Used Pick-Up Trucks Selling For More than High Retail Blue Book in these Parts.

[Capricious]

Everyone that buys used cars talk about the good deals they get. When I look at late model used vehicles, I can buy new for less, they are way overpriced.

I tend to agree. You cannot buy a 2-year-old vehicle for its depreciated value because either the private owner owes more than it is worth, or a dealer wants their profit.

Cheaper to buy new, but with minimal options. As far as pick-ups go, the options can easily add 50% to the cost. Sometimes the options almost double the price.

I would much rather have a new vehicle with minimal options, that a "loaded" used vehicle, and both will cost about the same.

 

[DFB]

IMO after they had that big trade in program a while ago it cleaned up the glut of used vehicles that were on the market hurting new car sales. When I went looking for a PU the used prices were astronomical and it was almost impossible to find anything greater than 5 years old it seemed at least around here. Pretty much why I ended up with an SUV. Book value on the Durango when I purchased it was close to 75% less than it cost new.

Check all Chrysler recalls (there always been enough of them) they replaced the upper and lower ball joints both sides on the Durango N/C. And that was for the second time too. Its a design flaw and water sits on the top bracket. The 2007 has probably been redesigned

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thanks Gunny for posting your experience with your three Dakotas. I hope it will last a long time. If it does not get in an accident and she gets something else on down the road it should be a good replacement for my 1986.5 Hardbody Nissan manual transmission and steering. I bought it in 1987 with 3K miles for $7200 and still only have about 140K miles on it and the brake pads are still pretty thick.

On buying a 2 year old vehicle vs new tend to agree one has to be careful as to the new vs used advantage. Personally I find the sweet spot on used vehicles to be in the 5-10 year age range and/or 75K-100K mile range. We picked up the 2002 Blazer w/102K miles in 2006 for $6600 and the same year the 2000 Towncar with 70K miles for $6000.

That was pre government junk them program however. Even last week the Chevy dealership with the Dakota said since that program nice used stuff has been priced at a premium. As we of the baby boom generation retire or approach retirement we often do not trade every few years like back in the go-go times of the 70's-80's perhaps.

DFB that is a good idea on checking the Dakota out for recalls. It is my bet the owner for the second 30K miles did not do that but it does have 72 month Mopar battery while not new tested out well and the post are clean. If the first owner traded for a new one the dealership may have replaced the battery at that point in time.

I try to keep a manual 2/6 amp battery charger. If a battery is in good condition on the 6 amp setting overnight it will drop down to the 1 amp rate of charging. If it will not do that then I will plan to replace it before the next winter. Running the manual charger and a Black & Decker charger at the same time for a few 24 hour Desulf cycles will help recover some batteries I have found. The full manual chargers by default do equalizing after a battery gets fully charged at about 16v which helps clean the plates it seems.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I really got in the market for a later model Nissan Frontier 4 door pick up the first of last month. Used ones are closer to new price than I can afford to pay.

Since I need to hit the road showing our new web based/cloud version of our software for property insurance adjusters and contractors the son said just go for a car that will get 30 MPG. I guess it stuck in my mind. He and I drove a 2001 Ford Sport Trac truck but they wanted a ton of money for a 15 year old truck with 115K miles but did look new like.

They also had a 2006 Ford Five Hundred car on their web site and when I read the Five Hundred (2005-2007) then 2008-2009 Taurus where all built on the first gen (1998-2006) Volvo S80 chassis I got real interested because I needed seat height more like a smaller PU or SUV. The 21/29 MPG rating was also interesting.

In short three weeks ago I bought the 2006 Ford Five Hundred (mentioned in another thread) for $5K with 115K miles that was the daily drive of the wife of a Ford dealership salesman with the oil changed there ever 5K miles.

We just got back from a 1600 mile round trip doing a trade show in Minneapolis Minnesota. It was cold and some snow. It did not use any engine oil and the week before the kids and I did a bucket flush on the transmission and the ATF level did not change. I love red looking ATF too.

I love how I can see so well and even bad weather running snow tires (a little roar) we got 26 MPG. We stopped for gas and to eat but it was 12 hours of driving time each way which meant we were averaging 65 MPH. Driving it hour after hour was not bad at all.

Hey it is not a PU and it is my first Ford brand of car at the age of 65. I really love it. It is only FWD but with the four Arctic Claw Winter TXI M&S tires it is stable in the snow. My son has the nice 2002 Dodge RAM 1500 and we still have the 1986.5 Nissan hardbody and 1998 S10 PU so for my road travels this old car makes good sense if it is as good as it seems. I still want a newer pick up but will have to wait until I sell a lot of PowerClaim estimating software.

 

[Capricious]

I really got in the market for a later model Nissan Frontier 4 door pick up the first of last month. Used ones are closer to new price than I can afford to pay.

