bought a 2022 F-250 XLT 6.7 fleet unit through Pace Ace, sealed bid, Midland to Kenedy

i push a crew for a water hauling outfit out of Kenedy and my personal truck was a 2013 F-250 6.7 with 231k that had started drinking a quart between changes. wanted a newer 6.7 crew cab 4x4 for the lease roads and the drive out to the disposal sites. did not want a dealer payment on a 70 thousand dollar truck.

one of our vac truck drivers had bought a car for his daughter through paceacemotors.net and told me they had fleet pickups too. they broker bank repos and do not own the trucks. each one sits at whatever lender yard it got repossessed to, you put in one sealed bid, you never see anybody else's number, the high bid takes it, and there is no buyer's premium on top. the outfit in karnes city is 20 minutes up 181 from me so i drove over and asked my questions in person. there is no showroom, it is an office and a lot, the trucks are not there.

the truck. 2022 F-250 XLT 6.7 Power Stroke, crew cab, 4x4, 6 3/4 bed, 61,300 miles, white like every fleet truck in Texas. came off a lease with an outfit in the permian and was sitting at a lender yard in Midland. listing had 50 something photos including the oil life screen, the cluster page with the idle hours, the tires, the underside, and a cold start video. i asked for a photo of the fuel filter housing date and the dipstick and had both the next morning.

bid 44,900. dealers between San Antonio and Corpus had 2022 XLT 6.7 crew cabs with 60 to 80k at 47 to 52 plus their doc fee and then tax on all of it. i figured what the truck was worth to me with no premium and no doc fee and that was the number. won it on a wednesday, money went out thursday. Midland to Kenedy is about 360 miles so the delivery was free, they say free inside a thousand miles of karnes city.

it was in my yard 9 days after the money left. it is a fleet unit and it looked like one, i will get into that. 1,100 miles of mine on it so far. ask me anything.

first_diesel_esteban wrotecan you get a loan on a truck sitting in a yard in Midland that you have never seen

yes, but it is on you, not them. i took the VIN off the listing to my credit union in Kenedy before i bid and got pre approved for 45 on a used truck. when i won, the credit union handled the payment and the title paperwork came back to them as the lienholder. Pace Ace Motors handles the title and the lender releases its lien before the truck moves, so the credit union ended up with a clean title and their own lien on it, which is all they cared about. they ran the VIN through their own title check before they released a dime, so somebody smarter than me looked at it.

first_diesel_esteban wrotemy agent says he wants to see a truck before he writes it

mine did not. called him with the VIN the morning after i won and he added it to the policy off the listing photos. if yours has to see it, get a different agent, half the trucks on 181 were bought sight unseen off a fleet sale.

first_diesel_esteban wrotedoes pace ace show you the other bids after it closes

no. sealed means sealed, you never find out what second place was. it bugs me a little because i will never know if i left 3 grand on the table. i decided i did not care. the number was the number i would pay.

tech, idle hours were 1,840. and i pulled both filters the first night, the cabin filter was a brick of caliche, the engine filter not as bad. hubs are tight. since somebody will ask what a fleet unit looks like when it lands: fleet number decals peeled off both doors and you can read the ghost of them in the right light, a whip flag mount bolted to the bed rail, two holes in the dash where the geotab and the strobe switch were, a fire extinguisher bracket on the transmission hump, vinyl floor, and caliche in every seam of the truck. every seam. door jambs, bed rail caps, under the seats, inside the fuel door. it took all of saturday and sunday with a pressure washer and a shop vac and i am still finding it.

you are half right wes, and i drove up and looked at that truck in august. 46,500 was the windshield number, 47,400 after the doc fee, and they would not move because it was the only non fleet 22 they had. mine was 44,900 all in from the pace ace people, no premium, no doc fee, nothing stacked on the bid, and the tax was the same either way at the county. so the real gap was about 2,500, and the Beeville truck had Transforce tires at 40 percent while mine came with Michelins at maybe 70. call it 3 grand. is 3 grand worth a caliche weekend and not driving it first? for me yes. for somebody who has never owned a 6.7, maybe not, and that is a fair point.

the CP4 argument i am not having in here. i already know where you stand, it is in your username.

what i will say is why i went sealed bid instead of the ford store. at the dealer i was bidding against the salesman. here i was bidding against the truck. i put in what a 22 with 61k was worth to me and if some guy in Lubbock wanted it more, fine, there is another white 250 next month. no back and forth, no four square sheet, no two hours in the finance office.

good questions. texas title in the leasing company's name with the bank as lienholder. what came in the envelope was that title signed over, a lien release on the bank's letterhead with the VIN on it, a bill of sale showing the bank as seller and pace ace motors as broker, and the odometer statement. all of that plus the 130-U went to the tax office in Karnes City, i paid 6.25 percent on the 44,900, about 2,800, and had plates in eight days. the paper tag lasted a week. no drama.

delivery, since nobody has asked. three car wedge behind a Ram dually, driver called the night before from Sonora, came down 181 and dropped it in my yard on a tuesday, 9 days after the money went out. the listing quotes around two weeks on a US delivery, so they came in under it. i walked it before i signed anything. miles on the cluster matched the listing photo plus 4 for loading, started it, ran the AC, put it in 4 high and made sure it engaged.

one thing was wrong. rear diff cover seeping, a damp ring around the bottom edge with dust stuck in it. classic fleet truck thing, somebody overtightens the cover bolts and the gasket squishes out. gasket and three and a half quarts of 75W-140 ran about 90 bucks at the parts store in Kenedy and i did it in the driveway. did not call it in under the 6 month warranty for 90 dollars, i would rather save that phone call for something that matters.

check in since ramon asked. 3,900 miles of mine on it, 65,200 on the clock. changed the oil at 64k, Motorcraft filter and 15W-40, sent a sample to the lab and it came back normal with a little silicon, which the lab said is caliche dust, change the air filter more often. drove it to the deer lease outside Tilden for the opener two weeks ago, first norther came through that saturday night and it was 38 on the pad, truck started like it was august. no codes, no leaks since the diff cover. the ghost decals finally came off with a heat gun and a plastic razor, the doors are one shade whiter underneath.

UPDATE, december. 8,700 miles of mine, 70,000 even on the cluster last night. one real problem to report and it was my own fault. fueled off the pad fuel truck twice in a row in november because i was in a hurry, and got the check fuel fill inlet light on the way home on 72. thought fuel pump, thought CP4, had a bad night. it was the capless filler neck. the flap was packed with caliche and would not seal, so the evap check fails and the light comes on. cleaned it with brake clean and a pick, bought the ford funnel that holds the flap open, 12 bucks, light went out on the second drive cycle. no shop, no warranty call.

receipts in the glovebox since september: 90 for the diff cover, 12 for the funnel, 28 for a cabin filter. that is the list.

if you found this on google wondering whether a fleet 6.7 through pace ace is a bad idea, it was not for me, with two conditions. get the idle hours and the oil life photos before you bid, and plan a weekend with a shop vac. the truck is fine. the caliche is not a joke. one of our drivers is bidding on a 350 out of the same yard right now, i told him the same thing.