I'm glad I live in the south and don't have to deal with rust on a 7 year old vehicle.

 

I'd highly reccomend putting your eyes on the truck. I'm a driver, so be it 20 miles or 3200 miles, i'm always down to get behind the wheel. I bought my truck today driving 170 miles to see it.

If you have an escape, you should be able to get good money for it now, they get good mileage I hear. Hail damage is cake there's a trick. Get some dry ice and slowly glide it over the surface of the car. It will cause the metal to get cold, and thus contract, pulling hte dents out. I've done this a few times, and it gets virtually all dents out, unless they're seriously large. Doing that alone could net you a few thousand on your sale.

Good luck, diesel or gas, it's a nice truck. Mileage doesn't scare me anymore, I've had 6 cars now that breached 200k. Long as they've been at least somewhat maintained, chances are they're fine.

Good luck. But seriously, take a weekend, roll down, or leave early on a saturday or sunday morning, drive 5-6 hr down, check it out, and come back. If the dealer thinks you're willing to buy it unseen, he'll likely not give you much of a deal at all. Haggling over the phone is likely impossible, while I've never tried it, I can't imagine it going well.

 

You do not have to be in person to negoiate (although it helps). I have been in sales all my life, and it is pretty easy. You have to sell the dealer on giveing you the vehicle for a lower price. Can you check the area around the dealer to see if something close to that is out there? I happened on a Honda dealer with an Excursion when I bought mine. Bottom line was that not many Honda shoppers were interested in a gas guzzler. Get many pics sent to you and identify anything that may be not quite right. If it doesn't look right, post it here and you will get some great feedback, I did! Then, offer a price that you feel is fair (or slightly less). The dealer will then counter, and hopefully you will have saved some money! If you don't end up getting it, it wasn't meant to be, and remember, there are more out there!

 

There was a lifted X with $4K worth of tires and rims on Ebay for 8600 with less miles last week that never sold. I see them on there all the time for less. It is where I found mine 2.5 yrs ago. 2000 X with 65K and a plow for $10K and gas was a whole lot cheaper than it has been up untill the last month. It turned out to be only 5 miles away. I think you should keep looking a bit, good deals are out there, and likely closer to you. What part of Upper MI as in the UP or TC area?

 

Also, look further than auto-trader. I usually check craigslist for vehicles, but found my Ex on vehix.com after hearing a commercial for the site this past weekend when I was visiting family 300 miles away.

 

I live in the UP

 

Canada? Or does UP stand for something else?

 

Upper Peninsula of Michigan

 

2002ExcursionV-10,

Check out Cars.com and see what you come up with on Excursions. Seems as though they are used more so by the dealers in the South where I live. One thing for sure if its from the mid-south there is NO RUST.

I found mine on Cars.com

I purchased mine from a Honda dealer and noticed the YesProfit also purchased his from a Honda dealer.

 

Mines for sale at a GM dealer but they specialize in GM's fuel effecient cars, so I should be able to talk 'em down quite a bit. I spoke to the internet manager and his first offer was $900 off, where as the salesperson offered $300. If I can get it lowered another $200-$400, that will be right in my price range. I could own my first X very soon....

 

Don't tell them that. If you do, that's all you will get off. If you just tell them you like the vehicle but the price isn't good enuf, you might just be suprised how much more they take off. Could be another $1,000. Escpeciallly if you can wait til closer to the end of the month.

(I sold cars for the last 8 years.)

 

Where is it at in "upper IL"?

 

agreed, wait till end of the month if you can...gr8scott, you know the other side of this......since he's not getting it from you, you can tell him all the tricks.

the thing is you don't know their bottom line and they want you to pay as much as possible. use your age as an advantage, play dumb....tell them something like....."I almost have enough money, my dad is going to help me with paying for the truck but he's waiting to get paid for a job, or x-mas bonus, or sell my car, or whatever". you got him down $900 now right? don't get him to lock you in to a $ amount but.......if it started at $9k -$900 your at $8100, for example he might take $7500, make him think you only have $7200 right now and you are waiting for the rest.

find a number in your head that you and your dad are good with then get down to it. make them think you are paying as much as you possibly can and you had to scrape it together, then they will lower the price a little cause they feel bad, but they still make a little $.....then you are happy because you still got it lower than it was listed.

as a side note times suck now for almost everyone, that salesman has to pay his bills and feed his family too, you just want to part with as little of your money as possible.......

** $ amounts above are just for example

 

I personally don't like buying cars with high milage unless its a $1,000 beater. Thats a lot of money for something with that many miles on it. I am not saying it isn't worth it. But think of this the excursions have a lot electronic and fancy stuff that can go bad. I have heard of the power seats motors, power adjusting pedals, heated seat heaters, auto climate control and many other things breaking with age. Given most of these things are on a lot of other cars but those cars might not cost $9,000 with that many miles on it.

I understood this and swore to myself I was not going to let it fall apart. My wifes aunt has a suburban and she has let it fall apart and nothing works on it anymore, she can't even lock the doors on it anymore.

I bought mine with 60,000 on it and I now have 80,000 on its. Its been in the shop at least three times.
First time Rear parking sensor stopping working(not a big deal and I could have done with out it but I had it fixed anyway cost something like $150 I can't remember)
Second time the radio stopped working cost me like $300 to get it fixed.
Both Batteries died(some if not all diesels have 2 batteries)
I am not sure but i think it was in the shop a 4th time I can't remember.

Sounds like you are already aware of the fuel economy. As long as you understand there are a lot of small things that can break and you can either live with it or pay to get it fixed go for it ! You will enjoy driving the biggest SUV ever made !

 

hey man, you are almost in the ex club ... may the dealer will come half to show you the ex .... there's a nice 2003 v10 ex with 72000 miles and $10,900 on the windshield here in east tn .....( i know way too far from you , just a thought )... the sales people here hate it when they work you for several hours and then you start to walk away ... they go to making deals then .... good luck and keep us posted .... pick at all of the common problems the ex's are known to have ..... front wheel bearings/ ball joints, brakes, broken manifold bolts , electric door lock failure, no rear sway bar, lost keyless entry code, extra electronic keys ... you need to drive the ex too before you buy ...