Since I need to hit the road showing our new web based/cloud version of our software for property insurance adjusters and contractors the son said just go for a car that will get 30 MPG. I guess it stuck in my mind. He and I drove a 2001 Ford Sport Trac truck but they wanted a ton of money for a 15 year old truck with 115K miles but did look new like.

They also had a 2006 Ford Five Hundred car on their web site and when I read the Five Hundred (2005-2007) then 2008-2009 Taurus where all built on the first gen (1998-2006) Volvo S80 chassis I got real interested because I needed seat height more like a smaller PU or SUV. The 21/29 MPG rating was also interesting.

In short three weeks ago I bought the 2006 Ford Five Hundred (mentioned in another thread) for $5K with 115K miles that was the daily drive of the wife of a Ford dealership salesman with the oil changed there ever 5K miles.

We just got back from a 1600 mile round trip doing a trade show in Minneapolis Minnesota. It was cold and some snow. It did not use any engine oil and the week before the kids and I did a bucket flush on the transmission and the ATF level did not change. I love red looking ATF too.

I love how I can see so well and even bad weather running snow tires (a little roar) we got 26 MPG. We stopped for gas and to eat but it was 12 hours of driving time each way which meant we were averaging 65 MPH. Driving it hour after hour was not bad at all.

Hey it is not a PU and it is my first Ford brand of car at the age of 65. I really love it. It is only FWD but with the four Arctic Claw Winter TXI M&S tires it is stable in the snow. My son has the nice 2002 Dodge RAM 1500 and we still have the 1986.5 Nissan hardbody and 1998 S10 PU so for my road travels this old car makes good sense if it is as good as it seems. I still want a newer pick up but will have to wait until I sell a lot of PowerClaim estimating software.

Used truck prices are just crazy right now.

You mentioned 4-door Nissan Frontiers: in late Sept. I bought a new 2015 Frontier crew cab 4WD, "SV" auto, only options were mud flaps and floor mats, $26,500.00 "out the door" net of all fees. The "sticker" was $28,840.00 No trade. Cheapest 4-door 4WD I could find, and it took a month of "walking away" to get that deal. Not my dream truck but it will do what I need it to do.

The short bed restricts use to carrying small things (of which I have a lot) but I have a 6 by 12 trailer that will haul anything else I need to carry. As someone on this forum, I think, once posted, it makes more sense to haul stuff on a $1,000 trailer than in the back of an expensive pickup. I wanted a locking bed cover but could not justify the $700.00 cost, so I made one out of MDO plywood, painted flat black. Looks pretty decent.

After (4) months it has 1750 miles on it. I do my commuting in a Toyota Corolla. Was cheaper to buy, and uses less gas. Just bought gas on the way to work this morning and I struggled to get 3 bucks worth into it.

We have had a little snow the last few days, and the Corolla has handled it just fine. Factory tires and at the moment I have no idea what they are.

If money were no object, I would be driving a big honking 3/4 ton something back and forth to work everyday (like some guys at work do) but I am looking at retirement in not too awful long and I have to watch the money, and I have to differentiate between "needs' and "wants."

 

[clemsonfor]

The kids are in the eleventh grade and we had picked up a S10 Chevy for the son and put in another engine and transmission a couple years ago as a project truck that is now dependable. It have him some hands on wrenching time and he has put a few good size dings in it already. The daughter was driving the old towncar or Blazer and over time I was mainly driving the TC because the blazer has well over 200K miles and I do some road miles where she does not.

My plan was to wait closer until she needed something daily for college but Sunday afternoon she roped me into truck shopping while we were in town. Low and behold we stopped at the Chevy place and ran upon a 2007 Dodge Dakota Club Cab 3.7L automatic that she really liked and strangely I did too. Until yesterday I had never driven a Dodge.

They had it priced initially just over $10K and had marked it down to $8750 as it was a couple weeks away from their 60 inventory limit. Looked on kellybluebook.com they said high retail at a dealer was like $7K with a trade in value on a good day of $4K even with it being clean and with only 62K miles. Monday I looked at it but did not drive it and they said $8500 and that was just because they liked me. Same story today.

I had talked with the sales manager down the road at the Dodge dealership who I have known over the years. He said he did not one on the lot but based on what I told him the one on the Chevy lot would be $10K on his lot.

At lunch the woman who owned it the past 30K miles called me back and said she thought it would be a good truck for my daughter to drive to college, pick up horse feed, etc. It drove like new and had power with the 3.7L engine and automatic transmission. Naturally the daughter like it in part because she had for a few years been talking about four door Pickups with only two handles showing.

Finally we took a late lunch at the Huddle House and had the daughter park it out in full sun where I could see it out of the window well. I was OK going $8K after some online and local shopping. Clearly it looked new like and drove like new and I had some history from the second owner and it that been in the area all of its life. It hit me it was not worth $500 to stand my ground when I could get a truck with all things being equal would still be a good truck even after college so I got with my farm/homeowner/equipment insurance agent and bound cover and did the deal.

