Oh, you want to buy a new car? Must be you love breathing in toxic chemicals that will give you cancer! It’s like throwing money into a fire, the depreciation is remarkable if you drive it off the lot and decide to sell it the next day. You’ll never get what you bought it for selling it used back to the dealer or even a third party. Obviously! Are you some kind of retard, a complete fool when it comes to money, somebody who wants to debt for the rest of his life and have a car payment at least until I pay off the bank in a week or so?
So the solution is the 20-year old Honda! Of course, because there are millions of gently used 20-year old Hondas out there, ready to deliver you to the mall and be perfect for running pizza deliveries to various people’s houses. 20-year old Hondas really are good for traveling in the city, where the worse thing that can happen is the car breaks down, you call a tow truck and take the bus home, and wait a few days for the mechanic to fix it up. Very economical. Of course, probably even more economical would be to call Gavin Welding and have them weld some plates on frame of Big Red and replace the bad cross members. And keep pushing that 5.3l down the road. He looks pretty sad sitting in the snow, as the rust just keeps further over his body as he sits in the field.
I decided to take a look a bit at used market, see what is being listed, particularly for big pickup trucks. The thing is pickup trucks generally get used, and not gently. Most people who buy trucks don’t lease – it’s actually pretty hard to lease a truck because dealerships don’t want to deal with banged up 3-year old trucks even if they can charge damages back to owners. The exception is might be a car rental agency like Enterprise Rent-a-Car or Hertz Car Rental, but they mostly rent sedans, SUVs, and small trucks for tourists and business travelers, not many HD trucks.
Then I realized what I was really should be looking at was not Hertz Car Rental but Herc Rentals which is a spin off of Hertz Car Rental, but leases trucks to commercial contractors. The thing is that Herc Rental vehicles get used commercially, and most have over 100,000 miles when they make it onto the used market on Herc Rentals used page. A hard 100,000 miles, as let’s be honest people in construction who drive leased company cars, probably don’t always let the engine warm up before hammering the gas, they slam the gear shifter into park, tow heavy loads, and drive a shit-ton of miles and leave the engine idling burning up the company’s gas as the lifters clunk away starved of oil from excessive idle. I mean how gentle are you with your companies’ equipment? Especially if you are burly construction worker with a bit of a temper working for a big boss man.
Another option is to buy a used car from a dealership or a lot. That is something I’m considering but options are limited especially with the big trucks. There are some werid configurations that never sell, and end up becoming loaner cars, and maybe that’s a way to save a few thousand dollars. The thing is with the auto quality today, often the trucks that don’t sell are infamous for bad transmissions or engines, the models any smart buyer would stay away from. Or that truck that was reposed for failure to pay. Do you think all maintance was preformed and driven gently with a repo? All for saving a few thousand dollars. Doesn’t strike me as worth it.
Reliability aside, I want to get a camper shell and other equipment for my new rig which can’t necessarily be transfered from truck to truck. It makes more sense to have a vehicle that will last for many years, and a reliable new vehicle will last longer then a used vehicle. The 10-speed Ford trannys are bad, but supposedly the latest model year has upgraded clutches which are more reliable. The 7.3L is said to be a real work horse, it like to drink gas on city streets, but is said to easily make 200,000 miles or more – with an asterisk about lifter issues in some commercial uses. But not like lifter issues in Chevy’s, and far less then other major makes that use “advanced” technologies like displacement on demand, supercharging, auto-stop shut-off. And I just really want a big truck without having to pay for a lift kit or deal with lift kit issues.
I know I am just trying to rationalize buying a new HD truck. I mean, I’m the one who is so frugal that I ride my bike to work avoid a $1.30 bus fare, lives in an apartment paying the County Welfare Department rate, and keep my heat at 47-50 degrees all winter exception when it’s exceptionally cold and refuse all subscriptions from internet to television to trash hauling. One who invests more then half of his six-figure income each year in stocks, bonds, and CDs. But I want to get a good rig that will last, with the most reliable power train avaliable, that best suits my needs. Probably for buyers of a 20-year old Honda, then it makes sense to buy used. If you only care that are car gets you to the mall or delivers pizzas out back, then that’s car for you. But I’ve worked for many years, built a career, invested and saved for many years, sacrificed many things for a nice truck that will serve me many years in wilderness, just like Big Red did.