Which cargo van should I buy, Chevrolet or Ford ?

O

opass

New member
Hi Guys,



I need your input in regard purchasing cargo van for my mobile auto detail business? The following are the condition of the van.



A) 2000 Chevrolet Express G3500 5.7L V8

110,000 miles

Exterior and interior condition is excellent.

Water leak from engine (assuming cause from mainfold unit) est. $500 to fix

Need alignment est. $80

Tires are near New

$5,000.00



B) 2000 Ford Econoline E350 5.4L V8

161,000 miles

Exterior and interior condition is good, however, 20% less than the above Chevrolet

Tune up was done at 130,000 miles

Tires are good, 75%.

$4,900.00



Both vans are owned by same company (CORPORATE LEASE VEHICLE). No accident, clean title.



Ford's owners are saying good comments of Ford heavy duty truck.

The sales ageny is telling me he will sell the Ford to his next door neighbor.



For me I kind of like the Chevrolet because of lower miles (50K) and Looks better (1 grade different) inside out. Unfortunately it need to fix the water leak and alignment work. (est. $580, may be more).



What do you think?
 
You are going to get lots of different answers on this one. I would lean towards the lower milage but I haven't been through the two vehicles. If you can negotiate the cost of the repair on the Chevy or better yet, buy it AFTER it has been repaired you should be golden. Why does it need an alignment after getting new tires? If the tires are that new it should have just been taken care of. Deeper issue.. I don't know. My 2004 1500 has been great for the last 8 months but who knows what's in store. It's my first American engineered vehicle. :nervous2:



BTW, it sure is nice to work out of a closet on wheels.
 
My vote would be for the Ford. Granted, my opinion is somewhat biased because I'm a Ford guy, but even if these two vans were *both* Fords, I'd still pick "B", unless you can find out where the water is *definitely* coming from, and also check to see if regular maintenance has been performed on the Chevy. Water leaks can sometimes be very simple and can sometimes be very difficult and expensive.



For example, in 99' Ford had an issue with their 5.4 liter Triton V8's leaking water from the head gaskets. AFAIK, this was only a problem in 99' and was fixed by 00' with a new style head gasket. This is why I say to find out where the water is coming from.



My father has a company van that is a 99' Ford E350 with the same 5.4 liter Triton and it has roughly 130,000 miles on it, and it runs like a clock. He keeps it well maintained and all we've had to do other than regular maintenance was change the battery, altenator, and idle control valve. Not a big deal at all.
 
I am a GM guy and I would pick a ford van also. I drive a 98 GMC daily and detail three ford vans on a regular baises and I think the Fords are put together better.



Opass, I wouldn't buy vans with that much milage. Find an early to mid 90s with low miles (40,000-60,000) they are out there and run $2500- $4500



My GMC just hit 100,000 miles and I had to drop over $4,000 into it for tires, cooling system, a/c system and brakes. I baby my van and it needed all that work. I would hate to think of the abuse a regular company van gets.
 
Thank for the info. I will mostly to buy Ford's product base on so many positive comments. Again Thank You Very Much. Will post picture before and after of my work horse.
 
Both trucks will do you just fine. I'm not bias towards either. The Ford sounds like a better deal though. On mistake I first made when I started our first mobile business was buying a truck that was to large. These two vans you are looking at are big ones. The main problem I came across was it not fitting in undrground parking. We had a contracts with a few hotels (Great for business) and it was to big to get down most of them. Running from the basement to the front of the lobby is no fun when your busy. I eneded up spending more money to set up a mini shop in some locations. It also made it impossible at a few private locations aswell. Gas was another killer. When you get busy and you drive alot over time this adds up. It depends on your customers though and what you cater to. If you do high volume like at a golf course you need a big van to carry the watertank. If like us you do two or three a day per truck than you really only need enough water for that. We used to use full size van's with huge tanks and made the swith to smaller ones when the leases were up. Right now we run S10 pick up's and they pull a trailer each. The watertanks we use are 80 gallons on each. That enough for us to do three cars without worry. four cars if we are carefull. Just some food for thought.





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Sorry I meant to touch on how hotels are good for regular business. I'll give the super short version. Contact the hotel manager tell them what service you provide. Most hotels would love to offer this service to their guests. Next you only expense is your signage. Place near the ticket stand on the way in that has your logo, name ect and a message than says please call to book apointment. They phone you book and away you go. Some hotels have alot of visitors that rent carsbecause they are from out of town, so they won't need your service. But, it really only costs the price of your mall sign to find a good one. What I did was put signs in every hotel that would let me. Even the ones that were only giving me a few a month were adding up because so many diferent ones were sending methise same few. This same formular works amazing at Condo's and appartment buildings. For our first few years this system really helped build our business.



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