He is located in Hopkinsville KY about 75 miles east of me and said he had been in the market for three years because of the price of anything other than regular cab pick-up prices that were nice, straight and in good condition were HIGH.

Well we have a very happy daughter this evening and I am glad we got her situated for several years hopefully for under $10K. Below are a link to the dealer photos and after three days of 'educating' myself on truck prices am happy that is behind me and the wife. Her brother seems excited for her and is fine with 4.3L 5 speed but he will want more before college I am sure.

2007 Dodge Dakota for sale in Mayfield - 1D7HE22K87S107803 - Shelby Automotive

Even after dealing hard I still paid $150 over high dealer retail and for some reason feel good about it.

I was going to say make sure you like it. I drove the exact truck years ago for work. It was an 07 quad cab with the V8. That thing loved gas and the best it got was 17mpg babying it more like 15-16 regualy as i drove it around as a forester on back roads. Was the most uncomfortalbe truck i have ever driven and the head rest angle pushed my head forward so much i had to lean the seat back to make the angle right. I am 6'2" and was 200# (closer to 210 now) at the time so maybe its body size issue? maybe i was the right height to have the head rest problem? It rode rough....like a lumber wagon and sat very low to the ground and bottomed out all the time , most didnt even know it was 4x4. When my replacement came in it was a 2012 colorado, i was so happy to see that dodge off. Colorado sits up higer is more comfortalbe and gets better mpg.

Oh the dodge was not that reliable for a new truck. We dump vehicles here at work at 65k and i think it had just over 70 when i got rid of it. But in that time the catalysts failed and were replaced under a 100k mile federal mandated emissions warrenty. The power steering pump went out at like 30K miles, had a set or two of spark plugs. I think it was the crank sensor went bad and that was very unsafe as you would all of a suddun loose your ability to do anything but really really slow grandma acceration, if you pushed harder it would stumble just like it was hitting a rev limiter. Oh and the thing chewed up brakes ( it think it had two sets of front pads in that time, keep in mind i do like 80+% highway miles the rest is interstate and offroad) and tires for some reason?And i know there is more i just dont remember. Hopefully you got a good one as i see i am too late to get this info to you before your purchase. Maybe we just had a lemon?

 

[clemsonfor]

Struggle to get $3 of gas into it? Where do you live venezula (where gas is like $0.21/gallon)? our gas is probably some of the cheapest at $1.45ish a gallon. Even a corola has bigger than 2 gallon tank!! haha. Or do you get gas every day and this is you topping it off?

 

[clemsonfor]

We use Edmunds.com for pricing.

There is also a good difference in KBB and NADA. As a seller you want KBB price as its higher but as a buyer go by NADA as its lower

 

[clemsonfor]

I agree with this for a person not on a budget. $8500 we could pull off but $30K would not have flown. Annual taxes and insurance would have been much higher for years to come. Any vehicle would set out in the open driveway and annual depreciation might be >$1000 a year on a $30K vehicle too.

The true cost to buy new would be hard for a 17 year old to swing with their typical earning power. This deal is more about life training. She picked it out herself before I even saw it and states she expects it to last for 6 years so she will be out of college before buying again. She set up the B&D charger tonight and it took about 10 minutes to top off then she started the Desulf mode herself.

Having my kids where they can fend for themselves OK takes a load off of my mind should I take my final flight without warning.

So she put it on the battery charger for no reason or she wanted the Desulf mode? They caution against charging with it conected to these new computer vehicles, i dont do that but just saying. But there is no reason to charge a fully charged battery unless she left the lights on or radio on most of the day or something.

 

[clemsonfor]

That is funny a DMV employee would make just a remark. When I was looking online I could find 2007 Dakotas priced starting at $3K all the way up to $12K. There are 2007 vehicles that I would not want parked on my place even though it would be newer than anything we owned until last week. I despise trashed anything and especially a trashed vehicle. Accidents I understand but trashing vehicles never made sense to me.

The 2007 Dakota was built in 08/2006 so it is getting some age on it but at 62K miles looking new like and she plans for it to be her daily driver for 6 years it age is not a big issue or where we paid $8K or $10K for it in the scheme of things.

The SLT packages are very nice over the ST package. Not sure why but the daughter forever has said she wanted a truck with four doors but with just two handles showing as the ST does where the SLT's that I have seen have 4 full doors and a 15" shorter bed. The timing to buy another vehicle was not ideal for sure but when I saw it and how it really matched her mental picture of her first vehicle I knew I was going to be buying my first Chrysler product.

4 door trucks with 2 door handles on the outside are extended cab trucks and 4 doors and handles are the crew cab versions. The latter is a bigger back seat and door on any makers vehicle. Verbage about the cab size changes with manufactures but the latter will always we larger than the "2 handled version"