How To Buy A Used Commercial Truck
Used commercial trucks today really enable business owners to save money and if you are looking to replace one of the commercial vehicles in your fleet you will want to read this article. We will go over some tips and strategies on the best way to save yourself time and money, which is always important in today's more financially conscious world.
If you find yourself in a position where you're going to need to replace your used commercial truck, there are several options that are available to you including buying a brand new truck. Now buying brand new you will know exactly what you are getting but you will also pay a premium for that knowledge.
You'll also have to be ok with losing value the moment you drive the commercial truck off of the lot.
Given the way the truck manufacturers have built these vehicles, some of them will last millions of miles and have little to no mechanical issues, so if you are looking to save some money while at the same time getting a mechanically sound truck, now is the perfect time to start looking.
So here are some suggestions that will help you with your used commercial truck buying decision.
First thing that you're going to want to consider is what you are going to use the truck for on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. Often business owners overshoot their real expectations and end up over buying on a truck because they thought they were going to need this or they really believed this was going to be the use going forward.
This can be a financial nightmare because if you are getting a truck to big for your needs then you'll not only be overpaying on a larger vehicle but you'll be ending up paying more in gas since larger vehicles tend to have worse gas mileage than smaller trucks.
In addition to getting something to big, you may find that you went to small and while you may save money on gas your will find that you are having to take multiple trips because the vehicle is to small to carry everything or worse can carry what you need at all.
So there is definitely a fine line between what you need now versus what you need or may need in the future. A suggestion would be to look at your last 3 years and gauge your need on your last 3 years of use. If you haven't needed to upgrade you probably won't have to unless you land a larger contract in which case congratulations!
Next you will also want to consider the mileage on the truck because if you are going to be doing short stop and go distances that won't have as much a factor as if you were driving greater distances. The greater amount of driving that you'll be doing the more you will want to consider a truck with less mileage.
Really the less mileage the better but even more so if the business has you travelling greater and greater distances.
Another area that you'll want to look at is whether to buy from a private individual or buy from a dealership. If you buy from a private individual you have no way of really knowing the history of the vehicle unless the owner kept the maintenance records for the used commercial truck.
You may be better off looking at a dealership that specializes in used commercial vehicles because they have the service center to maintain the lot as well as the experience and knowledge to answer your specific questions.
What you will want to look for though in a dealership is one that has been around a few years, if the dealership just opened their doors or really don't specialize in commercial vehicles they may not have the ability to fix the commercial truck because dealerships may from time to time get one off trades but if they don't specialize I might tend to stay away.
If you find a dealership that specializes in used commercial vehicles then a few considerations you'll want to look at for instance do they have their own an auto or truck service center for working on commercial vehicles? Do they have their own body shop to help with dent and dings? Do they have a large selection and what type of guarantees or warranties do they offer?
These are a few of the questions that you would have as well as what type of quality inspection do they provide before they list the truck for sale on their lot if they provide one at all?
Following a few common sense and gut feelings go a long way towards helping you in your search for the right used commercial vehicle and helping you save time and money.
We will be running a series of articles aimed at helping you the business person with saving time and money as well as getting your business back on the road as soon as possible.
For more information or to look at some quality used commercial trucks visit us online at or give us a call at 717-627-7888. You can also visit our new google + page by going here 