OnSale,
Thank you for your valuable intel and personal experiences. That is precisely what I'm after. As for what I'm after. Nothing fancy. Honestly, I see plenty of these around $5k range that seem 'decent' to me. Example:
https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/5906727718.html
That said, I'm looking for the most fuel efficient 1500 possible (not that it varies much), a rear slider window would be nice, 4x4 is nice but not necessary. I had a '96 Ram 1500 years ago and loved it. Just never used it...now I have a family and need to get out of my b2300 king cab.
My budget is $10k or under. I'd like to stay around the $5-6k range and save some coin for any major repairs if necessary
What kind of mileage are you looking to fall into? 110k-150k? Under 100k?
Also, that truck you linked too.... the seller doesn't list the mileage. My guess is because it has well over 200k miles on it.
Good deals are out there. When I was looking for my first truck and had a $10k budget, I found my 2006 Ram 1500 SLT Quad Cab 5.7L Hemi 4x4 with 173k miles on it and the dealer was asking $13k for it. I ended up getting it for $8,700 cash on 09/19/16. Here are some pictures of it the day I bought it:
It was SUPER clean for an 06. No dents, no major scratches, barely any rear quater rust and the little it had was only bubbling, not showing. The motor ran STRONG and the drivetrain was solid. I put about 6k miles on it in about 3 months and in those 3 months I paid about $1500 in repairs; all 16 spark plugs, rear pinion seal, pass. side valve cover gasket + more. At the end of the first 3 months, about 6k miles, it ended up having major mechanical issues. Like $3000 worth of repairs. Like I said earlier, The TIPM had 9 internal failures, my Heater Core was about to blow up and while trading the truck in, I went to move it on the lot and put it into Drive and when I hit the gas the rpms revved up and it didn't move (tranny was slipping) so I put it in reverse and the truck stalled. It was literally falling apart as I was trading it in lol.
So I traded it in, they gave me $8,600 for the truck which is NOT bad considering they were the dealer who diagnosed the $3k worth of damage so they knew it needed work. I got to keep a few parts off of it that I put on, but aside from the rims and a few other small things I took off of it, this is how it looked when I traded it in:
So in the end, I realized I should have just bought a newer truck with less miles and a huge, long warranty. After the trade in value ($8,600), I also put down the $2,500 cash I would have used to repair my 06, I haggled the price down and also got an employee discount but in the end I got my 2012 Ram 1500 5.7L Hemi with 32k miles and an extended bumper-to-bumper warrenty (100k/5yrs) and I only owed a difference of $4,000 lol. My payments ended up being under $160/month for 38 months.
Here is my "new" 12' Ram 1500 Reg Cab ST 5.7L Hemi the day I bought it. It already had a Lund Tri-fold Tonneau Cover, Flowmasters Dual Exhaust and a K&N 63 Series Intake:
And here is what it looked like after only owning it for 7 days and putting over $2k worth of parts onto it lol:
Moral of the story; you could think your getting a killer deal (like me when i bought my 06) and think the truck is rock solid (it was when I bought it. I had a Ram mechanic do a 128 point inspection and it passed 100%), and you still can end up with a major headache, huge repair bills and you end up selling it. I did not want to spend $16k - $25k on a truck when I first was looking, but after everything that happened, and all the money I lost on mods and repairs on my 06, I should have just bought and financed a "new'er" truck from the start.
I ended up losing all the money I put in mods on my 06. Swapped in 04 Laramie Black Leather/Grey Suede Heated Power Seats, Smoked Projector Halo Headlights, DTMoto Smoked C-Bar LED Taillights, Hood, Bumper & Bed Vinyls, EAutoGrille's Mesh & Rivet Black Grille and all kinds of other mods I don't even remember right now.
Anyways... good luck.
Have you considered putting your $10k cash down on a used 2014/2015 Crew/Quad Cab 4x4 with around 30k miles for anywhere from $20k to $23k and financing the remaining $10k- $13k? This way you get a factory warranty, peace of mind that your kids are in a safe truck, and your payments should only be maybe $200/month if you do 4 or 5 years with a low interest rate.
I dunno... just an idea I thought I'd pass along... I sure know that I wish I did that from the start.
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