Has anyone seen any deals due to this pandemic?

[Hay Dude]

I have a '93 f150 and a '94 ram 2500, and both the frames are rotted out and uninspectable. Anything without an undercoating from the factory around here is doomed. My '04 diesel excursion with 250k on the clock got a new undercoating last year. I got it new with the undercoating sprayed on. After 15 years in the rust belt it still looked like new. Anything you plan to keep, it pays to pay a little more.

I live about 30 miles from you. I didn’t think where we live is considered the rust belt? They do use a LOT of salt in the winters, though.

 

[Hay Dude]

I don稚 know where his f150 will be in 22 years but I know I drove my 1993 f150 an hour each way to our remote property today to do a little work. While there I traveled a at least three miles off road to check on the timber being cut on our hunting lease. Old blue is all original. I bought it new and have used like a truck is supposed to be used. The transmission has never been touched, valve covers have never been off, original alternator, etc. I liked it so well I bought another 11 years ago that is my current daily driver, and a couple of years ago my wife bought an Expedition.

3/4 and 1 ton trucks are great if one needs that much truck but 1/2 ton trucks can definitely last 22 years while being used as a truck.

In your location, trucks can last a lot longer than where me, aczlan, jstpssng are located. The cold weather, snow, salt, brine are a killer of vehicles. I?d be surprised if the average vehicle body in PA lasts half as long as where you are in MS. It not only destroys the body and frame, it rusts out shocks, steering components, exhausts and more.
In my mid 50?s now and I learned to spend as much time power washing and rinsing the underside of my vehicles off after winter driving. I have a hot water hose bib just outside the garage and shake my head as I watch gray salt water drain off the underside of my trucks. I?m going to try my very best to not drive my new RAM during the winter, and drive my older F250 or F350 instead.
If you plow snow or apply salt, you?ll see a new truck look substantially degraded in 5 years.

 

[MossRoad]

I live about 30 miles from you. I didn’t think where we live is considered the rust belt? They do use a LOT of salt in the winters, though.

darkest areas > 58% manufacturing job loss 1954-2002.



source:
Rust Belt - Wikipedia

 

[Hay Dude]

darkest areas > 58% manufacturing job loss 1954-2002.

View attachment 655102

source:
Rust Belt - Wikipedia

So rust belt is more a manufacturing loss statistic?
We had an enormous amount of manufacturing disappear here :thumbdown:

 

[MossRoad]

So rust belt is more a manufacturing loss statistic?
We had an enormous amount of manufacturing disappear here :thumbdown:

Yep. There's a couple uses of the term "rust belt".

One is the areas where they use lots of salt on the roads.
Two is what I linked to above. The factories are rusting.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

The county I work in went from rural farm fields to major manufacturing area in the last 30 years. All started with a steel mill. Now there's 3 mills with melting capacity and a ton of cold mills, tuning mills and processing. One key thing is being far enough south to not be union.

I saw a few deals on old stock at the local dealer. Mahindra 4540 2wd with loader for 12,999$ but I think this wasnt necessarily due to pandemic and more just been on the lot a long time

 

[Hay Dude]

The county I work in went from rural farm fields to major manufacturing area in the last 30 years. All started with a steel mill. Now there's 3 mills with melting capacity and a ton of cold mills, tuning mills and processing. One key thing is being far enough south to not be union.

I saw a few deals on old stock at the local dealer. Mahindra 4540 2wd with loader for 12,999$ but I think this wasnt necessarily due to pandemic and more just been on the lot a long time

So true! labor costs at unreasonable levels is a critical reason for the evacuation of Industry from my area. No money left for capital reinvestment or improvements. Factories around here look the same as they did in the 60’s. :thumbdown:
The right to work states flourished!

 

[Hay Dude]

The county I work in went from rural farm fields to major manufacturing area in the last 30 years. All started with a steel mill. Now there's 3 mills with melting capacity and a ton of cold mills, tuning mills and processing. One key thing is being far enough south to not be union.

I saw a few deals on old stock at the local dealer. Mahindra 4540 2wd with loader for 12,999$ but I think this wasnt necessarily due to pandemic and more just been on the lot a long time

So true! labor costs at unreasonable levels is a critical reason for the evacuation of Industry from my area. No money left for capital reinvestment or improvements. Factories around here look the same as they did in the 60s. :thumbdown:
The right to work states flourished!

 

[/pine]

The biggest single cause of the losses is labor unions...particularly the UAW...the members only have themselves to blame...!

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

Yet I make double what my union counterparts make money wise.