Seeking Second Opinion on First Van

[becida]

Unless you have a time limit where you have to be living in your van soon, I'd start putting money in a savings account.

First, because you're getting a loan, the bank will require that you carry full coverage. If you're a single male, and on the young side, that's going to be terribly expensive. When shopping for the van, call your insurance agent and get a quote for the down payment, and the monthly payments. Ask them to quote it with $500 deductible. Some banks won't let you go higher than that.

Ask the bank what your monthly payment will be on the van you're looking at.

Take that monthly cost for both, and put it all in a savings account. Earn interest instead of paying it.

Go ahead a sell everything you own that you won't need in your van. Use Ebay, Amazon, Craigslist, or even a yard sale. Put every penny of that in savings too.

Start living extra frugally. Don't buy gum, or pop, or bottled water. Don't eat out.

Put every extra penny you have into savings.

In no time at all, maybe a year or so, you should have enough to buy outright a good van.

This is just my opinion though. I've only ever gotten a loan on one vehicle in my life, and it soooooo wasn't worth it.

That's great advice, you ought to listen. With taxes and all I need to earn almost $1.30 to put a dollar in my pocket. 
If time is not an issue save up, avoid the banks and if you have to go to a dealer for a $2k van they want $7k for take cash. It's hard to turn down a fair offer that's right in front of you.

 

[Ridunnekulous]

Like I said, I appreciate the financial concern, but I already have everything squared away in that regard. It might sound crazy, but due to my current finances, getting a loan on a van will save me money (even in the long run).

I think I'm going to go with that surveillance van.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I've owned a number of ex-police cars as daily drivers, and I'm currently driving an ex department of corrections jeep Cherokee.  I've had uniformly good luck with all of them.

That said, on a surveillance van, I would have to wonder if the engine was left idling all day to keep the air conditioning on during stake outs?  If so, that engine will have a LOT more hours on it than the odometer indicates.

Just a thought.  good luck.

Regards
John

 

[DannyB1954]

1/2 ton vans are limited to the amount of cargo you carry. If you are a minimalist camper they are fine. if you like lots of spare water, (8lb per gallon), generators, solar panels and batteries, cabinets, food, clothing, camping gear, microwave, refrigerator, it all adds up. The brakes are designed to stop a half ton of cargo. A 1,000 lb seems like a lot. If you weigh 200, make that 800. Start subtracting what you plan to carry.

 

[Mattkcc]

I passed on that same van, while it has only 14,000 miles it has tons of idling hours. I checked with a buddy of mine who supervised a drug unit, they shared a surveillance van with the swat team. I asked him if the doors in the floor were for a generator and he said yes their van was set up the same way. However, they rarely used the generator because it wasn't stealthy and the van idled for the whole time of the stake-out. The generator was mainly used for crime scenes. The guy went down to $3500 for the van they paid $2900 at the auction. If you wait a while you could probably get it for the auction price. A mechanic buddy of mine mentioned idling for prolong periods is hard on the main bearing and if I decided to get it be sure to check the oil pressure. Someone mentioned they had good luck with used police vehicle which surprised me it's hard to keep new ones running. The Ford Crown Vicks were the best but breakdowns were frequent.. City driving and long hours idling take there toll, in the winter I rarely turned my vehicle off so it wouldn't freeze. If you get an emergence call you don't want to try starting a frozen vehicle, wait for it to warm-up and scrape the windows.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Someone mentioned they had good luck with used police vehicle which surprised me it's hard to keep new ones running. The Ford Crown Vicks were the best but breakdowns were frequent..

That was me.  Over the course of the last decade or so, I bought a 99 Chevy Lumina and two 2001 Chevy Luminas from the Dutchess County surplus auctions.  One came from the City of Poughkeepsie Police department and two came from the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office.  All three were unmarked cars and were apparently assigned to detectives.  I paid about $2k for each, they all had around 80 to 90 thousand miles on them, and I usually got them to about 150 thousand miles before I scrapped them.  They all went 3 to 4 years as daily drivers to or from work, and none of them needed major work until I hit that 150k mark.

The marked police cars usually sold for much more than that to people who owned taxi fleets.  Something to keep in mind next time you hail a cab . . .

Regards
John

PS:  Last time, I went to the New York State Surplus Vehicle auction and got an ex-DOCS 99 Jeep Cherokee for $2200.  So, far, so good . . .

 

[MK7]

Thanks for the insight guys.  I'm going to see if they'll let me take it home for a day and I'll have my mechanic friend take a look at it.  If everything looks good I'll go back with a $2000 offer and walk away if they don't come down low enough.
 

Did anyone at the dealership die of a heart attack from laughing, after you asked them this?

 

[Ridunnekulous]

Van in OP fell through, they paid too much for it, and wanted me to pay too much for it, so I had to let it go. The FBI van got bought the day before I was going to pick it up. Now I have an appointment scheduled with a dealership on Monday to get either a '06 Chevy 2500 w/ 91,000 miles or an '05 3500 w/ 108,000 miles. They're both the same price. The 3500 has a nicer interior, but a panel window which I'm not fond of. The 2500 has no panel window, but also no A/C (not too worried about it, all I need is heat).

Decisions, decisions.

 

[steveh2112]

i just sold my van which was an ex CHP van. it worked perfect for me, even with 177k miles on when i bought it. all i did was one oil change in 5000 miles of driving and i sold it for what i paid for it, so big thumbs up from me for ex police vehicles.

 

[Mattkcc]

To know the history of that FBI van would be cool, it dates back to when a lot of mob guys got busted here in Kansas City. The van wouldn't fool the mob, it often was used to keep pressure on them hoping they make a mistake. I miss the mob the streets were much safer back when they controlled organized crime. When the mob lost control in the 90's they left the streets open for the gangs and blood flowed. When I moved to "north of the river" in Kansas City in the 80's the best street to live was one that had a nice connected Italian gentlemen living there, no crime on that street.

 

[Mattkcc]

Double Post