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New truck rant

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Been looking for a new truck. This old girl is a '98. 350, auto, all the toys, w/leather bucket seats. Granted it has 165,000 on the clock but.... I service it regularly and have documents on everything I've done to it including when the tires have been replaced. Went to 2 dealers- 1 GM the other Toyota. Both of them took $3,ooo.oo of the sticker and were going to give me $2500.00 for this and that was it! When I go onto Kelley Blue Book, answer all the questions, etc., it tells me that the TRADE-IN value is $4100.00. I present this to both dealers and they laugh. They say they only give what auction will bring. Thats funny, the GM dealer had a silver brother to this with 154,000 on it and they were asking $7995.00 for it with almost bald tires. I got the last laugh though.... neither one of them is going to sell me a truck. When I got up and walked out they acted like I insulted them!!!
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We have the same truck minus the leather seats but it has Z71 4x4. The tranny has problems( hesitates every second shift between first and second gear after every startup and the engine has a tick and they offered the same $2500. This guy probably knows exactly what's wrong with it. He would probably fix it for $500 and sell it for $7000. Pi$$e$ me off that dealers will do that to you but oh well.
 
Ya'll may be insulted but that's probably about what the thing is worth to a dealer.
Trucks are cheap right now. You should feel good that they'd take it on trade at all because the dealers here won't, or so I've been told...
What they've got has some pretty deep discounts. You'd be hard pressed to get 5 grand out of me on a 10 year old truck, no matter how good it was, so by the time they put it on the lot and sit on it until it sells.. they're not going to give much more.
Cheap yes, but these are the days...

Rod
 
just keep that one, it looks like you already have more truck in your driveway than the dealer has on his lot that truck is better than any of the new ones, i like that body better than the new style anyway, if the other side is as straight as this side, just repower it if it needs a engine and keep driving it, you'll be much better off in the long run, not to mention no new truck payments and i bet if you trade it for the 2500, i can go in the next day and it will cost me 10,000 to drive it off the lot, if you must get a new truck just sell yours yourself, one that clean wont sit for long, then you can walk in the dealers showroom with cash in hand for the down on the new one
 
I'm driving a 1996 Chevy Silverado with the 4.3L V6 and my truck suddenly had a lifter stop pumping up, so now it has a "tick" that really bugs me. The first thing I did immediatly was change the oil and filter, then after taking the truck out and flogging it in good shape like my mechanic suggested. I changed my oil again while it was still good and hot, and used two quarts of Lucas Oil stabilizer, which was this really thick oil that resembed gear oil that is supposed to help pump up my lifters and 3 quarts of regular oil, but after all of this, that tick just won't go away! Its a constant ticking from that one lifter. Seems Chevy has a reputation of lifters going bad.
 
F.B., this truck is a 4x4 and it has the Z71 pkg w/trailer tow. I had the dealer remove the Z71 sticker's 'cause I didn't like the looks of them.
 
These are the cold facts. If you have a clean used vehicle , you'll get much more if you sell it yourself. I live on a busy street and have sold 5 or so now. They offered me $5000 for my 99 Silverado 4X4. I sold it for $8800 in about 24 hours. Should've asked for more. Sell it yourself if you want the money. However I am sure the post that pointed out trucks are down is correct. Have seen several Suburbans for sale at ridiculously low prices.
 
well, 165,000 miles are getting up there on the old C/K body style Chevy pickups and the truck market is extremely soft. Sorry, but their price isnt that far off. You can do better if you find the right guy by selling it at the end of your driveway, but good luck with that too. I bought my '02 Chev 3 years ago with around 36,000 miles at about 20 grand. They just traded in an '04 I would have liked to have with about 46,000 miles on it and were asking 15 grand. (both regular cab, long box with decent amount of options and the 5.3 engine. The truck market is going soft...good for buying, bad for selling/trading in.
 
Does your dealer have a lot of trucks with the 4.3L V6 in them? Local dealers around here stock lots of them and I am not sure why. The small V8 gets the best fuel economy so why offer the V6 anymore? After owning the one V6 I don't want another one. They burn gas like a V8 and don't have the power.
 
