How To Find A Reliable Used Truck

There’s always a question regarding reliability when it comes to purchasing a used vehicle. Thankfully there are a number of ways you can determine this. You can check the vehicle’s background, including whether it’s been in any accidents and the number of owners it has had. With cars, determining reliability is relatively straight forward, but with a pickup, it gets a bit trickier. Why? Because cars aren’t towing around 10,000-pound trailers. A truck with 50,000 highway miles hasn’t been through as much as a truck pulling a horse trailer for 50,000 miles. So exactly how reliable are used trucks? It’s a fantastic question, and here are a few answers to help you pinpoint the perfect used truck.

How Reliable Are Used Trucks

Buying a used pickup is a bit different from buying a used one. You’ll never fully know what the truck has gone through in the past (although we’ll show you how to uncover much of the vehicle’s past history in the next few sections). Due to this, you want a truck that is known to be reliable.

The Ford F-150 is the best selling vehicle in the United States, followed closely by the Ram 1500 and the Chevy Silverado 1500. However, the Toyota Tacoma is known to be one of the most reliable pickups out there. Yes, it doesn’t have the same kind of pure performance numbers as the American trucks, but it is especially reliable (as is the case with just about anything Toyota builds according to Consumer Reports). U.S. News and World Reports love the Honda Ridgeline as a reliable pickup. Again, not as powerful as a Ram or Ford, but it’ll last you.

Another great sign of a used truck is it isn’t the first year in a new generation. While not always the case, the first year in a new generation is more likely to have some performance issues. That’s really the case with anything. Video game systems, upon the first release, usually have a few quirks. Brand new smartphones can have some performance issues (we’re looking at you Apple and those bendable screens). So a great sign of a used truck is it’s a few years into a generation.

In short, used trucks can be incredibly reliable. Some brands of used trucks (like Toyota and Honda) have a better history of reliability, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a reliable truck from another brand. Below we’ll share some tips on exactly how to spot one of these reliable trucks.

Get the CARFAX

You’ll never know exactly how many miles someone might have put on a truck towing a large trailer, but there are some wear and tear signs you can identify on a CARFAX report. A CARFAX report will give you the entire vehicle history, including how many owners of the vehicle, when and where the vehicle was sold, what repairs have been made on the vehicle, and so on.

First, look for excessive cooling system repairs. When a truck frequently tows and hauls large loads, it puts additional strain on the engine’s cooling system. This includes cooling fans, the water pump, thermostat, and radiator. A well-maintained radiator will last around eight years or more (depending on routine maintenance). So if you see regular radiator problems or that the radiator has been replaced more than once, there is a good bet the truck has been used for excessive towing. While towing isn’t necessarily a bad thing that leads to an inferior truck, it may mean you’re in line for additional cooling system repairs sooner rather than later.

The suspension system is another area to look into when going over the report. With the added weight either directly dropped into the truck’s bed or attached to the rear of the truck, it places extensive strain on the shocks. Shocks and struts should be replaced typically between 50,000 and 100,000 miles. That is a pretty big window, so if you see the shocks have been replaced more than twice during a 50,000-mile span, it’s a sign the truck has been used for extensive towing.

You should also take note of where the vehicles were purchased and owned. There is a big difference between a truck that has spent its entire life in Georgia and a truck that’s spent its entire life in Indiana (we’ll get into this in the next section).

Get Under the Truck

Okay, so you’ve been through the CARFAX report, and everything looks good. It hasn’t been in any major accidents, and there isn’t something that is repetitively replaced on the truck. So those boxes have been checked off. Now, you want to get under the truck (so wear something you don’t mind getting a little dirty).

The topside of the truck will look great. Freshly washed and even the engine block might have been scrubbed a bit, giving off a pristine look. Get under the truck and look for any kind of rusting. Rusting isn’t as common here in metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia, but cars close ]to the ocean can sustain some rusting due to some salt that can linger in the air. However, if the trucks were originally purchased further north, there’s a good chance the pickups were regularly exposed to road salt, which can eat away at metal if not washed away shortly after. The rust usually doesn’t appear instantly on the sides of the pickup, but the undercarriage is a different story.

Look closely for rusted-out areas. You might be surprised as to how just a little bit of rust can cause some major problems. Take, for example, late ’90s Jeeps (basically any Jeep model. While we’re focusing on trucks in this article, this is an example of how easily rust can cause problems). On Jeeps at the time, the rear muffler was held to the frame by a small piece of metal, not much thicker than a coat hanger. So just a little bit of rust on this area would lead to the exhaust pipe breaking free. If you’ve ever seen someone driving, dragging their muffler around, this is almost always what has happened.

Of course, not all vehicles are built the same (although you would wonder why a Jeep, with its headquarters in Toledo, Ohio would use such a thin piece of metal when they know well enough how easily things rust. Toledo is part of the Rust Belt, after all).

Take a Test Drive

Okay. So everything looks good under the truck. There are no gardens of rust sprouting about the undercarriage. Good. You’re that much closer to finding the perfect, reliable pickup. You obviously like the truck because you’ve spent the time going through the report and looking under the truck (hey, you wouldn’t crawl about the ground for just any truck, now would you?). The final step is to take it for a test drive.

During the test drive, the sales staff will want to show off that killer sound system and all the touch-screen features. That’s fine and good, but what you need is silence. Turn off the radio and just listen. Listen to the engine. Does it sound good, or is there a little choking behind its acceleration. How does braking feel? Is it good, or is there a little feedback in the pedals? Does it vibrate? Now roll down the windows and listen. You should also take the truck for a quick jaunt on the highway. The staff might direct you to drive around a few blocks but tell them you want to see how it handles on the highway. You don’t need to drive far — just a few miles. But again, keep the stereo off. You’ve heard that Stevie Nicks song before. What you haven’t heard is this truck. Listen and stay connected with the pedals. If everything sounds and feels good, you may have just found your perfect, reliable pickup.

Find Your Next Reliable Used Truck At Rick Hendrick Buick GMC

Here at Rick Hendrick Buick GMC, we strive to offer you a wide selection of used pickups. Many of these pickups are certified pre-owned, which means they have gone through an extensive background check, have not been involved in major accidents, are only a few years old, and typically have less than 70,000 miles (the exact numbers for a certified pre-owned vehicle will depend on the manufacturer, so feel free to ask us about individual vehicle certifications). Even those vehicles that do not qualify for certification have gone through a vigorous diagnostic process so we can make sure everything on the truck runs properly. We offer the vehicle CARFAX report so you will have a complete understanding of what the vehicle has been through in the past. While you may not know how many towing miles were put on the truck, you can rest assured you’ll know everything else about it. So when it comes to finding a reliable, used pickup, contact us or visit us ad Rick Hendrick Buick GMC in Duluth, GA. With our selection of used trucks, we’re confident we can help you find exactly what you’re looking for.