Today I went and visited one of the large second hand car dealerships that specializes in commercial vehicles. This branch is their commercial vehicle venue so I was not expecting to see normal cars when I walked through the door.
The problem is with the warehouse business we are literally down to our last vehicle and that vehicle also needs some serious work. Spending money repairing the fleet makes no sense and it is time to clear out all the rubbish and replace the vehicles. Our vehicles have been abused and run into the ground and repairing them would be throwing good money at bad.
I am looking for one vehicle in decent shape and a fork lift because I hate renting the fork lift knowing I can pay one off for less than the monthly rental.
This 1976 Toyota Hilux caught my eye as the condition was impeccable and looked very clean. I wish our staff looked after the vehicles like this owner as ours cannot even last 10 years. The problem is they have licenses and you wonder how they passed when we all know they most likely paid to pass. New dents arrive weekly and because we took the vehicles over already in such a bad condition it was hard to spot what was new and old damage.
The commercial vehicles were outside in the back and you get to realize the scale of this place. This was the Coca Cola Dome prior to covid lockdowns and used to host exhibitions and pop concerts/ music events. That obviously never panned out very well and is now a second hard car business.
I was due to visit yesterday except heavy rain put me off and I am glad I cancelled as all the commercial vehicles are outside. I am in search of a small truck and have realized panel vans are no good due to their limitations and also our drivers will wreck them.
This Mitsubishi Fuso stood out as it had low mileage being only 23000 Km and the bin is large enough to cover our needs. This will be able to carry pool tables and treadmills with ease which are our largest items. This vehicle is listed as an A Grade so it has good service history and maintenance plus very low usage. Yes this has a small dent in the front which is fine and should make our drivers feel right at home.
The cost of this vehicle is negligible as the business covers this and will be in the region of around $400 monthly. The Isuzu next door had too high mileage being over 500 000 Km and a quick search showed this was a well known courier company vehicle so it is on it's last legs. Most companies off load their vehicles when they hit a certain mileage because otherwise they start costing more and the value drops off like a cliff.
We will most likely buy this vehicle this week and I will keep an eye out on the various auctions because I would rather be paying trade than retail prices. The difference is between 40 and 60% so it is definitely worth the effort to go hunting even if it could take a few weeks.
No luck with a forklift today as there was one available that was on auction and when I enquired there was 25 seconds left. There may be a chance it could be relisted so I will double check tomorrow and even at the current selling price would be 25% less than the monthly rental price. Most forklifts have been abused so you have to be careful what you are buying because you could be buying someone's problem which now becomes yours.
