well as my name implies i've already got a TBSS. my wife and her family have been on my case for years now saying i need to get a new truck. my daily driver is a 91 silverado. got a fresh motor and tranny with a couple things to help me get to work quicker . but i'm tired of hearing them, they want me to get a new truck, i'm gonna get a new truck.
here comes the problem. i've had my eye out for a SSS. been a fan of them since the new body style came out, and in the past weeks been looking at them. problem around here is they're few and far between on car lots. but granted i have found 3 and need some expert opinions on them seeing as how i dont know THAT much about them.
SSS #1: it's about 1hr away. it's an 03, black, 60,xxx miles and they want $21,500. i haven't laid eyes on the truck yet, but the guy i talked to on the phone said it was immaculate, but consider the source.
SSS #2: this one was interesting. it's an 03, victory red, 36,xxx, and they want $27,750. pulled onto the lot, with my wife, in her grand am. i went in and talked to some smart ass dude. i asked him how much he was wanting for it, he told me the $27,750 and i just kinda made a face like "dang, that's high". he asked, "well what are you wanting to give for it". i always laugh at this statement....what i want to give and what you'll take are two TOTALLY different things. but i told him i'd be very interested in it for around $21K. the guy not only gave me a strange, insulted look, but actually chuckled and said "he's not going to take that". my response was "well you asked what i wanted to give", and then i said "well how much will he take? i'll be bringing in a cashier's check" he said "well i dont know, but it'll be closer to the $27. we dont get many of these specialty trucks in and we always get top dollar for the ones we do". ok, i can respect that.
then he asked if i'd have any trade ins, i told him nope. i've got a TBSS at home and 2 other cars that are in very good shape. then he made another comment i didnt like "well are you just going to let all these vehicles sit there and pay high insurance on them?" that pissed me off a little, as if it's any of his damn business, but i said "well, if i feel like it i will"
i asked him if i could see the keys, and then he pops off "are you going to be willing to pay closer to the 27?" i just kinda smiled and said "well talk about that later". anyways, we went outside, he opened the door and immediately started the engine and started playing with the seat moving it up, but i just kinda ignored it. i start going over the truck with an eagle eye. i was looking at the paint, interior for wear, under the truck for fluid leakage, under the hood.....just going over it with a fine tooth comb. so i asked him "well why'd they trade it in?" which i consider a very good question on a used car. his response "well i dont know, could have been high insurance, tired of driving it, could have been hundreds of reasons". ok again, a smart ass comment, but i'll let it go. and then i asked him "how old was the person that traded it in?"....."i dont know that either" me- "well was the person 18 or 48?" he looked at me like i shot his dog then replied "I DON'T KNOW" in a real stern voice. that's when i started talking about how a kid would abuse this kind of truck simply because of what it is. he said "well a kid couldn't afford this kind of truck". i thought you really aren't that smart are you. then i said "but if mom and dad have money they'll buy it for him" which made him think for a second and then said "but even if they have that kind of money they wont pay the insurance...it'd be $600 a month" i just looked at him and said "whatever you think, but i know kids that are driving new vettes (out of fear he wouldn't know what a C6 is) and other cars that are more expensive than this truck and their parents dont have a problem paying insurance"
i'm starting to find humor in this goober now. so i said "so, you dont know much about this truck do you?" that's when he informed me that the owner bought it in an auction. that's fine, but we could have saved ourselves some conversation and aggrevation if you would have told me that from the beginning.
so i start back in on my looking the truck over. i walked around to the passenger side and my wife had her head poked in the truck looking at it, he reached in and shut the motor off and told her "i better take these keys out, he's funny about stuff like that".....my wife took it as an implication that we were going to hop in the truck and take off. i sit down in the passenger seat and he walks up and says "well i'm not real sure what chevy put in this thing to make it a SS..." that's when i cut him off with " a 345hp 6 liter with AWD" he just kind of looked at me. guess he dont like being made to look stupid as bad as i hate to be treated like an inconvienence. then i get out and i'm looking at the tires and he starts talking again "those are either 22s or 20s". he didn't get the words out of his mouth good before i cut him off again "20s"
then came the straw that broke the camel's back with my patience. he said "my boss says it screams" i say "yeah, they run pretty good, not as good as my trailblazer ss, but pretty good" (sorry guys, but had to rub that in his face). he starts back in "well i'm just going by what my boss said, he told all of us we couldn't drive it or let anyone else drive it" that was the sentence that really done it right there. i looked at him and said "so you expect me to come off the street, pay WAY above it's worth, and not even drive it before hand? you're nuts"
after that he didn't say another word till we got back inside. i asked for a card and asked when the owner would be back. he told me and i asked "how long have ya'll had the truck anyway?" "since saturday afternoon" and this was on a monday afternoon, so 2 days. i just kinda laughed and said "well i'll come back in about a week or so after the new wears off it a bit and he realizes his price is outrageous" that pissed him off even more and he said "well dont expect him to come down to what you're wanting to give, he gave more than that for it and will get what he wants out of it"
after that i just left and drove off. feeling that he thought i was some punk kid (even though he looked about my age) and was just a waste of time or that i was wanting to go on a test drive. somewhere in there he told me he actually made $100,000 a year and tried to imply that i couldn't afford this truck" which was humerous, it's a small, very low volume used car lot....all the salesmen together probably dont make much more than 100,000/yr
and then SSS#3: found this at another small car lot while i was picking up my little brothers new 4wheeler. went over and asked about it, guy said they were asking 15,750. i thought hmm, price sounds good. asked him how many miles it had and he said "a little over 100,000" ouch, there came a bad blow, but what the hell, save enough money i just happen to know someone that owns a salvage yard, i can get a new motor pretty cheap. went out and opened the door, the driver seat was missing. i turned and jokingly said "cuts down on test drives don't it" he just laughed and said they were getting it reupholstered. popped the hood and saw a CAI, and thought well crap, probably means it's had its share of rough miles put on it. asked the general questions, where it came from, who owned it, etc. it was from a small town in MO (about 30miles from where i was at at the time), and it was a lawyer's kid and had a little over 118,000 miles on it. my heart kinda sank, dang, now i KNOW it's been treated hard lol. started it up and sounded like it had an exhaust leak or something....exhaust didn't sound normal at all. motor wasn't as clean as the other one i looked at, but 80,000 less on a vehicle will do that. only other flaw i saw was the volume knob on the radio was missing it's paint, which REALLY detracted from the interior. other than that and a few paint scratches around the top of the bed (nothing a buffer wouldnt take out) it was really clean. he went in and called the owner and he would only come down to $15,500. more than i want to pay just assuming the truck's history, but i told my dad to keep an eye on it and see if he can get it down around 10-12K. seems like i also saw a "service airbag" message pop up on the display. but i wasn't really paying attention at the second i saw it.
thanks for reading all my jibberish and long windedness, but my question is what kind of price should i be looking for? seems like the black #1 i haven't even seen yet is the best deal so far. #3 wouldn't be bad if i could get it down cheap enough to justify buying a new (crate) motor for it or rebuilding the one in it. #2 is just about out of the question, i'm not paying anywhere close to that and even if he got the truck down really cheap i would have to debate whether to buy it off that prick or not.
and what kind of problems should i be concerned about? i'm trying to do my homework a little so i know what to look for, but any kind of heads-up from you guys would be appreciated
