Trying to make a difficult decision

[Diamondpilot]

I you want to get out from under that $800 / month truck payment, but still must have a newer truck (instead of a trailer to pull with your van) check out something like this on a 2011 Sierra / reg cab / 2wd.

Purchase Financing Payment
$122 Bi-weekly
84 months
$0 Down Payment
$1,450 Freight

Even adding tax etc you're still probably under $4K per year compared to $9,600 with the current truck. May not be as fancy BUT.............

Ford / Dodge may have something similar.

I do not think this would work for him living where he does. 4 wheel drive is a must, especially if he has to go to work each and every day.

I still think he needs to keep the truck he has and just pay it off at this point and drive it for another 5-10 years afterwards. The things he needs to look at is how much the farm animals are really costing. Many hide or do not want to admit how much the luxury items really cost. It adds up. My mechanic had horses and when he sat down and put it on paper the bags of feed each week, bedding, round bales in the winter, ect all added up to more than he ever though.


Sit down and figure up what is really being spent. Cell phones, internet, Ipad service, cable TV, sat radio, ect all add up also. Look at your food cost. Really cooking, not heating up a pre-made meal from the grocery store can save you 60% or more at the grocery.

Chris

 

[clemsonfor]

I agree on the farm animals. I hear guys say that there is no way they could make it on cows with out another job. I just find it hard to beleive the OP has a breakeven poin on his "small " heritage herd. The only thing i can see is that he is studding them out or selling them to others as pasture ornaments. I deal with a logger who's dad has 600 acres and has cows and pasture and he said he has always had to have another job to make ends meet. If he has a horse your usually attached more to them so i would sell of the price cows to keep the horse. You can cut out the smart phone and get a regular cell phone and save $50 each phone per month easy. Cut out all this ipad type stuff and itune etc.

I disagree in that i would still get rid of that Killer payment even if you dont make anything on it. He proly has it for another 3 years easy. If 4wd is a must i would look seriously at the suburus like others have said. They seem like tough durable 4wds, i just have no personal exp with them. If you like new you can get a new Kia or hundai tiny 4wd suv they get mid twenties on fuel and a brand new base model can be had for under 20 and a used one one a couple years old for half that. These korean vehicles are far better than what they made a decade ago. I would have never considered one but i like the new kia suv and it can be had new for real cheap. They are reliable 200K vehiles now.

 

[bosshoss]

Instead of selling truck and getting something older and less reliable(yet still HAS to get him to work and back). Sell tractor and get an older tractor. Take equity and pay on truck to reduce payments. When truck is paid off you can look into replacing old tractor with a newer one.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree on the farm animals. I hear guys say that there is no way they could make it on cows with out another job. I just find it hard to beleive the OP has a breakeven poin on his "small " heritage herd. The only thing i can see is that he is studding them out or selling them to others as pasture ornaments. I.

i'm sure not makin anything on mine.. it's a literal cash hole.....

hard to do sucessful small scale farming anymore...

soundguy

 

[clemsonfor]

Instead of selling truck and getting something older and less reliable(yet still HAS to get him to work and back). Sell tractor and get an older tractor. Take equity and pay on truck to reduce payments. When truck is paid off you can look into replacing old tractor with a newer one.

Many of you may think if a vehicle has 100k and is 7 years old it must be unreliable or worn out? Look in my sig line. I will drive any one of those vehicles the 50 mile round trip to work 5 days a week all year if had to. The reason i dont drive the k10 is the gas at 10mpg is a killer. I use to drive the ranger till the saturn became extra at 34mpg i drive it to save, thats my point here i use 40% less gas by driving the saturn over the ranger, still gets me to work have not missed or been late one day due to the saturn in over a year.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

I do not think this would work for him living where he does. 4 wheel drive is a must, especially if he has to go to work each and every day.

Chris

Ontario does plow the roads and there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road in ON - including Northern Ontario,without 4WD - probably including the Van he has now.

