Should I get a new truck or overhaul it?

I Own a restaurant and catering company in Baltimore Maryland. We have 4 custom made catering trucks that cost apx. $35,000.00 each. Our oldest truck, a 94' dodge dakota is starting to have alot of problems. The transmission is starting to shift very roughly, it doesn鈥檛 have much acceleration. The hood is starting to rust, I need new ball bearings on the front two wheels, and just yesterday the rpm gauge started acting very weird and somestimes dosent move at all. My question, should I replace this truck with a new truck that will cost $37,000.00, or spend 10,000$ to totally overhaul the truck.

You can view pictures of the truck at:



http://sorrentoscatering.com/s_53.asp



It is the truck with the pink lettering.



ThanksShould I get a new truck or overhaul it?
if the body is still good on it id do an overhaul on it,you can completely go through the mechanical part of it for less then 10 thousand and come out with a new truck again,that would better than spending another 35 grand for a new truck,we recently redone one and it cost about 8500 to completely go trough the whole truck mechanically,now its probably good for another 150 thousand miles or more,its up to you but 10 grand is less than 35 ,easy math question there,and right now id rather have a 94 as a new one,good luck.
your welcome.

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Should I get a new truck or overhaul it?
It's really depend on your budget on your company. If you buy new truck and you will have less headache to repair your truck and lose time to get it repair, and also you need truck to do your business. If you overhaul the truck, you might spend more money repair than buy it new one. You can use tax write off either buy or repair. If I have money I would buy new one.
The dodge dakotas from that generation had a lot of transmission problems. Most Dodge trucks do. The hood rust is unavoidable in a truck that old. The ball bearings are natural too. The RPM could just be a bad cabel. It really depends on your budget about what you want to do. Overhauling, and a new trnasmission would be expensive, but not as much as a new truck. But, if you have the money, in savings ready to spend, go with the new truck. Otherwise, stick with the '94.
I suggest you replace this truck with a new one. The Dakota will continue to have a lot of problems even after the overhaul--It's old and American made. But you have to weigh the financial stuff first. Would you rather spend $10,000 to fix up an old car or get a completely new one for $37,000? Which one would be more worth it. However if you do get a new one, I suggest any Japanese brand truck such as a Tacoma or a Frontier for something midsize.
Being a business, won't you get tax deductions buying a new truck?, in Australia we can write off 18% of a new vehicles value every year for 3 years, or make full claim on a leased vehicle for 3 years.

We can claim a % of repairs, but that's minimal compared to new.

Go new, the trucks old, even refurbished it's still old.
do you have time and money for downtime out of the 4 trucks? If so weigh that into the budget of how much income you will suffer with only 3 in use. If that is not an issue repair it and make your drivers take care in chekcing fluids etc. a mandatory portion of their job.



If profit is good during the summer time and you can get a new truck ready with minimal down time I would go for the new one with a service warranty.