JaxInCalifornia@aol.com wrote:
> I'm getting more interesteed, so I called the guy at the dealership
> and he said all vehicles will be running when you pick them up.
My HMMWV was running when I picked it up. It made it about a quarter
mile down the road before it stalled. Really! I'm certainly not trying
to scare you away from this deal, but based on the prices and
descriptions, I would expect that these are basically fresh out of
storage with no more than the minimal work to make them start up, and
I wouldn't want you to enter the deal with artificially high
expectations.
> Here is what I came up with for me as an example for total costs:
> Smog CA: 35
It's a diesel, and is thus (so far...) exempt from smog check
requirements in CA.
> Total price: $19,822
That's a little bit less than I (initially) paid for my HMMWV, which
did not include any cushions, doors, top, bows, exhaust tailpipe, etc.
> $250-300 or so for cushions?
I think I paid about $325 for a full set of brand new cushions for
four seats from Surplus Enterprizes. Prices may be lower from other
sources, and used cushions should be a lot less, but your number
sounds like a safe planning number.
> Any way you are looking right at $20k for a HMMWV licensed and
> running. Supposedly in good shape. Doesn't seem like a bad deal if
> you got an extra 20k laying around for a toy.
>
> What do you think? Is this a pretty good deal? Any comments will be
> appreciated.
It sounds a bit cheaper than what I perceived as the going rate for
the leftover Riverside HMMWVs that didn't sell in the initial live
auction, at the time that I bought mine. IMHO, as long as you're
prepared to spend a lot of time, and potentially a fair amount of
change getting the truck configured the way you like and running
reliably (as with any unrestored truck, but especially true of a money
pit like the HMMWV! :-), this might be one of the better deals around.
You could probably end up spending a lot less money than I did if
you're more patient; at several points, I got impatient and decided to
throw money at it to get the parts I needed RIGHT NOW, where a more
patient and thrifty restorer probably could have saved money by
waiting and shopping.
Well, based on your postings, you sound pretty serious about buying
one of these beasts! Good luck, and keep us all posted! A
freshly-retired HMMWV can be a cantankerous beast, and they sure seem
to be money-intensive, but they're a lot of fun to drive, they can be
practical and handy medium-sized cargo trucks once the bugs are worked
out, and I have no regrets at all about buying one.
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://www.keyserver.net/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE PLEASE SEND PLAIN ASCII TEXT ONLY -- NO HTML OR QUOTED-PRINTABLE
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