 

[Soundguy]

Many of you may think if a vehicle has 100k and is 7 years old it must be unreliable or worn out? Look in my sig line. I will drive any one of those vehicles the 50 mile round trip to work 5 days a week all year if had to. The reason i dont drive the k10 is the gas at 10mpg is a killer. I use to drive the ranger till the saturn became extra at 34mpg i drive it to save, thats my point here i use 40% less gas by driving the saturn over the ranger, still gets me to work have not missed or been late one day due to the saturn in over a year.

i agree.. I have an old dodge gasser.. a lil worn and less powerfull when new.. way more than 100k and 13ys old.. but heck.. I have no qualms driving it in a 2 hr radius from my place... it's let me down exactly once since i got it.. and that was a fuel pump... my newer better condition lighter used yukon has averaged at least one major meltdown per year of ownership.. that one I'd even drive extended miles... some people just don't feel comfortable if they aren't still making payments..

soundguy

 

[Travelover]

I didn't read every post and take this for what it is worth, but I think one really has do do better than break even month to month. I feel that you really need to have a good sized emergency fund ( 6 months expenses) in case of a job loss or a major expense that otherwise throws you into high interest debt. I also feel strongly that one needs to save aggressively for retirement. I'm not sure how much your social security pays in Canada, but in the US it is just enough to get by on - if you have your house paid off.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[bosshoss]

Many of you may think if a vehicle has 100k and is 7 years old it must be unreliable or worn out?

Well I never said that. Do you think that any of your vehicles are going to be more reliable than op 2009? which has a warranty for a few more years so no repair costs. By the way I have 2 2002's in my household 108000 and 137000 miles and I don't consider them worn out or unreliable but they are nowhere near as good as any 2009 with way less miles.

 

[mjncad]

I you want to get out from under that $800 / month truck payment, but still must have a newer truck (instead of a trailer to pull with your van) check out something like this on a 2011 Sierra / reg cab / 2wd.

My first pickup was a 2WD S-10...never again on having a 2WD pickup in any place that gets snow, and Canada gets more snow than Denver does. My current pickup is 4WD. It was 70-degrees today :thumbsup:, and snow is forecast for tomorrow night :thumbdown:.

My mechanic had horses and when he sat down and put it on paper the bags of feed each week, bedding, round bales in the winter, ect all added up to more than he ever though.

Sit down and figure up what is really being spent. Cell phones, internet, Ipad service, cable TV, sat radio, ect all add up also.

Chris

As a friend named Chris that I used to work with summed it up on horses and technology.

"A horse is a four legged hole you throw money into."

"I'm now paying more for 1's & 0's than I am all my other utilities combined."

Ontario does plow the roads and there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road in ON - including Northern Ontario,without 4WD - probably including the Van he has now.

Colorado plows its roads too, and I still wouldn't own a 2WD pickup here again.

I'd still like to know why the OP has such a ridiculously high truck payment.

 

[clemsonfor]

Well I never said that. Do you think that any of your vehicles are going to be more reliable than op 2009? which has a warranty for a few more years so no repair costs. By the way I have 2 2002's in my household 108000 and 137000 miles and I don't consider them worn out or unreliable but they are nowhere near as good as any 2009 with way less miles.

I have never owned anything that new but our newest vehicle the toyota with 105K ish. I would get in to day after i change the oil and drive to california no problems its a 2002 model year. I agree i may have breakdowns in my trucks more often that need to be repaired. But if you read up to soundguy's post he points out that he has a new tahoe that ends up with a breakdown once a year and it was under warrenty. A warrenty does not stop a breakdown it just means you wont pay for the repair. This guy is only driving like 65 miles roundtrip to work, not to texas and back hauling cows. I drove my ranger this summer on a 3 hour one way trip to pic up a field cultivator off CL then the 1 hour to my farm to check trail cams and some other stuff then the 3 hours back to the house. I am not worried about it. I would not drive the ranger to virginia but i would easily drive the Toy that far and it is in that 9 year old unreliable stage.

As for a newer vehicle being reliable there not. Granted its a fleet vehicle and used hard and put away wet from following logging roads and dirt roads in the timber industry my 2007 dodge dakota has given me more downtime here at work that my 1996 saturn or ranger has conbined in 3 years. The list

