due to the height. That said my truck is a 2016 (can't say I'm sold on the whole aluminum body thing which comes with a 2017) F250. It is a plane jane work truck, or as close as you can get. About the only whistle it has is a shift knob for 4x4 and that was because it was sat on the lot. Otherwise it's manual windows, locks, mirrors, am/fm, cloth seats (vinyl was an option), vinyl floor. My previous trucks have been diesels, this one is a 6.2 gas. After having lots of emissions problems with the new diesels I'm really pleased with the gas. Best of luck in your search. Sam

If you want to buy a plain work truck, as I did, then go on line and do a search of all the largest dealers inventory. Larger dealers order plain work trucks for commercial fleet operators. You just have to find a dealership that sells enough cars and trucks each month. In 2015 I bought a new Dodge half ton, no electric windows, door locks, no keyless entry, no fancy interior, or power seat, nothing fancy on it except for a satellite radio, and air, the air was standard, and the radio was already in it. Regular cab, with 8 foot box. $24,500.00 plus tax. This dealer sells 700 vehicles per month average, and was in Toronto, but so what, any dealer can do service and warranty work. The plain trucks do exist, salesmen will tell you that they don?t, or they can?t get them, only because they need to sell existing inventory. You know how it goes

I have what they call a plain work truck. Still has more stuff then I want, like traction control, automatic door locks but does have the other things you do want like AC, power windows ect. As for price...our son in law researched when they bought a new Chevy last fall and the cheapest price came from a dealer in Cleveland? I think that is the highest volumn dealer. It was $6000 less then anywhere else. He flew in, they picked him up in the airport everything was taken care of and he drove it home.

You probably should check out a Chevrolet fleet truck dealer. I think Bob Brown in Des Moines is a fleet truck dealer. They will have work trucks in stock usually white in color. Fleet units tend to have less equipment . However, I sure wish my old pick up had power windows.That is the one option I really miss on that truck. I think you can check dealer inventory online with the chevy.com website. I am not happy about the height of my new truck bed. Impossible to reach over and get anything with my old arthritic back.

Couple more points. Lots of items that used to be optional are now standard on all vehicles. When they became very high percentage options like 85% it was cheaper to put them on all trucks than to have the complexity on the assembly line. As for price , the best price you can get is when the manufacturer runs the ?employee discount for everybody ? . When that program is in effect you get to buy the vehicle at dealer cost and the factory rebates the dealer a percentage for handling The delivery . It is no hassle no bargaining flat price . But, all they will give you for your trade-in is wholesale which is all they give you anyway... as you understand .

My new Ford 250 is plain as it gets , vinyl seats am fm radio manual locks and windows no cruise 6.2 gas manual hubs and a transfer case lever. It's a 2017. Cost was 38,000. With that being said spent 400 on seat covers as the vinyl seats don't breathe so you get swamp butt just driving to work, another 200 on running boards as it does set high. Power locks would be nice to secure it and power windows would be nice, nothing like getting on the highway and someone left the passenger window down. You can't just reach across. Have to stop to roll it up. And I put about 200 miles a day on it cruise would be nice. Gas tank is small and mpg is 12, spend lots of time fueling up. But that's better then the diesel price and maintenance. On the Ford site I built the same truck but 4 doors and xlt trim and it was 41000. My opinion the 3000 would be worth it.

All new GM full-size trucks have touch screens, Onstar, XM and Wifi. The nav system is optional and unnecessary, since the base infotainment system supports Android Auto.

If you don't pay for Onstar, XM or WiFi they don't work, so it's really no big deal. You can get a work truck, for sure, but most folks who are shelling out money for a new truck want a few whistles and bells. Your best source of information is to go to the manufacturer's web site and spec out a truck for yourself.

Just bought a 2018 Chevy 3500HD Work Truck. Has the Duramax/Allison, eight foot bed, four door crew cab, air, cruise, tilt, power windows and locks, 4WD with shift lever on the floor, electric mirrors, both adjust and heated, dash trailer brake control, exhaust brake, cloth seats, rubber/vinyl floor. Does NOT have heated/electric seats, cab mount lights that leak over time, OR the OnStar option. Hopefully will be the last truck I ever buy long as it's not wrecked some how. Was going to go gas, but am addicted to the power of diesel. Previous truck was a Dodge 2004 diesel set up about the same way. It was rated 600 FT/LB torque at 1600 RPM, this Duramax is rated at 910 FT/LB at 1600. Can't wait to get a trailer on it this summer, this thing will MOVE!!!

