It took me a couple of times to read jmtandem's post!
The problem with used vehicles, especially tow vehicles, is that it is hard to find one where the previous owner hasn't mucked with it, and then covered it up.
Several cases of this misfortune have played out here on the forums. Customer buys 2 year old truck with 30K miles on it , thinks he's got 3 years and 70K miles remaining on the factory diesel engine warranty. Two years later, at 60K, something major goes wrong with the engine. Customer thinks no problem, I'll bring it in. Diagnosis comes back... major engine rebuild needed, $18,000 repair bill, no warranty coverage.
"Whaddya mean?" the customer cries.. "it says it's covered right here in black and white." Yes, BUT, it also says that coverage becomes null and void once certain modifications, like chips/tunes/programs, have been done to the vehicle after it left the factory. "But I never installed any tune or program!" the customer protests. Well, somebody did, as we have established the means to be able to tell.
This isn't make believe. This actually happens. In one of the cases discussed on this forum, I suggested to the poster to try and contact the previous owner, and innocently ask him what chip or programmer he would recommend as having worked well with his former truck.
This age old interrogation trick worked like a charm, and the previous owner readily recommended a particular programmer, not only stating that he thought it worked awesome on his former truck, but that an added benefit is that it can be "removed without a trace." Or so he thought.
I was impressed that the poster who followed my suggestion and made that call did not reveal the true purpose of his calling. He had to pay the full price for the rebuild, because the used truck he saved so much money on was a trojan horse. It had indeed been modified, even though it was "restored" back to stock.
There are so many seemingly innocent modifications that truck owners do to their trucks... from installing stereo systems using fuse taps, scotchloks, or other ill advised intrusions that compromise the integrity of the vehicle's multiplexed wiring system, to drilling holes through the frame flanges to install a hitch (which weakens the frame), to attaching accessories on the body with self tapping hardware and without taking adequate precautions for corrosion protection once the original paint film and e coating has been broken through.
Manufacturers typically make $10,000 profit per truck, so that right there is an immediate depreciation hit as soon as the purchase papers are signed. So I'm all for buying used, in fact, I bought my truck used, less than a year old with only about 15,000 miles on it at the time, intending to keep it for at least 20 years. That was 14 years ago, and the truck is still working just as good now as when I bought it.
However, the truck is not without problems. The door locks do something I don't like, and I can't fix it with factory information because the previous owner installed a fancy high dollar Clifford Alarm system. In the course of tracing that down (which required removing the entire interior, so the carpet could be removed to expose the aftermarket wiring additions) I found sub standard quick and dirty splices typical of a rushed and busy aftermarket stereo installer. Which this vehicle also had, but I required that the dealer put in a stock radio before I purchased. They did, but the previous fancy stereo installer cut all the original speaker harness connectors, so even the stock stereo installation had to be fudged, because it is impractical to replace the entire vehicle wiring harness.
And, the previous owner installed a toolbox, drilling four holes into the bed. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but the location of the holes allowed water to drain into a supporting channel, which didn't have a drain, so water would collect there, causing corrosion. Luckily, I saw the condition, caught it in time, and corrected it, but not everyone is mechanically inclined to maintain their truck themselves, so that might have easily been missed.
So, the point is, finding a decent used truck is more difficult than finding one with adequate specs for a more affordable price. It also means finding one that has not been molested by a previous owner running oversize tires "to fill the wheel wells" and thus prematurely reducing the service life expectancy of the wheel bearings, or running a K&N filter and fouling a MAP sensor or dusting a turbo, or thinking it is a good idea to delete this or that because the OEM doesn't know what they are doing... etc etc.
As the emissions equipment on newer trucks increases in cost and complexity, if I were in the market today, I might be more inclined to pay the extra money upfront and purchase new... just to be assured that the chain of custody of the vehicle did not fall into the hands of someone who didn't know or didn't care about the longterm service life or warranty integrity, as they only expected to keep it a couple of years anyway before trading in for the next newest thing.
I have another half decade to go before making that decision though. Or not. I just may squeeze 30 years out of the old girl yet.