1.Tune up and check the engine code (apparently Dodge thought that in model year 2007 they would use non platnum plugs, they caused a skip along with a bad sensor??) This cost me a couple days, not under warrenty and cost $259 i pulled my file
2. After having the file to refresh my memory the bad plugs and light were not the reason i took it in. The reason was the power steering pump went out!!! This was under warrenty at 34876 miles!!!
3. Then the gas tank got a hole in it. Yes this was my fault, and due to the work conditions, the truck sits low and the belly drags the middle where the trucks rut the sand roads and a branch stabbed the tank. I will spare you the cost and time loss casue its irrelevent to the reliability of a new vehicle as it was my fault.
4. Broken winshield from rock chips and hot. Again not a product of age.
5. And the last thing was complete failure of front brake pads grinding the rotor and loss of material on the passenger front so loss of brake ability was noticed. Heard it on wendsday at the office but could not take it till friday, was way to gone on the rotor to turn them. Mileage 54672, out of warrenty. Cost of new rotors pads and a new serpentine belt (the other developed a split running the entire length of the belt on the outside and was close to separation) $337.11.
6. I wount include the random stuttering , not shifting out of 2nd gear upon starts every 6 months or so. It will start in 2nd and never leave it till you cut it off.
7. The stupid engine light being on for almost 2 years for a **** gas cap light, which now has fixed itself in the last 3 months??
8. And the vibration i felt last week at idle like the fan clutch was about to blow apart (its loose but just waiting on it to fail)

Lets look at my ranger, since its my high mileage vehicle at 280K miles. Granted its not a daily driver in the last year so i will go back 2 years on it.

1. Most recently i had a leaky wheel cyl and a front caliper lock up. I did the work and due to the holiday and a home remodel project and hunting season it took me a couple weeks as i had time (no problem cause i have another daily driver). I had a part that i had to diagnose but i really only had about 10 hours into it straight and less than $100 in parts, which included new brake shoes, new wheel cyls, new caliper and new pads and complete new brake fluid flush.
2.Battery has been weak for last 2 winters and i dont think it will make it through this one. Battery is like 7-10 years old!! So i will include $75 for a new battery.
3. Ahh how could i forget the exhaust manifold, cracked in like 4 places and had a hole the size of a dine in it. I replaced it over several days after work, agian cause i have a spare, time total would have been one saturday to replace. Cost $70 shipped to the house, new.
4. An AC pressure switch leaked out the freon and a bad Low pressure adapter cost about $20 plus my time and freon to fill say 2hours.
5. a Bunch of AC work to put my ac back working, which was a new evaporator and accumulator. Cost $125, again my time and freon.

I think that honestly covers what i have into the ranger in the last 2 years.

Im just proving my point that a warrenty does not make a vehicle more reliable.

 

[crashz]

In my eyes, the $1500/month has to be cut back. Even two decent used vehicles will cost less. Like was said before, a small commuter car to get to work, and a older used truck would probably be the least expensive without losing capability. Learn to wrench a bit on the truck and your costs go down further.

Your costs need to be examined as well. Seems high for what you have and do. The payment seems way off base, even if you financed the whole truck price. Could you re-finance at a lower interst rate? Don't extend your term though.

Fuel cost seems high as well. A 65 mile round trip each week is 325 miles. 325 miles / 16 mpg = 20.3 gallons of gas each week, or 81.3 gallons per month. Assumming $5 per gallon (not sure what the cost is in Ontario), thats $406 per month. Thats for commuting costs only. Do you travel a lot on the weekends? BTW - if you could work from home one day a week that would save you $81 per month. Little changes can make a big difference.

Maybe talk to a money professional or accountant about other things you could do to save money. Gotta be something you can do, that could reduce your overall costs.

Best of luck. I know this can't be an easy decision, as I remember the threads about buying this truck a year ago.

 

[Soundguy]

Well I never said that. Do you think that any of your vehicles are going to be more reliable than op 2009? which has a warranty for a few more years so no repair costs. By the way I have 2 2002's in my household 108000 and 137000 miles and I don't consider them worn out or unreliable but they are nowhere near as good as any 2009 with way less miles.

i can say without a doubt my 99 f450 is going to be more reliable than my moms 07 caddy SRX...

My 98 dodge ram has also been yay more reliable. it's broke down once due to a fuel pump. I've lost count how many times that pos srx has been towed and in the dealer shop... warranty is about to run out so I forsee it living in a junk yard soon... too expensive to fix otherwise. every time it comes from the dealer they show us warranty bills for like 4000$ !!!!!!!

new does not equal quality. period. to think otherwise is fooling yourself.

quality = quality.. and you hope you get new and quality at the same time when you buy something new...



soundguy

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

The payment seems way off base, even if you financed the whole truck price. Could you re-finance at a lower interest rate? Don't extend your term though.

