Getting burnt out on old vans

[akrvbob]

Vic, I agree with you, buy a vehicle for it's reputation and for the most part you should be trouble-free up to 200,000 miles. Usually after that they start to nickle and dime you. At least that's been my experience.
I've come to think of a used vehicle from 100,000 to 190,000 miles as the sweet spot of balance between cost of buying and putting money into it for the non-mechanic.

If you're a mechanic and do your own work, that is less true, but for us non-mechanics i think it's generally true.
Bob

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

i see the merit in older vehicles, but with caveats that i think arent for me. on that note im not sure what to get...im considering something 4x4 and travel trailer (ive found them here as low as 2700).

 

[highdesertranger]

I am not trying to talk you into an older vehicle, although it might have sounded like that. it's a personal choice, go with what you are comfortable with. so what type of 4x4 are you looking at? highdesertranger

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Cheapest one

Actually a pickup or maybe an SUV if its capable of towing.. The SUV would be nice because i could bunk down in there until i got the trailer handled. I still have my current van, but id rather not have to juggle insurance and taxes on 2 vehicles. I have seen some suv with towing packages. My sister's durango for instance has one and can pull anything (of course it has some ridiculously huge motor too).

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

New pick ups are ridiculously expensive, and so are newer used ones. Unless you have access to Bill Gates petty cash fund, don't be surprised if you wind up with an older truck.

Regards
John

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Yeah ive noticed. a 3 year old truck is 28k. A new truck is almost 40k. My family bought their 6 acre property and trailer for less than a new truck...nuts. I think ill have to shoot for 5-10 years or younger, that seems to be where you see a price drop off.

I was thinking something like this might work...it has a max towing capacity of 6300 lbs.
http://www.northsidewv.net/VehicleDetails/used-2007-GMC-Envoy-4WD_4dr_SLE-Summersville-WV/2385365143

 

[idn88]

Full size vans are especially difficult to purchase used, since most are used for business, people generally don't replace them until they have a bunch of problems or pending problems. So your purchasing someone elses worn out problem. There is also a huge difference between buying a vehicle for $2000.00, vs maybe something a few years old for half of new.

Having said that, SUV's used can often be very good deals, since most of them were simply used as a commuting or family vehicle, and someone will part with a perfectly good SUV just so they can buy something newer / trendier / shinier.

Like all things, you need to find a happy middle place.

 

[Almost There]

Full size vans are especially difficult to purchase used, since most are used for business, people generally don't replace them until they have a bunch of problems or pending problems. So your purchasing someone elses worn out problem. There is also a huge difference between buying a vehicle for $2000.00, vs maybe something a few years old for half of new.

This!!

BTW I think you meant $20,000. not $2,000.

This is precisely why it took me 6 months of serious looking plus the time I spent before that half baked looking before I finally found the van I bought.

Everything that wasn't driven to death was way over the price tag I had in mind (and I was kind of flexible with that) especially since I already knew that I was going to have to put several more thousand in to it to bring it up to MY standards of livable for full-timing.

My other choice was a conversion van but I've never seen an interior I liked so all the extra bucks that anyone wanted for one was going to be wasted dollars since I'd be ripping it out anyways.

I realize that I got lucky - what I ended up with was a one owner little old man (okay maybe a not so little old man, who knows..) who used it to haul his airstream to Florida and back. He'd already outfitted it with a hightop I wanted, that alone saved me several thousand. It has the towing package already done including a Tekonsha electric brake, saved me more $$. The improvements alone are just about equal to the purchase price if I had to start over.

The deals can be found but you have to be incredibly patient or downright lucky!

 

[66788]

I bought a 1993 Ford Aerostar to use in business 5 years ago. Found it on Craigslist for $300.00 because the timing chain had stretched and jumped a cog. Put in a new timing chain at 202K miles and it now has 320K and is still running strong. I haven't had to add refrigerant to the AC either, still blows cold.

High mileage does not scare me. It all depends on how the vehicle was maintained and the karma you feel when sitting behind the wheel on a test drive.

 

[TucsonAZ]

I just buy old ****, I bought my 1995 Corolla Wagon with 144k for $780 from a guy but it was totaled out, just needed a new front clip. Anyway, bought a parts car for $400 got everything I needed and sold $350 in parts off of it when I was done (still have the rest of the body in my yard). So, I'm $830 into the Corolla Wagon and I've had it for a year and 5k miles with no issues, good AC, runs great, two tone and not in a good way but otherwise it serves me well and the 35mpg highway doesn't hurt at all.

Also have a 1991 F-250 with the 4.9L inline six, 117,000 miles, paid $1,200 for it and sold the camper shell for $300 but added a 5th wheel hitch, did a tune up, spent about $400 after the hitch, rails, brake controller and so on. Anyway, it runs great and I trust it to take me anyplace I want it to go.

When I find a great deal I normally jump on it but I can see getting tired of dealing with little issues. I like working on them and want something simple, I feel helpless with something newer that I can't troubleshoot and fix myself hence me sticking with the mid 90s.

 

[Duck]

I think it's all a balance.
Doesn't matter how carefully/often someone changes the oil, 300k is still 10x more than 30k on the clock.
I don't want mileage too low(means it sat a lot, which causes issues).
or too high(means more is worn).
I like mileage in line with age. I used to be an older I can replace anything vehicle guy, until I realized that I was replacing everything regularly, and the time and money involved didn't make sense.
Manufacturers are required to produce enough spares to have spare parts available for a certain time frame, I think it's about 10 years after manufacture.
So for me the ideal vehicle is something about 7-15 years old, unless it's something made over a longer period(like the ford 7.3l diesel) which makes for better parts availability.
96 and newer means it will have OBD-II which is the easier to plug into computer, you can get a small bluetooth dongle that will connect to your phone to read codes for under 30$, and any mechanic should have a code reader for that.
The mid-80s to early 90s seemed to be a transition period of sorts, with a lot of strange proprietary things going on, always had bad luck with them.
I don't want something brand new either, parts are harder to find, more expensive and not every mechanic will know how to work on them.
So I almost always look from 1996-2005.

In the end I bought an ambulance with 200k miles, paid 3100$ which is what I'd spend in parts in a year for my old cheap to buy jeeps or volkswagen, ford e350 with a 7.3L diesel in it and aluminum box on the back, I shopped carefully and got one that was used by the ambulance service as a service vehicle for the last half of it's life. 500$ for new brake pads all around and new calipers up front, oil changes every 5000 miles, and it's doing great. Gutted the interior(eliminating 1500lbs of crap and rotten plywood).


The best thing I've found is to shop where a vehicle is out of place. A camper in the big city, a work van in a vacation spot etc. They seem to be better deals than around where the vehicle makes sense, fewer buyers means better pricing.

 

[offroad]

All good advice as I consider shopping for a replacement vehicle.