Would you buy a truck with commerical ownership history?

Sounds like a fair price for that truck, but a lot more truck than you need.

2WD or 4WD?

What will you be towing?

Since the truck spent at least part of its life in NY I'd take an extra close look at things like brake lines for rust but other than that you haven't mentioned anything that would make me shy away from that truck. It sounds like it's priced near market value an has no red flag based on condition. I'd get someone with no emotional connection to it to give it the once over and go ahead and buy it if they give it the green light.

In reply to SVreX:

I think that's an accurate assessment, it's like bringing a Howitzer to a knife fight for my needs . Which is fine unless the Howitzer breaks, in which case it's likely to be a lot more expensive to fix than a knife.

It's 4wd and would probably be primarily pulling my LS swapped RX7 once it's done (targeting about 2600lbs), plus whatever other projects follow me home, on a steel open deck trailer.

You could get a truck that would meet your needs for $7 or $8K.

I just bought a similar truck (2008 Duramax Crew shortbed 4x4). I really love the truck, but honestly I'm not totally thrilled with it as a DD. The 4x4 suspension has the truck sit higher, and it's hard to know where the corners are. That makes it uncomfortable to maneuver around traffic, park, etc. Truck feels top heavy.

Also, my fuel economy dropped from 20 mpg to 12 mpg, but the tank size shrunk too. My F-250 had a 35 gal tank. This truck is more like 20. Combined, it means I have to stop for fuel twice as often.

I thought this might be my last truck. I enjoy it, but I'm pretty sure I will be back in a 2WD truck as a DD at some point.

My boss just bought a similar truck. The previous owner was the owner of a contracting business. You can tell it racked up the miles visiting job sites, not hauling materials and equipment.

Like mentioned, any truck in CA is considered a commercial vehicle when assessing registration fees. Also, calling it a "work" vehicle allows it as a tax write-off too.

If it's clean and well maintained it shouldn't matter either way.

It all comes down to condition. Does it look like its been abused towing/hauling stuff with the diesel? I made the mistake of buying a 2000 Chevy 3500 with the 5.7 vortec and while it looked clean and was a CA car with only 100K miles. Within a month and after changing fluids it had a noticable knock that also turned into a misfire.

It didn't stop me from buying Gov't fleet vehicles as those are maintained well. I've had a 2004 Tahoe and 2008 Expedition and other than the rust (NY) underneath on the Tahoe, I can't complain.

Well I'm going back for a second look tonight, and kinda leaning towards making an offer. I've been going through weeks of this mental masturbation, do I want gas, do I want diesel, do I want this truck, do I want that truck...

I mean what the hell, as long as it's as decent as I think it is and nothing horrible goes wrong, I won't lose my ass on it even if I decide to turn around and sell it in a year.

I really drive myself nuts with car buying sometimes

Unfortunately, its hard to tell. If it was something like a utility company, maybe. A delivery truck, nah. Fire truck, maybe.

I did fleet maintenance for a utility company. Our trucks were flawless. Maintenance was impeccable, and we sold them at around 100k miles. We had in-house everything (except body repair). When I ran an auto repair shop, we had a small box truck (procured for next to nothing on a repair lien) that we used for parts runs, recycling runs, etc. You couldn't give that truck to me. We beat the snot out of it and rarely did any maintenance on it. If it ran and moved, we used it. Probably didn't have an oil change in two years.

So I would look at WHO owned it commercially. Big fleets like universities, utilities, and municipalities typically have great maintenance (but not always).

As far as enabling -- I say go for it. Overkill when towing is awesome, it makes it much less stressful when you know that the truck is barely even aware that the trailer is there.

On a GM after 99 the odometer can tell you hours as well as miles. If the lifetime miles per hours is 15 I'd be more concerned than if it averaged 45.

Well we had to reschedule since the guy ended up getting stuck late at work, which is just as well since I totally forgot a friend is supposed to bring her car by to get some codes read. So now I've got more time to stew on it and I'm waffling again

Edit: double post