I've been looking at Powerstrokes for a while now and I'm out of college, working, and have some decent income/savings. I don't have enough for a new truck, and I'm partial to the 7.3Ls anyway. There is one that I've been eyeing for a while that I need some advice on. It's an F-350 Supercab, 4x4, shortbed that has been relisted for the 3rd time on Ebay. The first two auctions had reserves which were not met, the high bid both times was around 15K. Now its up for auction with no reserve, bidding is at 12K, two days left to go.
The Good
Looks clean, good paint, good but not perfect interior
Lariat package
Chrome wheels (Stockers)
The Bad
Has a dent in the front fascia
Has a brake controller so it has done some heavy towing-no 5th wheel though
The Uncertain
According to Carfax, the original owner had it registered as a personal vehicle and clocked 77,453 miles on it as of the last inspection in Lawrence, MA on December 27th, 2005. A new owner (trade in I'm guessing) was reported on January 13th, 2006, and the vehicle was sold at auction about 10 months later on November 8th, 2006. That was the first thing that struck me-don't dealers usually unload trades at the auctions right away?
The other thing was that when the vehicle was sold at the auction it had 94,489 miles on it. If it was sitting on the dealer's lot for 10 months how did it accumulate almost 20K miles? Also, now the vehicle is for sale in Levittown, PA with the auction stating that it only has 94,492 miles on it. Granted it probably got there on a car carrier, but only 3 additional miles from November 8th, 2006 until about two weeks ago?
Finally, in the Carfax report it states that the vehicle was sold at auction as a "fleet vehicle." This is weird because as far as I can tell the company to take ownership at the auction is the used car dealer that's trying to sell the truck now. Why would they list it as a fleet vehicle? I have an Oasis request pending, so I guess I'll find out more soon. Anyway, am I just being paranoid? Would this truck be worth it (at first glance) if I could snag it for 16K? I'm going to look at it on Monday but I don't want to get my hopes up.