I don't recall the OP saying what type of 09 Ford he has, however, in Ontario a decent 4x4 with a few bells and whistles will be in the range $40 - $55K MSRP. Get you dealer discount, then add Freight, and 13% taxes and (for easy illustrations) you have a $48K loan over 60 months (even at 0%) = $800/month. Incentives here have often been large discount for cash OR low rate financing with much smaller discount - not both.

 

[RayCo]

Well I never said that. Do you think that any of your vehicles are going to be more reliable than op 2009? which has a warranty for a few more years so no repair costs. By the way I have 2 2002's in my household 108000 and 137000 miles and I don't consider them worn out or unreliable but they are nowhere near as good as any 2009 with way less miles.

Personally, I'd rather have a less-than-perfect vehicle that's paid off. But, to each his own. I'm glad that there are people out there who buy new vehicles, because without them, I wouldn't have any used ones to buy.

 

[crashz]

CS - thanks. Didn't know that there was such a huge difference in pricing. Seems strange to me since Canadian dollars are so much closer to the US dollar now.

 

[bosshoss]

As for a newer vehicle being reliable there not. Granted its a fleet vehicle and used hard and put away wet from following logging roads and dirt roads in the timber industry my 2007 dodge dakota has given me more downtime here at work that my 1996 saturn or ranger has conbined in 3 years. The list

1.Tune up and check the engine code (apparently Dodge thought that in model year 2007 they would use non platnum plugs, they caused a skip along with a bad sensor??) This cost me a couple days, not under warrenty and cost $259 i pulled my file

Spark plugs are a maintance item and do need replaced occasionally. Tune ups and spark plugs are never covered under warrenty

2. After having the file to refresh my memory the bad plugs and light were not the reason i took it in. The reason was the power steering pump went out!!! This was under warrenty at 34876 miles!!!

Repaired under warrenty why is this a problem?

3. Then the gas tank got a hole in it. Yes this was my fault, and due to the work conditions, the truck sits low and the belly drags the middle where the trucks rut the sand roads and a branch stabbed the tank. I will spare you the cost and time loss casue its irrelevent to the reliability of a new vehicle as it was my fault.

As you said this wasn't trucks fault

4. Broken winshield from rock chips and hot. Again not a product of age.

Again not trucks fault

5. And the last thing was complete failure of front brake pads grinding the rotor and loss of material on the passenger front so loss of brake ability was noticed. Heard it on wendsday at the office but could not take it till friday, was way to gone on the rotor to turn them. Mileage 54672, out of warrenty. Cost of new rotors pads and a new serpentine belt (the other developed a split running the entire length of the belt on the outside and was close to separation) $337.11.

Again this wasn't trucks fault front brake pads are a wear item. Is this truck on any kind of maintance schedule? Doesn't sound like it. How often does owners manual say belt should be replaced?

6. I wount include the random stuttering , not shifting out of 2nd gear upon starts every 6 months or so. It will start in 2nd and never leave it till you cut it off.

Don't know about this one, my guess from trucks history trans has probaly not been serviced. Has it?

7. The stupid engine light being on for almost 2 years for a **** gas cap light, which now has fixed itself in the last 3 months??

I don't even know where to start with this. I can't believe someone would drive a truck with the check engine light on for two years because of a LIGHT BULB? WOW just WOW.

8. And the vibration i felt last week at idle like the fan clutch was about to blow apart (its loose but just waiting on it to fail)

This one explains everything. Waiting on something to fail is not maintance. How can you blame the truck for the failure of its owner or driver not addressing it's problems until they blow up?

Lets look at my ranger, since its my high mileage vehicle at 280K miles. Granted its not a daily driver in the last year so i will go back 2 years on it.

1. Most recently i had a leaky wheel cyl and a front caliper lock up. I did the work and due to the holiday and a home remodel project and hunting season it took me a couple weeks as i had time (no problem cause i have another daily driver). I had a part that i had to diagnose but i really only had about 10 hours into it straight and less than $100 in parts, which included new brake shoes, new wheel cyls, new caliper and new pads and complete new brake fluid flush.
2.Battery has been weak for last 2 winters and i dont think it will make it through this one. Battery is like 7-10 years old!! So i will include $75 for a new battery.
3. Ahh how could i forget the exhaust manifold, cracked in like 4 places and had a hole the size of a dine in it. I replaced it over several days after work, agian cause i have a spare, time total would have been one saturday to replace. Cost $70 shipped to the house, new.
4. An AC pressure switch leaked out the freon and a bad Low pressure adapter cost about $20 plus my time and freon to fill say 2hours.
5. a Bunch of AC work to put my ac back working, which was a new evaporator and accumulator. Cost $125, again my time and freon.

