Grant's Van Quest

[GrantRobertson]

2005 Chevy Express 3500 Extended, 6.0L V8 Gas - $3500

As I was driving home from looking at that last shuttle bus, I saw an extended length Chevy van sitting out in front of a business. It didn't have a sign on it but there were several vehicles there, parked as if they were for sale. So, I stopped in and asked. Turns out they have two vans, the Chevy and a Ford E350 Superduty V10, but he only wants to keep one of them.

He says he bought the Chevy from his distributer so almost all of the 200k miles are highway miles. He says both the original owner and himself took meticulous care of it with regular oil changes and such. It starts and runs good. Everything looked in really good shape. No rust anywhere and no dents or dings. However, the paint is pealing across the front edge of the hood (about 8" worth) and all along above the gutter (about 1.5"). The primer is still in good shape. It just looks like a classic case of a bad factory paint job. 

I looked up the NADA value and it says $3,375-rough or $4,475-base. Fuelly says that this model averages 13-14 MPG. 

So, this thing is about at the top end of what I can afford right now. But it does look to be a good vehicle, fairly priced. What do you think?

Do you think I should offer him $3,000 for it?

 

[29chico]

2005 Chevy Express 3500 Extended, 6.0L V8 Gas - $3500

As I was driving home from looking at that last shuttle bus, I saw an extended length Chevy van sitting out in front of a business. It didn't have a sign on it but there were several vehicles there, parked as if they were for sale. So, I stopped in and asked. Turns out they have two vans, the Chevy and a Ford E350 Superduty V10, but he only wants to keep one of them.

He says he bought the Chevy from his distributer so almost all of the 200k miles are highway miles. He says both the original owner and himself took meticulous care of it with regular oil changes and such. It starts and runs good. Everything looked in really good shape. No rust anywhere and no dents or dings. However, the paint is pealing across the front edge of the hood (about 8" worth) and all along above the gutter (about 1.5"). The primer is still in good shape. It just looks like a classic case of a bad factory paint job. 

I looked up the NADA value and it says $3,375-rough or $4,475-base. Fuelly says that this model averages 13-14 MPG. 

So, this thing is about at the top end of what I can afford right now. But it does look to be a good vehicle, fairly priced. What do you think?

Do you think I should offer him $3,000 for it?

The 6.0 is a great motor, durable with lots of power.  It is rather fuelish compared to the 5.3 & 4.8 gm motors that are equally durable and offer superior mileage.  The issue is that you really don't need that kind of power unless hauling heavy loads and/or towing something heavy and will pay the penalty of lower than possible fuel economy the whole time that you drive it.  If that van is in good shape I do believe that you could get 14mpg on the highway by using the more sensible hyper-mileage driving techniques.  The two smaller motors listed above would probably return 2-3 mpg better overall.

If the engine has been well cared for it will probably run for a while.  The transmission is a GM 4L80E and that is a very solid unit.  However, with the high mileage, it is the most likely expensive part to fail.  The suspension and brakes may need to be gone thru soon as well.

If you feel strongly that you would like to roll the dice on the van in question please consider having it inspected by a qualified tech.

 

[GrantRobertson]

The 6.0 is a great motor, durable with lots of power.  It is rather fuelish compared to the 5.3 & 4.8 gm motors that are equally durable and offer superior mileage.  The issue is that you really don't need that kind of power unless hauling heavy loads and/or towing something heavy and will pay the penalty of lower than possible fuel economy the whole time that you drive it.  If that van is in good shape I do believe that you could get 14mpg on the highway by using the more sensible hyper-mileage driving techniques.  The two smaller motors listed above would probably return 2-3 mpg better overall.

If the engine has been well cared for it will probably run for a while.  The transmission is a GM 4L80E and that is a very solid unit.  However, with the high mileage, it is the most likely expensive part to fail.  The suspension and brakes may need to be gone thru soon as well.

If you feel strongly that you would like to roll the dice on the van in question please consider having it inspected by a qualified tech.

Well, my current car is a 2001 GM (Pontiac Bonneville) with 187k miles (very hard driving down Texas country/dirt roads) and then the maintenance was basically ignored by my son, who I bought it from. So, I figure I would be due for some expensive repairs for my current car far sooner than just about any other used car I could buy. 

I have calculated that, at my current commuting rate of 585 miles/month, switching from my current vehicle with 19mpg to a van with 14mpg will only cost me about $22 per month. However, once I get my van built out a bit, then it will be comfortable enough for me to stay in and stay closer to where I work or where I like to go for exercise here in Austin. So that would actually reduce the number of miles I have to drive, thus actually reducing my overall fuel costs. I currently live pretty far outside of Austin so I find myself driving back and forth from the house to town several times per weekend. That would be drastically reduced as well. 

Yes, I plan to take this one to a mechanic to be inspected.

 

[GrantRobertson]

We will be taking the van to a mechanic on Tuesday. 

Oh, I hadn't mentioned that this van has a heavy-duty towing package already installed. They don't know the capacity off-hand, but they have towed huge pontoon boats with no problem. 

This also likely means the differential is geared for towing heavy loads. As I won't be towing really heavy loads, I may eventually get the differential changed out.

