buying 1st gen truck

[SixShooter]

After a few years in the making, I am finally able to get my first dodge . The one I will be getting next week is a 93 reg cab 4x4. It has 130k on it and looks taken care of. My first question is how much would one of these really go for? It has a 6" lift and regular gauges, ie. boost, egt. The fuel pump may have been turned up but that is all I can tell. The body and paint is good except for a few small hail dents and the interor has little wear. Any help would be great, especially anything I should look at before I buy it. Thanks.

 

[JoshKelly]

I would look for rust around the drip ring above the windshield, and rust anywhere in general such as back wheel wells, cab corners, and floor pans. As far as price that truck should be worth $5,000 around here if it was taken care of. Is it an auto or manual?

 

[Greenleaf]

You'll pay what ever it takes if you want one bad enough. I paid 5 for one some five years back. It is what I could pay cash for. I wouldn't have paid any more though. if I had to I would have moved on to another.

 

[SixShooter]

It is a 5 spd and is asking 10k for it.

 

[JLEONARD]

Seems like a lot of $$ for an old truck but it's a supply and demand issue I suppose.

In todays declining economy it seem values would go down not up.

What does KBB say? That's always been my guidline. . not an absolute but a guidline.

Just remember that someday you will be selling it. How much you are willing to pay depends on when that "for sale" day comes.

Happy hunting.

 

[DValentine]

Just for comparison, Six, I paid 10K for mine in 2003 with 112K on the clock. It was stock and the transmission had been rebuilt. It Blue Booked for 7500 then.

Dave

 

[peobryant]

It is a 5 spd and is asking 10k for it.

There is no way I would pay that much. A much more reasonable price would be 5K, as many 4wd, 5spd trucks are going for. He will sit on that thing for a good long while if he is set on getting 10K out of it.

 

[Flinty]

Add the following to the previously mentioned issues... . Make sure the frame isn't broken where the steering sector bracket bolts to the frame, or the bracket that the sector bolts to isn't broken either. Also check the bracket that holds the front spring to the frame on the drivers side, they will break too. Check and make sure the inner door hinge brackets aren't tearing through the door skin. If the transmission is a getrag, it's a piece of crap, plan on replacing it. Note the latest issue of the TDR, it shows how to repair body cracks at the lower corners of the windshield, a common problem. Make sure the steering wheel is solid, if it isn't you'll be in for a fun repair. I will also note that the door handles like to rip off too, make sure they're solid. To be honest the whole 1st Gen platform is an ill conceived, poorly engineered, good looking pile of junk! And I wouldn't trade mine for anything! (almost anything).

For ten thousand frogskins that thing you're looking at better be CHERRY. Make note of the issues stated above, if they haven't reared their ugly head yet, they will and you will get to fix it.



Check that last statement. If the truck is used as a grocery getter it should have minimal issues.



I paid 6200 for mine with 270k on the clock last year. What sold me was the transmission upgrade, new injection pump and injectors, a good gooseneck hitch and a brand spanking new set of studded Toyo tires. I get SUPER good mileage with that old beater. It saved my bacon when fuel was $4. 70/gallon.



Luck in your negotiations,

Jon

 

[HBarlow]

six shooter,

There's a clean, good-looking white Gen I Dodge Cummins sitting on a used truck lot in the small West Texas farming community east of Lubbock with a $3,950 price on the windshield. I know nothing about it other than that but from the highway driving by it looks like a well-maintained, relatively low mileage, one owner truck.