car buying question about GMC truck

[MPMD]

about to make a vehicle purchase. i'm admittedly not smart about cars.

thinking about a GMC canyon.

what do people think about Option A vs Option B?

A is the nicer trim but a bit higher mileage, the thing that make me a little nervous is that it's had 3 owners in 1 year and 30k miles. I don't know if that should make me nervous with a clean Carfax and coming from a site like Vroom that seems to go for nicer newer cars.

B is a step down in trim but super low mileage.

i'm kind of at a stage of paralysis by analysis. when i look on other sites or locally i see trucks that look worse with more miles for the same or more so i'm pretty sold on vroom at this point. givent hat i don't know anything about cars i'm worried that there's some super obvious issue i'm not seeing here.

[Zaphod]

I like that truck. Wish I had a good enough excuse to get it.

I just bought a car friday morning, and for some reason Vroom was never even in the ballpark. Make sure to check all the large sites like cars, autotrader, ebay, etc...and make sure you're getting a great deal. Ended up getting it from a dealer who didnt accept my offer the week before, but had a change of heart for some reason. Got a price/miles/year/etc...that was equal to the best nationally for this vehicle, was pretty happy.

You cant know everything from a car fax, a lot of issues could be hidden there, but the same is true of any kind of clearing entity. I mostly was making sure I wasnt buying anything that spent any time in florida or the houston area that for some reason after September decided to be put on sale. In addition to scheduled maintenance.

As far as trim, it depends on the specifics. There are certain things like backup cams that are worth considering, and others that dont matter at all like "styling". Just make sure the difference in costs reflects something of value to you and is priced appropriately.

 

Oh, you have the listings. I'd totally go for the 2017. Newer, less miles, only see leather as being the big difference. Thats easy. Now for the better question, why are you considering buying this used? I've looked at this vehicle extensively since its a great overall value and know at this price you can find it brand new. Seems to be common with trucks, the new ones are similar or even better priced than 2-4 years old ones. Even if the price were a grand or two different, thats a big deal for something you're buying site unseen and can get the same while putting your hands on etc....

[startupdoc]

I would definitely go for the 2017 option with fewer miles. And I agree with Zaphod, I would look into just buying a brand new truck as well. The difference in price between brand new and near-new is often negligible depending on the brand. 4 year old cars (or older) is often the time period required to get a significant decrease in price and increase in value on the used car market. I found this especially to be true with Acura this year.

[Zaphod]

startupdoc wrote:

I would definitely go for the 2017 option with fewer miles. And I agree with Zaphod, I would look into just buying a brand new truck as well. The difference in price between brand new and near-new is often negligible depending on the brand. 4 year old cars (or older) is often the time period required to get a significant decrease in price and increase in value on the used car market. I found this especially to be true with Acura this year.

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Yep. There are 5 2018 Crew cab canyons spec'd similarly at the local GMC dealership and they range from 1-3k less than that site.

[Matas]

Chevy has recently been aggressively discounting new, left-over 2017 cars. Not sure about trucks or even if there is an 17 inventory remaining, but I'd look.

[FIREshrink]

Trucks these days are like Toyotas. They don't lose their value right away. That's why I bought a new truck. I could have saved at most 10% over new and would have had one more owner, one year older, and 20,000 or more extra miles.

[Hatton]

Why aren’t you looking at f150s?  They are really nice.  Amazing back up cameras to help you hook up to a trailer if you haul anything.

[MPMD]

hatton1 wrote:

Why aren’t you looking at f150s?  They are really nice.  Amazing back up cameras to help you hook up to a trailer if you haul anything.

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a) newer ones are out of my price range, i want to be around or under $30k. this is basically a toy i don't need it so not going to drop way more than that.

b) i did quite a bit of research and from what i've read it sounds like F150 in that price range (2011ish) is actually very unreliable when compared to Chevy/GMC. obviously toyota crushes all of them and Ford does beat Dodge.

c) full size truck will be hard to park. i live in a very urban neighborhood and can rent a carport spot from my neighbors but backing a full size into it doesn't sound fun. it's tricky enough with the Lexus rx when I do that.

[Jaqen Haghar MD]

Not sure not sure what your towing needs are, but I've had two Toyota Tacomas (4x4 Off-road package) in a row and they worked out great for backcountry and snow driving, and hauling around outdoor gear.   Might be worth a look too.

[Dreamgiver]

In this category there is only one truck that is worth having, and it is the Tacoma. Just my 2 cents from plenty of experience with trucks put to good use.

[wildcat16]

I was in the same situation recently.  I would recommend looking for a 2016/2017 late model new if you can, excellent deals from Chevy and GMC.  I got lucky and found the exact truck I wanted used (a 2016 Silverado with 15k miles and pretty much every option included in mint condition) at a Kia dealer that someone traded in after they sold their boat.  I did look for about 6 months and was about ready to just get a new one once the deals came back, but glad I waited.  I saved about 20k off of sticker on my used truck, mainly because the dealership just wanted it gone since they don't deal in Chevy or much in used.  There are definitely good deals to be had if you don't mind waiting a few months to look for used, or get one of the new ones with the discounts.

For me the trim package really makes the vehicle.  If you are someone who cares about all the tech details or it would annoy you to have Chevy Mylink only and not carplay, android auto as well, then get the nicer trim.  If those options don't matter definitely go with low miles.  But I think you will be surprised what deals you can find if you look hard enough and can get both low miles and the nicer trim.

[Craigy]

For that much money you could go buy a brand new one.  Just go look at cars.com.  They advertise a ton of them (SLE, 4x4, V6) brand new, 2017 and 2018, for about $30k-$32k.

I think you're vastly underestimating what sort of discounts these pickup truck companies offer.

You could even get a brand new, nicely equipped 4x4 crew cab Toyota Tacoma for that price.  Or a Nissan Frontier with whatever options you wanted.

Personally I would steer clear of GM products.

[Peds]

agree. toyota tacoma.

 

but what did you decide?

[Peds]

this has to be the most sane two sentences ive ever seen.....

[The White Coat Investor]

Peds wrote:

this has to be the most sane two sentences ive ever seen…..

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Yea, I was impressed too.