(quoted from post at 22:33:37 02/23/18) Bruce I am talking about needless stuff. Example is touch screen for anything. Climate control and other things like this. I can adjust the fan speed and chose hot or cold. It seems that everything I am finding used has the top of the line stuff like leather seats, touch screen controls, On-Star , and other of that type of things. So that make the used truck cost more than a plain equipped new one.

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I'm not sure that you can get one without on-star, but if you do not subscribe to it, you can ignore it. However, I am sure that even if you do not subscribe, they can still use it to track you. There may be a way to disable it, but I am not savvy enough to know how.

Craigco,

Concerning your new Ford truck without cruise control: I bought a 2005 Ford van back in 2007. It was a fleet vehicle and just about what I was looking for...except it did not have cruise control. I told the salesman that was a deal braker for me - I need cruise control.

Turns out adding cruise control is a simple as snapping out the center padded part of the steering wheel snapping in the new part which contains the switch controls. I don't remember if I paid for it - thinking they just did it.

Might check into it for your truck.

(quoted from post at 11:10:32 02/24/18) Now if your looking for Diesel without electronics, the Ford made the 6.9 which became the 7.3 from about 83? to mid 94. By mid '94 the power stroke 7.3 (totally different engine with same displacement) came out and the electronics once again took over. Good luck finding a lower mileage one.

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If you do find a low mileage 7.3 and they do exist add $5K to the price cuzz you will need it to take care of what mother nature did to it while it was a sleep... That and all the other pattern failures that go with a 7.3 powerstroke BTDT.... This could apply to most any low mileage 20 year on vehicle I see it all the time...

I do like my 95 Powerstoke all the upgrades woke up a sleeping giant it will get'er done and pull... I once was a power window door lock delete person I want them NOW along with cruise, tilt wheel Cruise is a must it it does not have it I will add it... I will add a back up camera and a few other things that make life eaiser especially for a guy that pulls a trailer...

My 95 has power door locks later in 95 they added a remote power door lock option mine does not have provisions for a remote I sure miss it)... I need to look into adding it... I do not understand why someone would shed off power windows they are well worth the cost and not difficult to repair the same goes for power door locks. The seats on those work trucks are garbage everyone you see is torn up... Every base chebby truck I see @100K the seats are trash it does not have to be a work truck its like they have a shelf life and start going away... I think they start from the bottom and work there way up. I am not a fan of a heated seat tho.... If a owner can afford a $38K truck he can afford 3K to upgrade it... Believe me I see folks buy a base truck and think they can upgrade it for less than 3K they end up with that in rims and tires that I would never install on a truck that all I wanted to do was just ride around in... Those Do'dats' I can do cheaper will get ya one way are the other...

Don't get too excited about all the extra torque you have in the Duramax, I have one. My old '92 12 valve Dodge would eat it alive with a heavy load. It had 160 hp. 400#s torque....Duramax will out run it for sure, but it won't out pull it. (I did have the pump turned up)

Couple more points. Lots of items that used to be optional are now standard on all vehicles. When they became very high percentage options like 85% it was cheaper to put them on all trucks than to have the complexity on the assembly line. As for price , the best price you can get is when the manufacturer runs the ?employee discount for everybody ? . When that program is in effect you get to buy the vehicle at dealer cost and the factory rebates the dealer a percentage for handling The delivery . It is no hassle no bargaining flat price . But, all they will give you for your trade-in is wholesale which is all they give you anyway... as you understand .

If you are within a four hour drive to Chicago, IL, try an online search to see if any Chicago dealers have what you want.

I did a little googling and it does
look easy to install cruise. Replace
the switch in the steering wheel and
find someone to flash the computer.
Just like I am guessing it is why my
coin holder has a wire harness going
to it. It's located where the 4x4
shift knob would be if it had it. I
can't complain to much about the truck
no one else is buying me new trucks to
drive around.