Don't know really. But I just bought a new one and there was probably 20 to 1 2500/3500 cummins over hemi 1500s on the lot. $10,000 off MSRP.

My cummins gets about 25% better on fuel economy than my 1500 reg cab Hemi... And it's 4x4 and isn't even broke in yet.

In college station (where I went to college) it was mostly ranchers' kids and around here it is people that work within the oil industry that drive them.

 

I'm in central washington near Wenatchee.
I was wondering if anyone from Texas has a story about how they found a great rig, either through the local newspaper or other advertisements. Dealer prices are high, so you know that these trucks can be had for less. The main thing is to find an area of the country that has lots of trucks so a rig can be found that is in excellent shape.

 

Oh ya lots of nice rigs around here. I got my 91 through a truck trader in 03. 91 2wd auto. 85k, original owner, for $6k. My brother got his 93 with 110k the same way, original owner +banks power pack, for $8k 2 years prior to mine. Truck trader seems to be one of the best way to find one, or ebay one and go look at in person.

 

12v trucks are about worth their weight in gold.

where else can you find a truck that is rusted, dented, scratched, faded, been used to haul 20k lbs most of its life, has 250k or more miles on it and still pulls in $8-9 or even $10k.

i found a truck awhile back with almost 200k, paint looks good, and interior looks good, obviously it was a 12v with 5spd, and people were bidding $14k on it...WITH 200,000 miles! gotta love that if you own one, and hate it if you want one.

 

texas is the truck capital of the world!

I know in the Houston and coastal area where there are many oil tooling/services companies that need to hot shot parts around have fleets of CTDs. I know we do

 

I bgt mine through Autotrader.com. 13,000 miles and a hole in the bed from a GN ball. No one wanted it....but me.
It hung up in first gear and had a cracked windshield. (I think dealerships are crazy not to fix up their trade in's) Was at a dealer and I offered $4,000 less than asking (top used book) and had them replace the windshield. Turned out I probably could have done better....cause they did not argue with me. Got a very slightly used 02 in MArch of 03 for $24,000. Sticker was $33,000 I believe.

I started search w/i 100 miles...than 200 miles.... than w/i 300 miles! Lots of phone calls...but only the one road trip. Took 4 months to find everything I wanted (except first choice in color).
A cattle rancher bgt this 2500 automatic, so his wife would drive it. Had always had manual duallies. He hated the 2500 and took a bath to get rid of it. He got what he wanted... So did I.

Texas IS the place to look.... and patience is the name of the game.
Tx. has to have more diesel pickup's per capita than anywhere..... and no rust!

RJ

 

just an idea, if you do a search based out of Austin with a 300 radius you will capture all the trucks in the Dallas/FTW, Houston and San Antonio area. if you can't find it in that area it does not exist!

 

Excellent suggestion. But don't know if you can base a search from somewhere your not??

Also, going to big city dealers (Houston, Dallas, S.A., Corpus, El Paso) is better than rural dealers because they have less of a market for the diesel P/U's. Cars are their thing. That's been my experience, anyway.

RJ

 

in autotrader you can punch in what ever zip code you want so an example of an Austin zip code would be 73301. If anything it lets you establish where the market is for the truck you are looking for. more than anything else that is what i use it for. i think you can search by zip code on ebay too

 

I did the web search a few years ago to find a 97. Looked all over the mid west. Oklahoma was close enough so I called on some and located 4 I wanted to look at. Took a trip and all 4 were no good.
Now I've found a wholesaler close by that I can get trucks from for a good price. Send me a PM and I'll give you their #.