OCI's/Leased Vehicles/Canadians?

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Looking at a used truck, but as always with pre-owned, there are rarely guarantees on how well it has been maintained. This one is a 2011 GMC 2500 HD with 6.0 gas. It is with an individual locally who has owned it since 2014 at 86,000 miles. It now has 106,000 miles. Prior to that it spent its whole life as a lease vehicle in Canada. The current owner bought it at online auction from the lease company. It seems to run and drive fine. Carfax confirms that its entire life before current was in Canada as a lease...zero maintenance records on Carfax...which doesn't prove anything i understand. My concern are these first 86k miles. Do leases REQUIRE regular maintenance to be performed? If not, I would think the Canadian cold would be even worse on neglected oil.
 
Leases do require oil changes but I highly doubt they will know if or when they have been done. The Canadian cold? You are in Illinois?! I doubt its much colder in Canada, unless it spent its life much much further north. If the person who leased it had it serviced at the leasing dealers location, you can call them up and have them run the vin. They should be able to give you records of work based on that.
 
Thanks. Well, I just have a generic leasing company listed on th Carfax, so probably not worth trying to investigate. Just hearing that leases do require oil changes gives me some comfort...
And I'm just north of Paducah Ky, so Alberta "sounds" really cold to me
wink.gif
 
All our company trucks are leased, the last company I worked at as well.
I can tell you leased company trucks are not like car rentals. I am that guy that religiously gets my oil changed every 3000 miles but that's not the case across the board. Some guys every 5000, some every 10,000. Some only after they get asked when is the last time you had a oil change. Companies don't really enforce the oil changes and lease companies just basically control the parts that get replaced and track repairs.
I would be very cautious about a pick up because if it was a company leased truck it doesn't garrantee it got any maintenance. My last company would let us buy our company trucks for very low auction prices. There were some late model trucks I wouldn't want no matter what, I knew the driver and the maintenance on that truck. Some were junk but the lease company made it's money on leasing to the company for 5-6 years and off to the auction so the company could write off the lease.
 
That's what I wondered. However, I'm wondering if this was an individual lease and not a company. Interior is near perfect. There is no bed liner, yet the bed has very few scratches. (And it is an ext cab with short bed) The hitch doesn't look like it has been used...but then again, I guess some companies might lease trucks and use them primarily for passenger transport.
The current owner (seems trustworthy) says he has not seen any oil use between OCI's. So, I'm just not sure what to do. It's a good deal and local....two things I've been having trouble finding.
 
Originally Posted By: lukejo
Thanks. Well, I just have a generic leasing company listed on th Carfax, so probably not worth trying to investigate. Just hearing that leases do require oil changes gives me some comfort...
And I'm just north of Paducah Ky, so Alberta "sounds" really cold to me
wink.gif



Well, Alberta can be pretty cold, but chances are your vehicle was leased/used in Ontario, which is pretty much no colder than, say, New York state, and a lot warmer than North Dakota or Minnesota.

Have you tried doing a Carfax search from a Canadian site? Something with a dot ca domain name. Carfax doesn't cross borders so if you were looking at Carfax US it's no surprise you found nothing.
 
Usually people who keep the body and interior in good shape provide reasonable maintenance. Life can be hard on a truck in Canada, but if so there should be some evidence - dents, dings, scrapes, misaligned parts.

Nothing that you've described sounds bad.
 
I would not buy a truck from Alberta, they are just beat to death. Usually the leased gas and oil trucks never or rarely go for service. Roads aren't good in the winter either, they mostly use "sand" for winter traction but in reality its more like gravel. Check the engine hours on the truck, it most likely spent lots of its life idling you can flip through the EVIC to check it out.
 
Originally Posted By: Farmer
I would not buy a truck from Alberta, they are just beat to death. Usually the leased gas and oil trucks never or rarely go for service. Roads aren't good in the winter either, they mostly use "sand" for winter traction but in reality its more like gravel. Check the engine hours on the truck, it most likely spent lots of its life idling you can flip through the EVIC to check it out.

Thanks. This truck shows lease renewals in Alberta every quarter. Also, the current owner had to go to North Dakota to pick it up....and commented that it has very little rust because Canada uses sand and not salt..... [censored].
 
GM provides oil changes on most of their new car leases, reason being that if its free people will be more likely to have the service done. GM doesn't spend money to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Having said that, I agree completely on the point that the overall condition of the truck being an indication of its care. In the end though its a [censored] shoot with many used vehicles.
 
Originally Posted By: lukejo
. Also, the current owner had to go to North Dakota to pick it up....and commented that it has very little rust because Canada uses sand and not salt..... [censored].


crackmeup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: lukejo
My concern are these first 86k miles. Do leases REQUIRE regular maintenance to be performed? If not, I would think the Canadian cold would be even worse on neglected oil.


I see lease vehicles with almost no maintenance done to them all the time. Just like any other used car, have to do your due diligence. It also makes a big difference on exactly where in Canada it is from. Alberta can be really cold, if it is from Edmonton or further north, but because it is so cold, they don't really use salt on the roads, so the body will be in much better shape. Ontario has a big diversity as well, a car from Niagra or Toronto will see a fraction of the salt that a car from Ottawa sees. A car from Vancouver has likely barely seen below freezing, would be similar to Seattle. A 10 year old car from Vancouver is usually in better condition than a one year old car from Ottawa.
 
Originally Posted By: lukejo
This truck shows lease renewals in Alberta every quarter.

Does it say where in Alberta? Any clues as to who leased it?

The location of the lease renewal and where the truck was used could be quite different (eg leased through the head office in Calgary, used for field work in Fort McMurray).
 
Get the VIN and call GM canada or even a dealership in Canada and ask. When we leased our GM work vans we still went to the dealer for maintenance. Most guys just followed the oil life monitor and welcomed the couple hour break sitting around at the dealership and said yes to whatever the service adviser mentioned needed to be done.
Sounds like the truck is pretty good, so if the current owner has maintenance records its probably fine.
 
When I was leasing my VW GTI I actually changed the oil before it reaches the OCI but that's me being more performance oriented. I can't stand the car has less power because of the old oil. I took care of the care like my own even I knew I would not be buying it at the end of the lease.

A leased pick up truck may be a different story.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: newbe46
When I was leasing my VW GTI I actually changed the oil before it reaches the OCI but that's me being more performance oriented. I can't stand the car has less power because of the old oil. I took care of the care like my own even I knew I would not be buying it at the end of the lease.

Less power because of old oil?
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Originally Posted By: newbe46
When I was leasing my VW GTI I actually changed the oil before it reaches the OCI but that's me being more performance oriented. I can't stand the car has less power because of the old oil. I took care of the care like my own even I knew I would not be buying it at the end of the lease.

Less power because of old oil?


Maybe I did not articulate that properly. I always feel the acceleration is a bit more sluggish when it nears the OCI and my right foot instinctively press harder to compensate.
 
I would like to see a set of dyno pulls on same vehicle at same temps right after an oil change, and after the oil has been run for the full oci. I bet the numbers come out to within the margin of error.

The brain is powerful and tricks us on a regular basis. The so-called "Butt-dyno" is not an objective measure.
 
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