Bought a new truck today

It's been 12 years since I bought a delivery truck for my store. Our trusty Isuzu NPR that many of you have seen in your driveway was tired and old. The A/C stopped working three years ago, the rear roll-up door was rotting, trips to New England in the winter corroded the externals and this past week it slowly started overheating in traffic. It's been the best truck I ever owned, and I had to decide whether to put $ 5K or so into it, or trade it in on a new one. My accountant said the write-down exemptions for this year made buying a new one very attractive, so I went to the Isuzu store here in town to see what they had. I got a huge case of sticker shock! My old one cost $ 26K in 2000. While I expected them to be more, I wasn't prepared for $ 55K!

One of the things that makes them so expensive today is the clean air emissions system on the new trucks, which has been in place about two years now. It looks like a small nuclear reactor under the truck and is hugely complex as its for a diesel engine. I hope it never breaks because it looks costly to repair.

It took me three trips to the dealer to get right with that in my mind, but I did finally buy one today. The new truck is SO much nicer - far more quiet, the A/C works great and its smoother..much. This one is larger so I can accommodate two sofas end to end on each side (total of four) and has a power liftgate on the tail which I hope will take some of the load off my back. I'm two years shy of sixty and thirty years of lifting sofas and cupboards into trucks has taken its toll. Now I can press a button and that Hancock and Moore Recliner gets an elevator ride to the deck!

I'll be running the new one up to New Jersey and New York in about 30 hours on its maiden run. Anyone here a graphic artist and want to take a crack on designing the box graphics - give it a shot in Photoshop and post a photo here!

Keep buying that leather furniture and tiger maple pieces. I have to pay for this truck! :)

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Nice!

What sort of transmission does that have?

Automatic. Sitting on the Cross Bronx in NYC for 2.5 hours to go 14 miles will make anyone a believer in auto trans for truck!

I made two deliveries in the new truck yesterday, one to Westbury NY and another to mid-state New Jersey. Had to drive through Times Square and mid-town Manhattan on that one, and I was sure I would get banged up in downtown NYC, but made it through scrape-free. Left at 4 a.m. and got home at 9 p.m. 600 mile long day. Really nice to have an air-conditioned truck that is MUCH quieter than the old one. And that hydraulic liftgate on the back is just like having Christmas Morning every time I use it. Wonderful!

Duane, I would propose painting your logo on the sides and your community forum mug shot on the back with the words "Fearless Leader" underneath! :) Haha!
Don't do that though...I hate those Sara Lee trucks with the people eating/smiling on the side with mustard dripping on the sides of their mouths.
You'll do something classy.

$55k ain't bad...heck, Ford SuperDuties cost that much.

While on delivery yesterday, I noticed that my stop in Westbury NY was just a few miles away from Oyster Bay...where I'd heard that artist Billy Joel has a building open to the public on weekends that shows off his motorcycle collection of 80 bikes. So I said "Self - you are going to be in this truck all day, and today is your 58th birthday - so that will be your treat. Let's go find it." And so I did. What a great town, I fell in love with Oyster Bay immediately. As an avid motorcyclist, I know and appreciate every bike in that collection and they're all 'riders' no museum queens. I spent half an hour chatting with the curator's wife - she was very nice, very friendly. And yes, Billy Joel rides them all. Here's two shots I snapped with my iPhone of the place, right downtown. I took a bunch more, but they are motorcycle specific...

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Happy (belated) Birthday Duane...and many happy more!

Hi Duane,

My husband said you called today with information on our sofa. Thanks for keeping us informed we appreciate you doing so. Heard you were in my neck-of-the woods, so to speak....New York!... I just read your post, good luck with your new truck. Also read your going on a family vacation to Italy, Greece and Turkey.......My husband and I went to Greece for our Honeymoon 36 years ago.....Beautiful country, but a lot has changed since we been there.....Both my husband and I are Italian descent and we never gone to Italy!.....I'm sure you and your family will love the food!....Enjoy, and let us all know about your trip when you come back. Hopefully by then I will have my new H & M sofa...I will keep you posted....Oh, Happy Belated Birthday!

Have Fun...
Diane & Angelo, from Staten Island :o:cool:

Thank you, Diane! Will do....

Yes, I ran two deliveries (1 to Long Island, 1 to central NJ) on Saturday in my new truck - that I just LOVE. Its such an improvement over my old truck which was 12 years old. Much quieter, smoother - has air conditioning - and smells good inside!

I feel bad that your sofa had to go back to H&M, but it was a good thing that Sun Delivery caught the problem areas before loading it on the truck, the actually do pay attention to the pieces rather than just blindly loading them on the truck and arriving with 'here you go, lady'. As I told Angelo today, H&M ordered in new leather which should arrive tomorrow as they couldn't color match with what they had in stock. If they can't match it perfectly, then they will simply remove the existing leather and re-do the entire piece with the new leather. They don't send anything out less that 100 %. So its going to add some delay, and I apologize for that..but it will be right when it leaves and goes back to Sun Delivery.

Looking forward to a little down time next week. It's been a year since I took any time off.....of course I'll worry about the store - your sofa - and the forum!