Keep current truck forever or try to afford a new one every 5-10 years?

[jyoutz]

Gas. I wouldn't even look at a diesel, I wouldn't work it hard enough to justify the cost.

There are other ways to look at cost. Diesel fuel is about 15% higher than gas but diesels are 30% more fuel efficient. And what’s important to me is driving a vehicle for 300k miles before selling it. A diesel truck will still have some decent resale value with high miles, but a gasser is basically scrap at those miles.

 

[dodge man]

What’s bad is not only have sticker prices gone up but the discounts and rebates are less or just gone. When we bought are 2017 F150 the 2018’s were out so we got around $10k off the sticker price.

 

[dmccarty]

My F350 7.3L diesel is almost 23 years old and close to 300K miles. Things are starting to wear out and I have been looking at buying a new truck because I have been having to drive some long distances for family reasons and I don't really trust the truck at this point. No real reason for lack of trust but It is almost a quarter century old.

If not for these long trips, which I take the wife's vehicle, I would not be looking for a new truck.

Started investigating new trucks earlier in the year and quickly ruled out US brands because of their outrageous pricing. To buy my truck new is 90-100K, if you could find one, but I won't buy another diesel due to the complexity, cost and increased fuel cost. Nissan and Toyota have trucks that are far more affordable, though I still choke on their prices. Unfortunately, Toyota's full size has twin turbos, which they did have problems with in early production runs, and one has to remove the cab to fix them. Ah. No. And Toyota, in some geographies, has been ripping people off for decades so I shy away from them.

So that leaves Nissan. Wish they had less horsepower engines though. These trucks have more HP than my z28. More than DOUBLE. I don't need a truck to run 0-60 faster than my z28 and Porches of the day did.

The outrageous prices are starting to fall. Higher interest rates and high prices along with more production are causing increases in inventory. The car business is going to have a big downturn because of the high prices on used cars, new car prices are going to fall, but there will have to be even lower prices and incentives to sell vehicles. Tesla's price cuts are really going to make things interesting for the EV cars and which should impact ICE prices.

Early in the year, we might see a car commercial and we would wonder why where they advertising since the lots were empty. Now, the lots are starting to get inventory, but nothing like before the pandemic, and we are seeing commercial after commercial with incentives. The dealers are asking for incentives. I have been tracking local inventory and it has been building since I started tracking a few months ago. I suspect the car dealers and brands are about to get a spanking, which they deserve due to the absolute price gouging they have done over the last few years, which the politicians don't seem to talk about. Not sure what this is going to do to the economy. Going to be some losers and winners. Banks are already starting to get out of doing business with the dealers.

If one is looking to buy a vehicle, use or new, check out Home and see their YouTube videos. The company is a father and son operation where the father was in the car business for decades. I think the son had an idea on having a car related website and they started up their business. I have learned quite a bit from their videos. Even when I was younger, I was able to negotiate decent vehicle prices, I knew how to handle the car dealers but I have learned some things from their videos. One interesting tid bit on their website is that they track the number of days a vehicle has been on the lot. The vehicle prices and days on the lot matches the tracking I am doing.

Over the summer I plan to buy a CarEdge membership to get access to the Black Book. Right now, we are waiting to see what happens with the car prices, which I do think will fall faster as the year goes on.

 

[fishman]

Dmccarty, I bought a 2018 Nissan Titan brand new, and it just recently went over 100k miles. I had a couple of switches that had been damaged during initial assembly and those were replaced under warranty. My AC went out after a couple months and it turned out to be a bad seal from the factory so it was replaced under warranty. At 95k miles, my tailgate latch started acting up and they fixed it under warranty. It was just a backed out mounting screw. That is the sum total of repairs I have had to do in 5 years and with a 5 year, 100k mile standard warranty, I wasn't worried anyway. Because I have had so few issues with it, I plan to keep it for quite a while longer. I kept the 2000 Chevy z71 it replaced and it has over 350k on it. It was purchased new as well and I think I am close to getting my money out of it.

As to old vehicles, my first truck was a 1978 Chevy half ton, 250 ci with a 3 speed and no power anything including the engine. No AC, no FM, it was as basic as you could imagine. Bought it used in 1987. The great thing was that most parts were very cheap and easy to replace. An alternator was $19, a starter was $29, a radiator was $79, a fuel tank was $129, a wiper motor was $69, a master cylinder was $39, carb was . . . . . . . . you get the picture but I could go on. Yes the bad thing was that literally everything on that truck was replaced at some time, sometimes more than once, including the transmission ($80 from a scrapyard). In fact, I had to rebuild the cab floor on it twice, the last time to keep from falling through. I finally sold it as a ranch truck since it no longer had enough power to go faster than 65 mph. So anyone that likes those late 70's cars and trucks can have them. I like the fact that my 23 year old chevy still has the same injectors from the factory when it was new and runs great.