 

[29chico]

i see your point about the Pontiac.  Making it go away while it is still running is a good idea.

Hoping that the van comes thru the inspection with flying colors.

 

[Patrick46]

Now THIS van sounds like it's right where you wanna be!

btw...I was down in Austin this past spring, and the driving there between the downtown area and out to the airport was RIDICULOUS!!!!!
I could NEVER live in a traffic zone like that!!

So, one you get the van, you won't have to drive in that nonsense as much!!! (WIN!!)

Good luck with the inspection! Hope it goes well.

btw...tell him you're in a tight spot, and would like to see if he'd consider taking $2650.00 for it. (the worst thing he'll say is No...but it never hurts to ask!)

 

[GrantRobertson]

Now THIS van sounds like it's right where you wanna be!

btw...I was down in Austin this past spring, and the driving there between the downtown area and out to the airport was RIDICULOUS!!!!!
I could NEVER live in a traffic zone like that!!

So, one you get the van, you won't have to drive in that nonsense as much!!! (WIN!!)

Good luck with the inspection! Hope it goes well.

btw...tell him you're in a tight spot, and would like to see if he'd consider taking $2650.00 for it. (the worst thing he'll say is No...but it never hurts to ask!)

Yeah, I would still rather have a shuttle for the available space and headroom, but finding a decent one at a reasonable price in this area seems to be pretty difficult. No, I still haven't looked into auctions and such. I figure I would have to go outside of Texas to find something.

Austin's traffic is pretty bad. Due to the racist and elitist history of this town, they try to fit the whole town in this hourglass shape between two north-south highways, I-35 on the east and MoPac on the west. Anything west of MoPac is priced out of the range of most people. Anything east of I-35 is considered "bad neighborhood" until you get about 8 miles out of town. And you can really tell where you are in town just by the quality of the roads. They spend less than half as much on roads on the east side of town as they do on the west. It is kind of disgusting. So the town is pretty tall and skinny. People who live in the central part seem to just ignore what is going on on either side of those highways. Everywhere you look in the central area, there is a new mega-apartment building going up for the hipsters. Yeah, Austin is only liberal compared to the rest of Texas. And that ain't saying much.

Yes, I will try bargaining the owner down. Though I actually think he is asking a pretty fair price.

 

[GrantRobertson]

I decided not to get that van after all, though it was in great shape and at a fair price. I have decided to just hunker down and wait things out. It is truly impossible to figure out how long either my job or my housing situation will last, so I am naturally pretty antsy. But I can't let that direct my decisions. As the song says, "The waiting is the hardest part."

In the end, I may just go for a cheap, small RV as my first vehicle. Rather than think of it as a long-term home, I will see it as merely a collection of components that happen to come with a truck to easily haul them around. The RV only needs to be marginally liveable to be better than where I am living now. I will also be able to get RV insurance straight away, without going through the conversion rigamorole for title and insurance.

Once I am actually out on the road, instead of being tied to a job and a town, I can open up my search for a shuttle bus and be able to travel to where it is to look at it. Then, when I find a shuttle, I can strip what I need out of the RV (sinks tubs, tanks, & stuff), selling the rest for scrap.

I'm going to copy some of this over to my shuttle thread, just for completeness sake.

 

[ZoNiE]

Which parts do you think are unreasonable?

Hi Grant, Small, Diesel, over 10MPG. That pretty much eliminates everything except the Transit and the Promaster, and the PM is a Dodge, and I'm with you, No Dodges (No Capes! LOL). The GM vans with Duramax Diesel get 14+mpg, but they are spendy and hard to find not clapped out and used up by contractors.

I've seen by some of your later posts that a gasser is ok, and even a Big Block.

Your best bet is an E250/350 with a 4.6/5.4 or a GM Van with a 4.8/5.3. The GM's Pushrod motors are good for low end grunt and simplicity, the Fords OHC are better for top end and smooth power delivery. I tow a 3 ton travel trailer with a 4.6 in an Sport Trac, and it ain't bad. They'll all get you around 12-14MPG the way I drive, you may do better. I'm a leadfoot.

The premium for a Diesel will not pay off in the long term, as you determined in your other thread. $5-10K takes a long time to run through the carburetor on a gasser, and then Gassers are easy to fix, especially the GM motors.

Take very close look at that aborted hot dog shuttle project. Pay attention to the body to cab area for rot, peel away the trim where you can and look under. The body being fiberglass is probably just fine, but the cab / frame needs attention. Upfitters don't build for longevity because shuttle busses wear out in only a few years, and operators know this and buy accordingly. They are the most hacked together vehicles on the planet. Spots where they drilled through the frame will be the problem areas. A short school bus would be a better vehicle, and you could find one with an oil burner pretty easily, I would think. Tons of them in Las vegas and LA.

If you want that much space, you'd be better finding a Class B RV or even an older Toyota pickup based motorhome. I have a friend who bought one for about 7K and she gets 15MPG with the thing. It's 20ft and has everything a regular motorhome has. It's a V6, so it's probably a dog, but you are not gonna be commuting with it.