Is it worth buying a truck down South?

[Fastguy]

My 2001 F250 is rotting away, it is almost ready for the boneyard and it only has 95,000 miles.
Salt and sand destroy trucks in the Northeast. I am considering buying a four or five year old truck below the rust belt and having it shipped or even flying out and driving back. I need to do some research to see if the savings is worthwhile.
What goes bad on trucks down South?
I would even consider paying Red to go all craigslist and find one for me.

[Brett K]

Depnding on how new you are looking, the winters have been mild for a few years in northeastern Pa. I think the salted twice this year. The undercarriage still looks new on my 2013 F150.

[Kevin_73]

Talk to Dave (ddcart).

[markids77]

The problem here is miles. There's more wide open space between things so mileage piles on. Pittsfield to Boston..2.5 hours or so. Savannah to Atlanta... 3.5 to 4, and there's State to go still before the next border. Not uncommon to see a 2 year old vehicle pushing 100k.

[snide]

You should scope out Barton Family Motors. I hear that they offer some great deals on trucks.

[Black94lt1]

I have looked into it and if the price was right I'd definitely fly in and drive one home.

[Montehall]

Originally Posted by Fastguy

What goes bad on trucks down South?

owners.

that said, we bought an 02 F350 Diesel near Houston about 5 years ago. Since then it has only needed a few things, but has lasted really well considering it already was lifted and had 110k on it, and now has over 250k and tows regularly.

[Fastguy]

Originally Posted by Montehall

owners.

that said, we bought an 02 F350 Diesel near Houston about 5 years ago. Since then it has only needed a few things, but has lasted really well considering it already was lifted and had 110k on it, and now has over 250k and tows regularly.

That seems to be an issue, "mah custom truck".
Typically a bunch of ill thought out "mods" that I have no interest in.
I have zero interest in lifts, rims, visors, exhaust or other stupid crap. I just want a ford or chevy 3/4 ton extra cab.
I need 4WD and I assume that most people buy 4x4 to drive offroad. I wonder how beat to death some are.

[Montehall]

I'd be surprised if more than 10% of 4wd owners have ever had their trucks off road, except for accidentally backing over a curb or flower garden.
even true in Texas, I doubt our truck ever saw off road use.

day we bought it


I've never been that concerned with if someone off roaded their truck, seems like the more mods are on it, the less they want to mess it up.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Kevin_73

Talk to Dave (ddcart).

Heck yes it's worth it!

2004 Avalanche. Came from Charlotte, NC in 2010 with 90k miles on it. Has 190k on it now and still looks great. Here's a pic of the frame of a 6 year odl southern truck with 90k on the clock:



2001 Silverado. Came from DFW in 2011 with 150k. Frame didn't look much different than the Avalanche. Not a spot of rust on the body anywhere. Price wasn't any more than buying a similar truck up here WITH rust. This one had both of the hazards that come from buying down there, but not very noticeable: faded clearcoat and hail damage. Had the roof and hood repainted in 2015 with close to 180k on it. It looked brand new when I sold it last year.


2007 Avalanche. Again from DFW. Bought it last year with 105k on the clock. Again, an amazingly rust-free truck.


NFW would I even consider buying a used truck from the rust-belt.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Fastguy

That seems to be an issue, "mah custom truck".
Typically a bunch of ill thought out "mods" that I have no interest in.
I have zero interest in lifts, rims, visors, exhaust or other stupid crap. I just want a ford or chevy 3/4 ton extra cab.
I need 4WD and I assume that most people buy 4x4 to drive offroad. I wonder how beat to death some are.

Takes a while to sort through the crap and find something that's pretty original. The Silverado I bought was from the original owner, which was very nice to find.

Nice 3/4 ton trucks get snatched up at an amazing rate.

[lspencer534]

I don't pretend to be an expert on the used truck market, but I do have these observations about trucks here in the Deep South: I don't see many modded trucks at all such as lifts, rims, exhausts, etc. Also, they sem to be in plentiful supply according to the newspaper ads for sale. There are of course people here who drive a long way to work and back, but I think a lot of them work offshore, meaning it's a 3-hour trip to New Orleans, but the truck stays parked for 2 weeks.

I researched a 2011 Ford Lariat Crew Cab 4WD and found a retail price of about $30K here. In rusty Michigan that truck is $28K. FWIW.

[polarbear]

I have a strong preference for Pacific Northwest vehicles.

1. Outside of the obvious (no road salt), we also don't get the temperature extremes that so destroy interiors in warmer climes.

2. The West Coast States are very aggressive at monitoring titles- it's almost impossible to "wash" a salvage title here, and the penalties if caught are extreme.

That being said, each car stands on it's own. I once bought a T-Bird that had spent it's entire life in Palm Springs... in a garage. It was as close to showroom-new condition as you could reasonably expect a 4 yr. old car to be.

[repo]

I just bought an 07 Subaru, turbo, one owner out of Columbia, SC, which is inland.

It is so clean you could take the muffler clamps off with out and WD 40, or PB blaster, etc.

You would freak if you saw the underneath.

Quite the contrast form a NE vehicle.

So yes, it is worth it to get a Southern vehicle.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by repo

I just bought an 07 Subaru, turbo, one owner out of Columbia, SC, which is inland.

It is so clean you could take the muffler clamps off with out and WD 40, or PB blaster, etc.

You would freak if you saw the underneath.

Quite the contrast form a NE vehicle.

So yes, it is worth it to get a Southern vehicle.

On that 10 year old 2002 Silverado with 150k miles, I changed the frame-mounted fuel filter when I got it home. It was so rust-free that I literally cracked the nut loose on the bracket and un-threaded it by hand.

[RonC5]

I got my truck out of Greenville SC. Spotless underneath.

[Fastguy]

May have to start checking southern CL. This is what my truck looked like a year ago, it's worse now.

[lspencer534]

Originally Posted by Fastguy

May have to start checking southern CL. This is what my truck looked like a year ago, it's worse now.

If you start looking on Southern CL, you will not see any pics of the frame...because we don't have rust issues. If you ask for pics of the frame from the seller, his likely response will be, "What fer?".

[repo]

I'd use CL as a last resort. I found mine on CarGuru's.

I would search cars and autotrader private party first.

[FasterTraffic]

What's all that red stuff? Did you drive through a pond of salsa?

Originally Posted by Fastguy

May have to start checking southern CL. This is what my truck looked like a year ago, it's worse now.