Help! Purchased '97 Inter/Navistar with 100k mileage and now told it has 300k!
Hello Wonderful Humans! I need some help and advise as I am currently in a sale in which the terms have changed rapidly. I have been researching skoolie conversions for 6-8 months and took the plunge recently by purchasing a wonderful steal of a bus online at govdeals.com. I found a '97 International Navistar with only 100K miles(too good to be true?). As I called to arrange for pick up the fleet manager tells me that the bus's mileage was reported wrong and the bus actually has 300k miles on it.
I am now worried and freaked out! The key selling point other than the unique front end which made navigation look like a breeze, was the mileage. Now that I know the mileage is this high I am reluctant to buy. The original price was $1850 and they now have offered to take $825 off.
The fleet manager informs me that the electric board/wiring unit? was recently replaced as well as alternator, brakes, and a list of other small repairs only a month before fleet removal at the 300K PM. Then they received a new fleet and pulled 60 buses from the fleet.
He said this bus was only pulled a month ago and was well kept and had less stops as the handicap bus with less seats (he said thats better for engine IDK if this is true) and that this engine would get up to 500k out of it.
My question; is this bus worth investing into? Is the mileage too high? And is this engine, transmission and bus durable enough to last a good bit longer?
I am planning to live in this bus full time and I will be driving it from the East coast to the West right away and then spending a year exploring out West. I will be putting about 10,000 miles on the bus in the first year and look to upgrade to a larger bus for the second year.
I am most concerned with transmission as I have read that if that goes, your bus is pretty much toast unless you have $3-$6K to sink in. I have to decide by tomorrow if I want to buy the bus at the discounted price or let it go. Any insight, wisdom and/or nuggets of conversion knowledge you can offer would be truly appreciated!
Much love and thanks!
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