Bill, I don't disagree with you or Rod by any means. I just think that it is kinda funny how my truck isn't worth anything but their shinny NEW truck is! If they would have taken say $6,000.00 off the new ones, then I wouldn't have felt so insulted myself. The GM dealer had over 30 new 1/2 ton trucks on the lot and the Toyota had almost 70! new tundra's on their lot.
 
I sold my old truck for 5 grand more than a dealer offered me for it.When the dealer called and i told him he said i should be ready to buy a new truck then.I told him i was ready,but i wasn't going to buy it from him.
 
They always act like you insult them when you don't pull out the check book. I shoped for a new to me truck for about 2 years. I stopped at most every lot I went by. Finaly bought one off a buddy of mine out of his front yard. Hope I never have to buy a truck off a lot, sales folks drive me nuts.

Dave
 
They always act like you insult them when you don't pull out the check book. I shoped for a new to me truck for about 2 years. I stopped at most every lot I went by. Finaly bought one off a buddy of mine out of his front yard. Hope I never have to buy a truck off a lot, sales folks drive me nuts.

Dave
 
Something that I have seen work a couple of times
for a stuck lifter; dump in up to a quart of Dextron III automatic transmission fluid. The noise should go away in less than 5 minutes. Also, are there still adjustable rockers to bring the lifters into the middle of their range?
 
i learned a little in sight when i was shopping for a used vehicle this last spring. i had a "87 chevette that was dead on her wheels and just needed a dependable 3rd run around/garbage hauler. i went to all the dealerships looking for used vehicles and always found the low mileage high priced stuff.

one local dealer was really nice. i stopped in and looked at a few vehicles and i asked him why it was hard to find good used vehicles cheap. he said when a car is traded in to them, its is analyed for sale potetnial. 1st, car they sell it from their lot with a profit and if not, what it will get at the sale barn, where, as he called it, the dirt lot used car sales will pick it up.

this carried over when i went to the toyota dealer and i asked about the cheap stuff, i got a newbie saleman who took me to their auction lot before it was sent to auction. she even said they only keep certain vehicles in teh lot and wont even attempt to sell them.

but it is sad to say, when you want something someone else has they get to decide how much to sell it for, its all in how bad they want to sell it and how bad u want it.
 
Quite a few years ago when I was looking at buying a new truck, I went into a Chev. dealer and asked if they had any brochures on them. The salesman goes in the back and comes out a couple minutes later and hands me a year old brochure and then says,"here you go, no charge". I completely lost interest in the Chev. right then and there. I ended getting a Ford worth around $20,000. I will never buy from that Chev. dealer as long as I live. One of my teachers at school said the same thing about that dealer. He said they act like they don't want to sell you a vehicle. Almost every dealers showroom has brochures there for the taking. I think new car salesman are sometimes just as bad or even worse than used car salesman. Dave
 
I traded in a 99 sufari van with around 70,000 on a new ford Edge. I took the 3,500 they offered, I could have got more maybe, but the big van's just aren't popular around here, unless someone uses them to smuggle mexicans in to calif. Where I got screwded was at the last of the contract siging they produced a document stating the new car I was dealing on had already been sold, and returned. If my wife haden't been there I would have walked out. Stam
 
Remember they have sold quite a few more vehicles than you have bought and so it is their game and their parlor.
 
You never get whats its worth on trade in, the dealer has to make a little money on it as well, so why would he pay you what its worth. You have 3 choices, drive it, sell it yourself, or trade it in. It will surprize you how much they will come down when you gewt up and walk out the door. Sticker on my 08 2500 was 53,030, I paid 41,000 even. Took two weeks for them to come down, but they did! (there were other circumstances involved, but it didnt afect the price from the dealer)
 
Sell it. don't trade it. Trading is a loser's game. Put it out there for sale and see what you can get. The market will elt you know.
 
I have a truck just like yours. New truck looks good, but that 98 is built better than any new one. Crate engines aren't that expensive if your is getting tired and you can put it in.
 
If you want your lifters to stick real good, just keep putting that slime (Lucas Oil Stabiliser) in your engine. To free up lifters, you need to use something that will penetrate into the oil ways into the lifter,(i.e. Marvel Mystery Oil), not the opposite (i.e. Lucas). Change the oil and filter, add the proper grade of oil minus 1 quart, subsitite 1 qt. Mystery Oil, and immediatly drive 20 or 30 miles. See if that doesnt do the trick. If not, you probably need a new lifter(s) and possibility a new camshaft.
 
