New 2009 C&C or wait?

[Shelby Griggs]

Background:

I bought a 2001.5 2500 in the fall of 2000. My long range plans at the time were to run this in my business for 10 years / 300K and then replace.

At this point I have about 215K or so miles, no real expensive problems yet, still has OEM VP44, U Joints, starter, water pump, alternator, etc. Other than a few lift pumps, rear axle seals a couple of times, etc., just routine maintenance so far, the clutch is even still working good. The truck was a 2500 PU and I replaced the bed with a service body when it had 500 miles on it AND is primarily used for work only, CGVW with a small trailer with ATV, etc. is about 12K and 8-10K at all other times.

Now I am thinking of a new 2009 C&C 3500 single rear wheel:

I am seriously considering making the jump this fall to a 2009 C&C based on NOT wanting year number one of the new body style, which would put me off till fall 2010 when I could buy a 2011 in the second year of the new body style.

The 2011 of course would fall into my 10 year plan, BUT that would also be after the 2010 emissions on the C&C. I know there has been some (OK, maybe a lot) of issues with the pickups with 2010 compliant emissions. It "seems" that maybe the C&C with only 2007 emissions are currently doing somewhat better, AND the write up on the home page does seem to indicate that the newer trucks have had much of the problems cured, OR at least Cummins is aware of the issue attempting to fix the software to cope.

One major concern I still have is the heat from the re-gens. My line of work takes me off road, or at least on a lot of two tracks, I sure don't want to catch the job site on fire. Has there been any progress there, say like a re-gen lock out below 30 MPH OR any time in low range, etc., that would minimize the heat while driving slow off road? This is concern rather I buy a 2009 or 2011.

Emissions aside, I usually like staying at the end of a model for lots of reasons, so 2009 would "theoretically" be the most refined 3rd generation, maybe things like the AC blend door etc., will be fixed finally. There are a few new enhancements such as bigger brakes, higher GVW's etc. coming on the 2009's, kind of like we finally got good brakes on the 2nd gens at the end, better cruise control, etc.

I think this may be the year to get some good deals too, I am reading of folks in at least some parts of the county getting 25-30% OFF of MSRP.

My business has been good in 2008, and a "tax" write-off for this year might be good too, although I am a little tentative on what the 2009 economy stands to bring, without getting into the politics, I suspect that things will magically start to recover after the election, regardless of who wins in November.

The worst part of buying a new truck besides the payments and possible emissions problems is getting it set up again, that will lighten the wallet and fatten the Visa bill quite a bit, LOL.

Should I jump into the deep end while driving a completely serviceable 8 year old truck?

SHG