12 to 18 month wait for new vehicle!!

[LS Tractor Owner]

Carmax has a refurb/ rehab shop across the street from my work. Vehicles go there before being distributed to the individual lots. After witnessing the condition of the vehicles going into that shop and what those idiots do on a regular basis with those vehicles.....

Yeah, I won't be purchasing anything from them, period.

Majority of vehicles before going through the shop resemble thrashed out, low end auction vehicles. Body damage, wrecked front ends, or rear ends. They then have wannabe street racers ragging the vehicles out further thrashing them up and down the road, just flogging the hell out of them.

There drivers have put several cars through our fence, as well as the fence across the street.

Yeah, NEVER buy a car or truck from Carmax or similar dealers. My son is an ASE mechanic, works for a nationwide "mobile mechanic" company. Most of those vehicles are "warrantied by third party" companies. The dealers do the bare minimum in prep before selling the vehicles, letting the warranty company to take the hit.
He has gone out to jobs that he couldn't believe how they tried to 'fix' the issues before the sale. He says about a 50/50 crap shoot to get a good vehicle. He says a lot of the customers return the vehicle when they find out how bad they are.

 

[Dftodd]

Yeah, NEVER buy a car or truck from Carmax or similar dealers. My son is an ASE mechanic, works for a nationwide "mobile mechanic" company. Most of those vehicles are "warrantied by third party" companies. The dealers do the bare minimum in prep before selling the vehicles, letting the warranty company to take the hit.
He has gone out to jobs that he couldn't believe how they tried to 'fix' the issues before the sale. He says about a 50/50 crap shoot to get a good vehicle. He says a lot of the customers return the vehicle when they find out how bad they are.

Had a former employee who purchased a vehicle from carmax. Guy was an idiot and was not very good with his money. Was on the weekly payment plan.

He purchased the same truck from carmax 3 separate times. He would purchase the truck. Make a couple of months' worth of payments. Then, quit paying for a few weeks, and they would come for his truck.


He would then get a bunch of money together and buy the truck back again for the same terms. Plus, finance more tax, tag, and title

The third time around was when we told him he was a bloody idiot and explained that he just needed to get caught up with his payments. It takes more than a few weeks missed payments for them to go through the courts to repo the truck.

As quick as they were coming for the truck, if he had pressed the issue with the police, someone from that carmax dealer would have ended up in jail.

 

[Jstpssng]

Any of those "Buy here, Pay here" places is merely preying on people with poor money management. Years ago there was a truck I was interested in. I wasn't going to finance through them but it looked clean and was just what I was looking for. They were asking more than list price of a brand new truck at the local dealership.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

Carmax isn't the only one doing that type of stuff so to isolate it to them is a little unfair. It's the entire industry really.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Q - What's the difference between a used car salesman and a catfish?

A - One is a scum sucking bottom dweller and the other is a fish.

 

[dmccarty]

...

This is a family owned business that makes their money on repeat customers. I'm sure there are many reputable dealers out there who operate the same way. The trick is to find one.

That sounds like a great company to support.

I don't think I mentioned this earlier in this discussion, but a few months ago I read an article about car prices which was discussing the StealerShips charging huge sums over the MSRP. One family owned dealership was NOT charging over the MSRP because it was wrong and they depended on repeat customers. Customers in their area would remember that the dealership was gouging people when it was time to get a vehicle.

A month or so back, I was traveling and heard a commercial for a dealership that was no longer charging over MSRP. If I lived in that area, I would remember that dealership and not do business with them in the future.

It amazes me that some politicians call for wind fall profit taxes on energy companies but not car companies....

 

[Hay Dude]

My daily driver is a 2002 Chevy crew cab, was a rental out of Canada when purchased with around 34,000 miles on it. Never had a payment, other than paying cash for the used vehicle.

Its on its second 6.0 liter engine (400,000 + miles), replaced some instrument panel wirings, soldered the 4 wheel drive switch as it got a cold solder joint. It rides nice and gets the good gas mileage that all those 6.0 Chevys get (13 mpg). Preventative maintenance goes a long ways in helping prevent "unexpected breakdowns". I expect this truck to be the last truck I own.

My daily driver prior to it was a 65 Ford F250 with over 500,000 miles on it.

My next truck will have to be on the other side of life!

Thats impressive!
I wouldn’t mind listening to you list what your concept of preventative maintenance is, because it sure seems to be working for you.

 

[Jstpssng]

Thats impressive!
I wouldn’t mind listening to you list what your concept of preventative maintenance is, because it sure seems to be working for you.

My followup question would be, do you have a lift? I surely would, if I did that kind of maintenance.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

probably things like changing u-joints before they fail, grease, keeping up on suspension components.

My dodge has 300K, my lexsus made 341K before i gave up on it. my old dodge has 400K+ before the cab rusted too badly.

Older trucks, especially 2wd dont have much to wear. Oh and never buy automatics if you plan on keeping them. Changing a clutch is much easier than rebuilding an auto. and yes, i have done both

 

[Jstpssng]

probably things like changing u-joints before they fail, grease, keeping up on suspension components.