All the dealers are in cahoots they all want to try and make $5,000 profit off your trade ins. Sad thing is someone will come along and pay that dealer the $7,995 for theirs but if you ran an ad for half of that you wouldn't get any calls.
I can't figure out why more people don't want to buy without getting the dealer involved ??
The dealers all are tacking on all kinda extra fees too. $250.00 document fee come on it doesn't cost that much for a title transfer ! That fee is just pure built in extra profit.
 
Just curious,How much hard cash do you think anybody with a lot full of used and new trucks for sale should put into a 10 yr old 1/2 ton truck with $165000 mi.?
 
About a year ago I took my 78pinto to the dealer and just drove around their used lot once. A nice looking lady salesman comes out to snag me at the end of the driveway. I kept the windows up and drove past her. When she realized I wasn't going to stop she had a mad stomping hissy fit behind me.

At another dealer I was looking at a car. Used salesman came out to see me and he gave me a price of $2200 I wasn't going to buy but was curious enough to let him work on me. He got me in the office to write up an offer. I figured salestax and another $100 license and misc fees. He had the $2200 up over $3500 for me to drive away with it.

No dealers for me.
 
Guy up the road from me had a 99 Z71 about like yours for sale for $6850. It has 260,000 miles on it. He said he would take $6,000. Too many miles on it for me. I checked around on the net and found one at a local dealership. They wanted $8900 for a 2000 model. I emailed and asked what would be their lowest price. I got an email back that the $8900 was their lowest price. I told them to keep it. I know they don't put their lowest price as list price. A couple days later (yesterday) I got another email wanting me to call them. I emailed them back with the story and this guy (sales manager)said he replaced the other person and wanted to do business with me.
 
I know it is fun and popular to bash dealers like myself, but some of you guys really ought to try sitting on the other side of the desk once. I am a small new car dealer in a town of about 2,000 people. I employ about 15 people. Last month I had to make $64,000 in profit just to break even, not to make a nickel, just to get back to zero. Sorry for me I missed that mark by about $6,000. I treat people fairly and have a good business, with a lot of return customers, my family has been in this business for nearly 30 years. We are by no means making anywhere near the margins a lot of people think. I was trying to trade with the local grocer the other day and he had a pretty decent 98" Chevy 1/2 ton ext. cab Z71 with about 130,000 miles. It was in pretty good shape, but it was starting to get rusty on the bedsides and the cab corners. I offered him $2500 and he was pretty insulted, I raised my offer to $3,000, he was still insulted, I then raised my offer the third and final time to $3650 and he still wouldn"t budge. I think I could have gotten about $4500-$4950 for it on the lot after I spent $250 detailing it, $250 to do a full service.

Long story short, some of us aren"t quite as bad as you think.
 
Brian, It might be getting a little tired but I change oil every 3,000 and it only uses 3/4 of a quart in between.
 
I'd say do the math and keep what you've got. You already know it and you could do a lot of fixing and overhauling for what you'd pay for a new one, not to mention insurance and interest. If it is as good as it looks, treat it to a good steamcleaning and undercoating and yourself and wife to a trip or something with the bucks you'll be saving.

Dave
 
Keep the truck.Avoid sales tax,higher excise tax,title and document fees,higher insurance costs.Every one drives a used truck, the truck loses half its value the minute you drive off the stealers lot.We will see gas rationing soon so you wont be able to drive much any way.I would still be driving my 77 Chevy C20 if the rust had not eaten up the chassis.I dont give a RA what other people think of my truck, didnt buy it to impress people.my truck works hauling hay, firewood,lumber, grain etc.I think that buyers should have to prove actual need before they can buy a truck.
 
Those 350's usually run a long time. I put 270,000 on my Chev Truck and then gave it to a neighbor kid.
 
Don't forget the freedom of not worrying about that first scratch or dent, the magnetic field (that draws hammers, rocks, etc) is already worn off.
My brother has a Ford F150 pushing 500k miles. I know, you can't expect that quality from a Chevy, but they can be somewhat compareable.


Dave
 
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