I think that honestly covers what i have into the ranger in the last 2 years.

Im just proving my point that a warrenty does not make a vehicle more reliable.

The Dodge sounds like it leads a rough life. Your ranger is doing good for the miles. You fixing most of the stuff yourself helps keep the cost down but you can;t compare with the dodge that is repaired at the shop of course it is going to cost more taking it somewhere to have it fixed.
I agree the warrenty does not make a vehicle more reliable. You just don't have to fix it yourself or pay for the repairs.
New cars and trucks can have issues as well as older ones.

 

[beppington]

I had a 6-cylinder Dodge Caravan minivan for 8 years. It had no problem hauling 6 people & my 21' fiberglass bow rider boat to the river. With just me in it (& not towing), it got about 18 mpg in town & 24 on the highway.

I sometimes wonder if I really need my Nissan Titan, but so far my income still exceeds my outgo (knock on wood). So, I'll hang on to it for now; It's nice to be able to throw anything/ everything in the bed, dirty or not.

 

[slowzuki]

I knew we couldn't afford to drive a truck, so for 5 years we used a 5x8 utility trailer with a suzuki sidekick then toyota matrix to bring most of the materials for our house, deliver about 1000 square bales a year, haul ATV's, bring home farm equipment (my 18 ft tedder came home on it, as did my suzuki samurai).

This year I found myself needing to move bigger stuff so I bought an older 1 ton truck for 1200$. I've put about 500 km on it, too much for gas to use it all the time. We commute in our car (50,000 km/yr).

I won't eat the depreciation, and the insurance is just liability since its not worth much.

I hate making car payments almost as far as its depreciating.

 

[clemsonfor]

The Dodge sounds like it leads a rough life. Your ranger is doing good for the miles. You fixing most of the stuff yourself helps keep the cost down but you cant compare with the dodge that is repaired at the shop of course it is going to cost more taking it somewhere to have it fixed.
I agree the warrenty does not make a vehicle more reliable. You just don't have to fix it yourself or pay for the repairs.
New cars and trucks can have issues as well as older ones.

The check engile light on for 2 years was due to the gas cap. Thats what the dash said everytime i cranked it up. I figured it meaned that it was not sealing, no matter how many times i got gas or tightened it down it still came on.

As for the Brakes agreed maintence not a fault, i do a lot of 4wd drive in deep sand maybe the extra grit shortened life. As for the belt i had the same belt on my ranger for 90K and no cracks other than the tiny ones you see on them after a short couple years. I agree the dodge prolly was due on schedule for a new belt, but my point was the cheap quality of an OE belt here. My carquest Gates belt was on for 6 years and i just replaced it cause it was old same reason i had the dodges belt replaced.

As for a maintence schedule this truck has 55K miles on it. Its a government truck and they do ZERO maintence other than oil lube changes every 7500 miles. This is what i was trying to prove to others about those low mileage trucks look so good at auction and what a deal they got. I get a new air filter every oil change, not cause they sell it to me to stiff me but cause im standing there when they pull it out and no matter how they beat it and blow it out it still has dirt and dust falling out of it. This is from the dirt roads and following logging trucks in and out of multi-mile dirt roads. Sometimes in the winter i can get away with not getting a new filter at a winter change as its usually wet so there is less dust. So anyway back to transmission service, they do not do them, we get rid of the trucks at 65K so the way they look at it is its gone before trouble should hit and we put little money into maintence.

On the fan clutch there is mud in there and it may have been mud that caused the fan to be out of balance. I get a lot of mud the same way the gas tank got a hole in it the middle drags and splashes the soup the trucks create into the radiator and motor. But there is no problem yet, but if i took it in all they would do is replace it so waiting for it to totally wear out will not do any more harm unless it sends it into the radiator causeing a puncture.

Yes the Dodge sees Severe Duty on the job in an off road environment. Where the ranger is mainly a road driver and get firewood a couple times a year and takes me hunting off road every so often.

I guess it was not a good comparison of a work vehicle in sever duty case with lots of offroad travel to an onroad truck. If a honda frontwheel car does as good as my ranger does on the road a 12 year old one would be perfectally reliable.