 

[jyoutz]

My F350 7.3L diesel is almost 23 years old and close to 300K miles. Things are starting to wear out and I have been looking at buying a new truck because I have been having to drive some long distances for family reasons and I don't really trust the truck at this point. No real reason for lack of trust but It is almost a quarter century old.

If not for these long trips, which I take the wife's vehicle, I would not be looking for a new truck.

Started investigating new trucks earlier in the year and quickly ruled out US brands because of their outrageous pricing. To buy my truck new is 90-100K, if you could find one, but I won't buy another diesel due to the complexity, cost and increased fuel cost. Nissan and Toyota have trucks that are far more affordable, though I still choke on their prices. Unfortunately, Toyota's full size has twin turbos, which they did have problems with in early production runs, and one has to remove the cab to fix them. Ah. No. And Toyota, in some geographies, has been ripping people off for decades so I shy away from them.

So that leaves Nissan. Wish they had less horsepower engines though. These trucks have more HP than my z28. More than DOUBLE. I don't need a truck to run 0-60 faster than my z28 and Porches of the day did.

The outrageous prices are starting to fall. Higher interest rates and high prices along with more production are causing increases in inventory. The car business is going to have a big downturn because of the high prices on used cars, new car prices are going to fall, but there will have to be even lower prices and incentives to sell vehicles. Tesla's price cuts are really going to make things interesting for the EV cars and which should impact ICE prices.

Early in the year, we might see a car commercial and we would wonder why where they advertising since the lots were empty. Now, the lots are starting to get inventory, but nothing like before the pandemic, and we are seeing commercial after commercial with incentives. The dealers are asking for incentives. I have been tracking local inventory and it has been building since I started tracking a few months ago. I suspect the car dealers and brands are about to get a spanking, which they deserve due to the absolute price gouging they have done over the last few years, which the politicians don't seem to talk about. Not sure what this is going to do to the economy. Going to be some losers and winners. Banks are already starting to get out of doing business with the dealers.

If one is looking to buy a vehicle, use or new, check out Home and see their YouTube videos. The company is a father and son operation where the father was in the car business for decades. I think the son had an idea on having a car related website and they started up their business. I have learned quite a bit from their videos. Even when I was younger, I was able to negotiate decent vehicle prices, I knew how to handle the car dealers but I have learned some things from their videos. One interesting tid bit on their website is that they track the number of days a vehicle has been on the lot. The vehicle prices and days on the lot matches the tracking I am doing.

Over the summer I plan to buy a CarEdge membership to get access to the Black Book. Right now, we are waiting to see what happens with the car prices, which I do think will fall faster as the year goes on.

The problem with Toyota and Nissan trucks is they only offer 1/2 tons, nothing more heavy duty.

 

[jmc]

Anecdotal, but I've seen plastic components get brittle on vehicles after the last 20 years or so, maybe even in less time, but before they needed work. Snap fits, connector locks, even light structural components. Don't know where that will end in trying to keep a vehicle for decades. I guess they don't make plastic like the used too...

 

[Jstpssng]

Anecdotal, but I've seen plastic components get brittle on vehicles after the last 20 years or so, maybe even in less time, but before they needed work. Snap fits, connector locks, even light structural components. Don't know where that will end in trying to keep a vehicle for decades. I guess they don't make plastic like the used too...

Many of those are generic so probably shouldn't be a problem.

Although I once said the same thing about computer chips...

 

[Paystar]

There are other ways to look at cost. Diesel fuel is about 15% higher than gas but diesels are 30% more fuel efficient. And what’s important to me is driving a vehicle for 300k miles before selling it. A diesel truck will still have some decent resale value with high miles, but a gasser is basically scrap at those miles.

I don't know about that in some cases. I know a guy that leases new F250's and he makes a 4 hour trip north of here which is all hills up and down pulling his 5th wheel travel trailer with a small boat and trailer behind it. He had a 6.7 Powerstroke then decided to replace it with a new 7.3 gas and he said he put the exact same litres in it when he fills them.

 

[Paystar]

Another bad thing about these new emissions diesels is if you don't drive them often which I don't use my pickups often, is DEF fluid deteriorates over time. So if you aren't using and replacing it with fresh stuff, eventually you are going to have issues.
The new diesels need to be run hard and steady.

 

[jyoutz]

I don't know about that in some cases. I know a guy that leases new F250's and he makes a 4 hour trip north of here which is all hills up and down pulling his 5th wheel travel trailer with a small boat and trailer behind it. He had a 6.7 Powerstroke then decided to replace it with a new 7.3 gas and he said he put the exact same litres in it when he fills them.

I know that my 5.9 Cummins gets 20 mpg and my neighbor has the same truck with a V8. Not sure of the size. He only gets 14 mpg. And the high mileage resale value does make up for the initial higher purchase price.