found a chevy 2500 4x4 single cab, 1999 with the 6.0. Iwanted to buy it for $2500 when I found out it has 270k and makes a clunk sound under the driver fender when the 4x4 is engaged. Owner says it runs great and doesnt leak any oil… Should I consider 270k too many miles? I figure the clunk is a CV joint I might can replace on my own.
You should run away fast from this one. The mileage is way too high, even if the vehicle is well maintained. Any repairs on a 4WD vehicle are very expensive.
Whatever the owner says is worthless; “does not leak oil” could mean it USES OIL. “Runs great” is only true if YOU find it runs great when road testing it.
With today’s gas prices, this vehicle will need you to have a second job to keep the gas tank full.
maytheforcebewithyou,grasshopper! that s a lot of miles but if the truck was well maintained…
I have a '75 ford with only god knows how many miles and the engine is fine. the rest of truck is not so great. take anice long test drive and then put some cardboard under it and let it sit 5 minutes and see what drips down. not saying the guy isn t honest but…, check foryourself! that being said,a little oil leaking does not mean its a bad engine either. the best bet is to spring for a mechanic to inspect it. if the seller won t allow you to do that, be careful
“Plunge” is right, 'cause you’re about to take a bath if you buy this thing…
Is nearly 300k too many miles for a full size truck? Is this April fools? People give me stuff like this for free or I charge them to haul it away. This is not worth folding money.
See the “red flags?” The red flags mean “run in the other direction.”
I looked up “A Black Hole into which you throw money into” in my dictionary and its definition was a chevy 2500 4x4 single cab, 1999 with the 6.0
$2500 seems a little too high by my way of thinking. Not b/c it is a 1999, but b/c it has 270K. Unless the engine and (if an automatic) the transmission has recently been rebuilt,then it would probably be ok at that price. The only three other mediating factors might be, first, if the truck has been driven long miles on the freeway. If so, then it might be ok. But $2500 seems a pretty high price even still. Second, someday this will become a classic truck. I saw an advertisement for an early 70’s Ford truck sold for $25,000 the other day. A total frame-off restoration, sold in like-new stock condition of course. Third, you only live once and $2500 isn’t that much to spend on a personal whim. I’d be more than happy to spend $2500 on a 1967 slanted headlight air cooled VW Beetle, even if it had 270 K. And I realize it doesn’t make much sense!
Plunge = bath.
For the right price it might be ok as a short term set of wheels but 2500 dollars ain’t nowhere near it.
$500 and not a farthing more… and even that’s a gamble.
Let’s be realistic, guys . . .
Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to sell a running 1999 GMC 4x4 3/4 ton truck for $500, no matter the mileage
It ain’t gonna happen, unless perhaps you threaten the seller with bodily harm
No offense intended to anybody
I will fully agree the seller will never consider 500 bucks for the truck but that was the number that first popped into my mind. Not wanting to sound cheap, I figured a grand if it all checks out but that number will probably never work either… 
Odds are pretty high that a thorough inspection will find more than 2500 in repairs. Maybe that clunk is a ball joint giving up and every other suspension and steering component is also worn out; or a differential.
The OP also states that “the owner says” and the way the post is worded could be taken to mean that the OP hasn’t even laid hands on the truck yet while relying on truck owner claims.
Wonder if it’s eBay or Craigslist.
You guys rock!!! even if there isnt a lot of info in your posts I am enjoying the information and humor you have. The guy says it runs like a champ… I know he might be a liar… so I may drive it and offer a grand. Regardless…thanks for all your responses. . . . they mean a lot to a blue collar type guy who actually works for money
my '75 runs like a champ too! it s stopping, steering and picking up the stuff that keeps falling off that s the problem. I doubt I could get 500 bucks for it. I have been offered 300 just for the grill tho. so who knows… good luck!!!
My '79 Toyota pickup ran like a champ too. Even after it literally broke in half in the middle of the street and the boneyard owner I gave it too (who I knew) bolted the cab and bed together with 2x4s between them (to use as a yard truck).
Good luck with this. From the posts on here the inflation in used car prices is obvious. People are asking significant money for high mileage/old vehicles that really would have been scrap value not too many years ago. That’s what happens when several years of very low new car sales are now hitting the used market. People who previously bought three or four you cars are not finding anything affordable. So they’re buying slightly older cars, and onwards down the food chain to old trucks with 270,000 miles. This will eventually work it’s way out, but not for a few more years. Actually, we’re kind of lucky. These very high mileage vehicles can be kept running. A 100k car of my youth (sixties) was hard to keep going. The engine was dying, body succumbing to rust, seat springs were trying to impale you, and all of the regularly scheduled maintenance was sucking out the contents of your wallet.
Now you can buy one of these clunkers and, if it is structurally sound, it could last another 100k miles (or die tomorrow.) It’s a gamble you have a chance of winning. In the old days you always lost (unless you were prepared to spend ludicrous amounts.)
All these cars that run like Champs. Must be strange for a big pickup to drive like a 1980s Mitsubishi/Plymouth economy car. I really liked that little car, one of the prettiest small hatchbacks ever. Cars like that depress me. They have no value to a collector so hardly any still exist, and those are likely rusting away in some back acre. I like American Pickers and it makes me smile seeing some of the cars of my childhood again, even if the Maverick has a tree growing through the trunk and the Cordoba’s ‘rich Corinthian leather’ is now covered in mold.
Real ‘Corinthian leather’ was actually horsehide, not that Chrysler used that ever. So many interesting cars that no one will likely ever restore. I could be wrong. People of my age are restoring big station wagons of the sixties. Never thought I’d see that.
I wish I still had my 1966 Vista Cruiser.
A 1966 Vista Cruiser would be awesome. They were very classy wagons that I admired even as a little kid. Neighbors had one that I got to ride in sometimes. Made me feel special compared to our Ford. Other neighbors had a ca. 1960 Chrysler with power everything, half of which no longer worked a decade later. That one felt gaudy next to the Olds.