My dodge has 300K, my lexsus made 341K before i gave up on it. my old dodge has 400K+ before the cab rusted too badly.

Older trucks, especially 2wd dont have much to wear. Oh and never buy automatics if you plan on keeping them. Changing a clutch is much easier than rebuilding an auto. and yes, i have done both

As I said before,\ one of my Dakotas needed u-joints every 4000 miles... at the time that was a month of driving. I was working 7 days/week, it didn't leave much time for maintenance. When I finally looked at it myself and determined what was wrong, I knew that I had to drop the drive shaft to grease it. I got rid of the truck instead.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

As I said before,\ one of my Dakotas needed u-joints every 4000 miles... at the time that was a month of driving. I was working 7 days/week, it didn't leave much time for maintenance. When I finally looked at it myself and determined what was wrong, I knew that I had to drop the drive shaft to grease it. I got rid of the truck instead.

Something was eating up that u joint. misaligned yoke or something.

 

[Jstpssng]

Something was eating up that u joint. misaligned yoke or something.

No. The joint was so tiny that they couldn't put a grease fitting in the center. Instead, it was on the outside end cap and grease wasn't getting to all 4 caps. As I said before I finally learned to take the drive shaft out to grease it; but doing that after work once a week got old fast.

The dealer who I went to a couple of times said the same thing; yet if the drive shaft was messed up it would vibrate going down the road. What I couldn't understand was why that wasn't covered under the power train warranty.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

No. The joint was so tiny that they couldn't put a grease fitting in the center. Instead, it was on the outside end cap and grease wasn't getting to all 4 caps. As I said before I finally learned to take the drive shaft out to grease it; but doing that after work once a week got old fast.

The dealer who I went to a couple of times said the same thing; yet if the drive shaft was messed up it would vibrate going down the road. What I couldn't understand was why that wasn't covered under the power train warranty.

I had non grease able u joints in my lexsus for 20+ years and 300k+ miles without greasing. Something was wrong to cause the joint to fail that often. I would guess the slip yoke wasnt sliding like it should and was adding a thrust load to the joint

And greasing from one end is common or even not being greasable

 

[Jstpssng]

I had non grease able u joints in my lexsus for 20+ years and 300k+ miles without greasing. Something was wrong to cause the joint to fail that often. I would guess the slip yoke wasnt sliding like it should and was adding a thrust load to the joint

And greasing from one end is common or even not being greasable

I took it apart. The thing wasn't getting grease to all of the needle bearings. End of story. Whether it was poor design, or incompetence on the part of the mechanics I was paying it doesn't matter. They will not last without lubrication. When I started doing them myself I took the joint out, pulled an end cap and greased it until it was full. That took care of it, but it's rather tiresome laying under the truck in the snow after working a 12 hour day.

 

[spitter]

Many cars and trucks today have non greaseable u joints. Especially HD trucks because the hole drilled in the center through the x frame weakens the structure making them prone to snaping in half under heavy load. I run them on all my trucks and get over 200k with them.

 

[Jstpssng]

Many cars and trucks today have non greaseable u joints. Especially HD trucks because the hole drilled in the center through the x frame weakens the structure making them prone to snaping in half under heavy load. I run them on all my trucks and get over 200k with them.

It doesn't really matter what other vehicles are like; this was a problem with the truck I was driving.I was the one crawling under the truck in the snow to pull the drive shaft and grease or replace the joint. I was the one paying to have it replaced every month/4000 miles.
It was a little tiny thing, about 2 inches across each way, if I remember correctly.

 

[ovrszd]

Many cars and trucks today have non greaseable u joints. Especially HD trucks because the hole drilled in the center through the x frame weakens the structure making them prone to snaping in half under heavy load. I run them on all my trucks and get over 200k with them.

23 yr old SD with 280K miles still has 3 originals.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

It doesn't really matter what other vehicles are like; this was a problem with the truck I was driving.I was the one crawling under the truck in the snow to pull the drive shaft and grease or replace the joint. I was the one paying to have it replaced every month/4000 miles.
It was a little tiny thing, about 2 inches across each way, if I remember correctly.

Exactly. A problem with that truck. A drive shaft issue

 

[Jstpssng]

Exactly. A problem with that truck. A drive shaft issue

OK. You can make that diagnosis without ever seeing it... you must be a lot smarter than I am. But please explain why when I pulled the u-joint apart there was absolutely no grease in three of the four cross pieces. Also explain why when I started pulling the driveshaft, taking two end caps off and forcing grease into them almost the way you would a wheel bearing, I stopped having the problem. I put over 120K miles on that truck after I started doing the work myself and was able to get a year/50k miles out of the u-joint that way.

But I guess that I should have put a new drive shaft in. You must work for a dealer as a parts changer, just as some of the guys I had working on it did.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

Only getting 50k miles out of it means there is a problem other than just a bad u joint.

Sometimes you gotta dig deeper than surface level.

And no, I dont work at a dealer. I wouldn't wish being a mechanic on my worst enemies. Horrible industry. Horrible pay.