Should I Replace This Truck?

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 with 110,000 miles and it 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.Should I Replace This Truck?
right now today with the economy the way it is fix the truck up for $10,000
well get a new one shows sign of a better business than driving a round with a old junkerShould I Replace This Truck?
That is going to be a decision you are going to have to make yourself. But a Transmission overhaul, repairing the front end and fixing the tachometer should not cost anything near 10k. Repainting it will restore it's appearance. That sounds like the practical course of action to me - you just need to find a good reliable service center to keep your equipment in reliable running order.



On any major repair I recommend that you get 3 or 4 estimates from local service facilities unless you are lucky enough to have a shop with an absolutely stellar reputation available. Compare the estimates and choose one of the middle estimates. My reasoning for this is the low estimate either left something out or worse is deliberately giving a low ball estimate to get you in and then when your car is all torn apart they find all sorts of critically important things wrong with it which run your bill through the roof. Do the leg work and be an informed car owner. No reliable technician or shop will give an estimate for repair site unseen except as a budgetary estimate which will be a range from the middle average to the unusual high end possible