Would you pay $3,500 to warranty a used truck?

[Ride Everything]

Hi all - I'm buying a 2005 F250 CC Lariat 4X4. It has 95K miles, one owner, bone stock and in exceptional condition. I'm having it shipped from Vegas to CA and should be here tomorrow. I bought it from carmax. Carmax supposedly does a 120-point inspection on all vehicles (but I realize they probably don't have diesel experts working there).

So, a 3 year, bumper to bumper warranty will run me about $3,500...OUCH!! Obviously, I don't want to lay out that kind of cash, BUT I do hear of potentially very expensive repairs! What should I do? My thought is, if I'm going to spend $3,500 on warranty, why not spend that much and get a truck with lower miles, say 80K - or would that even matter?

Since carmax has a 5 day money back guarantee, I was thinking of taking it to a real diesel mechanic for a look see. That's $120 but seems like money well spent. What do you all think???

I could also get a one or two year package for less money, of course (still pricey though!)
Thanks

[shu873]

For $3500 you could have the headgaskets replaced and ARP studs installed, along with a full EGR delete. That would eliminate 80-90% of the problems you could potentially have with the drive train right there... My opinion is to heck with a warranty at that price. Better off to spend the money right.

[03f250stroke]

i agree with Kurt on this one. i was just about to say there arent any "real" problems with these trucks that cant be fixed

and who knows you could get lucky and it could be studded already.

I wouldnt waste your money and for 120 dollars let someone check it out. check the oasis report and scanned the truck for any codes. not a obd2 scanner but a real scan tool.

do regular maintenance..change oil, both fuel filters and drive the hell out of it

[Goose350]

x2 with Kurt and Evan

[Ride Everything]

Originally Posted by Goose350

x2 with Kurt and Evan

Ok, cool. What was said makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the quick responses everyone.

Well, I pick it up tomorrow (hopefully) so here we go!!! I already have an appt. for Friday for the check over. I never bought a vehicle with this many miles so here goes nothin'. All I know is these trucks are awesome so I can't wait. And I can't wait to NOT get 5 mpg gallon towing my camper....

I'll post back and if all goes well, I'll post some pics, too.

Thanks again.

[Jarrod B]

Originally Posted by shu873

For $3500 you could have the headgaskets replaced and ARP studs installed, along with a full EGR delete. That would eliminate 80-90% of the problems you could potentially have with the drive train right there... My opinion is to heck with a warranty at that price. Better off to spend the money right.

when i bought my truck, they tried to push their warrenty which was i wanna say $2500. i declined it. it also said i had to pay 50% of the major repair bills.

[T.R.P.]

with 95,000 miles, your truck will only be under warranty for 5 more thousand miles unless you buy the 200,000 miles warranty for the engine. In that case, just to arps and a egr delete.

[Robsr]

Originally Posted by shu873

For $3500 you could have the headgaskets replaced and ARP studs installed, along with a full EGR delete. That would eliminate 80-90% of the problems you could potentially have with the drive train right there... My opinion is to heck with a warranty at that price. Better off to spend the money right.

Not out west, lol

[tmanscrew]

I bought an 06 back in June w/97k and I got the Ford DieselCare ESP through a dealer in a neighboring town. You might want to look into this is you would feel better with the warranty. It will extend your protection on the main problems with your engine up to 200k, or 7 years from the date your truck was put in service. I got it for less at this dealership than the dealers on the internet were offering. Just a thought!

[Raul@Stealth Automotive]

Originally Posted by shu873

For $3500 you could have the headgaskets replaced and ARP studs installed, along with a full EGR delete. That would eliminate 80-90% of the problems you could potentially have with the drive train right there... My opinion is to heck with a warranty at that price. Better off to spend the money right.

i agree with Kurt too...