looking at a vehicle, got a couple of concerns.

[spikerS]

went and looked at a vehicle tonight. the vehicle will hardly ever be drivin, with the exception of pulling a trailer for camping weekends, and possibly the occasional run to the woods to get fire wood.

anyways, went and looked that the truck, and the concerns i have are:

1) it was so hot under the hood I thought it was on propane. seriously, it was hot, even for the weather we had today.

2) Oil. the oil did not even show up on the dip stick when it was turned off. the oil we did see, was immediatly after stopping the engine, and it looked pretty new...

3) Rack and Pinion boot was torn pretty badly.

4) Temperature gauge on the dash was not working.

5) the owner does not appear to be a guy who does his own maintenance, so who knows how long the oil has been that low, running that hot....

I can attribute some of the head under the hood to the low oil, but even then it seemed really hot.

should I walk or is it worth looking into more?

[Euro_Trash]

If you dont feel comfortable, walk. There are always other vehicles for sale

[nbaker00]

If you like the truck, I would look into it further.. Take it to a real mechanic and point out these concerns.

[The Cosworth]

how much is he asking, what kind of truck, etc.

[spikerS]

I think i could pick the truck up for around 2k. dodge dakota. is actually in the beyond marketplace.

[The Cosworth]

i would walk away. No real easy options to swap engines if it does fail and aren't known to withstand laxed maintenance.

[nbaker00]

Is it the 94 dakota we have? Haha

[spikerS]

no, i didn't even know you had one, but feel free to PM me the details.

[TomcoPDR]

For 2k from what you need out of it (camping, hauling, towing), I don't think it's worth the hassle, just pay a little more for something better.

[adam c]

when in doubt - don't

[Kloubek]

It does sound shady. If it's the old body style, they are a dime a dozen. If it's the newer body style and you like it, I would get it checked out if you are not comfortable. You may even get dickering ammo if you can prove the things that are wrong with it.

[toastgremlin]

It's not like there's any shortage of trucks hitting the used market here. Nobody ever got burned by walking away from a deal.

Definitely get an inspection, though, even if you do feel OK about the car.