Hello, first post on this site. I have a question, i'm looking at getting a new to me Dodge Ram 1500 and wanted to see if you guys thought this was a good deal.

2005 dodge ram 1500
SLT
5.7L
leather
Moonroof
bed liner
hard tonneau cover
running boards
basically completely loaded

The bad thing is it has a 194,000 miles on it. Used to be a salesmans truck.

could probably get this for 6500 is this a good deal?

i drove this for about 20 minutes today nothing out of the ordinary, transmission shift good, the motor seems to have good power.

anything i should be aware of?

thanks,

 

I would be aware of the the miles on that truck to start. 190000 miles is a lot!! Motor, transmission, rear end, and front diff has a lot of wear and tear in the last 6 years. Its a gamble when your talking that kind of mileage so you might want to get a compression test done. Hemi's are well known for sludge build up so in my opinion these motors will get tired around the 200000 mark. My two cents. Good luck!

 

another thing is that this will not ba a daily driver, its going to be used for going to the hardware store, and possibly in the summer to haul a camper (not a very long distance, maybe 40 miles) and if not doing that probably sitting in the driveway.

 

That is def a tough call. Lots of miles screams caution to me. What work has already been done on the truck? Also w/ camper in tow on your way to a nice weekend getaway; a breakdown on the side of the road might put a damper on things. I might keep ure eyes peeled for a better deal. Especially if ure use is going to be minimal at most for now.

 

that's a decent price...

I'd find out what history you can.. it stands to reason that if it was a salesman's truck, and he used it to make his living, that he took care of it buy servicing at every interval, and by doing a lot of preventive maintenance to keep his bottom line nice and black as far as costs are concerned..

do you know what kind of sales? What industry? How big an area did he cover? I'm asking this to ascertain if it was primarily highway or city miles.. City miles are hard on a truck- and with those miles, if primarily city, that tranny doesn't have much life left.. all that shifting kept her on the warm side which eats it up- if it was highway you may get another 25-50k out of it without a problem (if it was serviced)..

Did he run synthetic oils?

all of that may be difficult to find out, but if you have a shot at finding out I'd at least ask..

If you can't find out, just poke around the thing and see if you find evidence of neglect- you know, buttons/***** missing, this or that broken that was an easy fix but wasn't, or signs it wasn't at least kept clean.. The logic here is "if he took care of the small things that seem trivial, he may have taken care of the big things too"...

If there is anything advice wise, though, that you take from this- take this: If there is ONE thing you find that gives you pause on a vehicle with that many miles (other than the miles that is), walk... This is a buyers market.. another one is right down the street.

 

I wouldn't even consider that truck. Just way to many miles for the year. Average use for and 05 is 75,000 miles. That truck has more than double the useage.

 

Mileage of 194k on a gasser is more than enough to scare me away. If it were a diesel it would be another story but that many on a gas engine is asking for issues. IDK how well maintained it was. Unless thats a new engine and trans, I wouldnt do it