Sweet spot for used HD pickups.

Just as a general rule the 3 year mark is a good filter. I make up my mind what will best suit my needs and make me happy, then I hunt hunt hunt until I find a smoking deal.

I like the just under 3 year mark as well. From personal experience, I bought my 2004 2500 Lt cc 4x4 with 34,000 miles at the end of 2006 (still under factory warranty) for the same price as my friend paid for his brand new 2004 2wd 1500 LS model.if you chose, you can buy a factory extended warranty if your truck is still under the original warranty.

Great question, hard to answer. I think the vehicle has to have enough years and/or miles to get the price down, then I guess the condition would be crucial. In other words, a vehicle 3 years old with 40,000 miles might be a better deal than 1 just a few months old with 2000 miles. But it also depends on how great of a deal you can get.

I agree on the 3 year old scenario. I have worked in the automotive industry for almost 40 years and aside from company cars ( which I do not drive anymore due to crazy taxes ) I have always purchased 3 year old vehicles as they are plentiful, and you have a large number to choose from. Let someone else take the depreciation hit of over 50%, and keep driving it till it drops, I had over 350,000 miles on my Suburban with just routine maintenance. Preventative work is the key to vehicle longevity, on older vehicles there is too much of a risk that the vehicle has been poorly maintained and is just a wallet bomb waiting to happen.

There are a lot of variables, but first, you have to consider payload. The recommended payload is rather anemic in older trucks compared to the models for the past 8 years or so for all trucks and even newer for Dodge and GM. The problem with newer trucks are the additional emissions in the diesels. The problem with a gasoline truck is the length of life of the engine compared to diesel and less powerful engines for towing and hauling.

With those factors in mind, I'd say that any newer truck with less than 50K miles would be worth considering. After that, you have the potential for issues, so the price should consider a potential failure.

The last time I looked, the major part of the value is decreased on a new one in first 3 years. You can look up values to see what it looks like now. However, to compare to MSRP since most trucks can be had for less than MSRP and with incentives could be cheaper to own than a 1 year old truck. If you bought a 3 year old truck and added an extended warranty, you would be close to a new one in reliability with the added protection if something went wrong.

Maintenance and miles are major factors. Less miles is only good to a degree, I would be nervous about a 10yr old truck with on 20k miles on it as sitting for long periods is bad.

No data to point to but we picked up a 10yr old truck with 110k miles on it last summer. I see no reason we won't get 100k more out of her (it's nothing to get 200k miles out of a modern gas or diesel truck). At $6k used vs $60k new, I don't see how we can go wrong.

Diesel trucks...Ford 7.3 and Dodge pre 98.5 ( the ones with the 12 valve cummins) would the most reliable and economic to repair and operate.

Gas trucks...I would say brand wouldn't matter that much as they all make good ones and lemons.

with that said our shop trucks are chevy gas, we have a 2010 2500 with 283,000 miles and still going strong, and I would drive it anywhere.


I am a Chevy guy but own a 1993 Dodge diesel.....go figger.

Greatly depends on how that truck was maintained and treated throughout its lifetime. I would think it is always cheaper to keep an old truck than buy a new one. Things that would help would be doing you own maintance and repairs if possible.