[BoomerSpeed01]

Hello, I am new here as I've never owned a charger before, but I've always wanted to. There's a 2013 charger 5.7L police package for sale near me that's a really good price for what it is. All light and intenna holes have been filled and painted, along with hood and trunk lid were painted as well. VERY thick folder filled with miticulous maintenance records. it has 139k miles and at 138k the lifters and valves were worked on, and new gaskets put on. It's had the thermostat and radiator hoses replaced, several control arms and bushings replaced, and other odds and ends while it was still in service at the police department.

I literally can't find anything wrong with it. What do you guys think? is $9700 a good price for this? I feel that's pretty fair.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

Hello, I am new here as I've never owned a charger before, but I've always wanted to. There's a 2013 charger 5.7L police package for sale near me that's a really good price for what it is. All light and intenna holes have been filled and painted, along with hood and trunk lid were painted as well. VERY thick folder filled with miticulous maintenance records. it has 139k miles and at 138k the lifters and valves were worked on, and new gaskets put on. It's had the thermostat and radiator hoses replaced, several control arms and bushings replaced, and other odds and ends while it was still in service at the police department.

I literally can't find anything wrong with it. What do you guys think? is $9700 a good price for this? I feel that's pretty fair.

 

[FlyersHockey]

The first thing I'd do is have the oil plug removed and inspect some of the oil that comes out.

Several of us here had the cam and lifter issue with varying levels on what was all replaced. Most likely they replaced the cam and lifters and put everything back together and called it a day. Fortunately that's all I needed, BUT I had little flakes of metal in my oil for over a year after the repair. About 5 oil changes in 15k miles to get it all cleared out. While the vast majority of flakes were small they could still present an issue.

If it was me I'd be more comfortable with there being another 10k miles on the car after the repair than just 1,000 miles.

 

[MikesDodge]

Price seems on the high side but I haven't looked for one lately.
I agree. It's nice the repair has been done but you also have to wonder why someone would do the repair and sell it so quickly? Do they know there's more issues to come? Or did they buy it at an auction cheap purposely to fix and flip?
Did they use mopar parts or the ones that people have problems with failing again fast?

 

[ONEZ ST]

If it was me I'd be more comfortable with there being another 10k miles on the car after the repair than just 1,000 miles.

That would play with my comfort level too. But given the extensive records and recent work and cost of repairs today it might be worth the risk and asking price.

 

[CtCarl]

Hello, I am new here as I've never owned a charger before, but I've always wanted to. There's a 2013 charger 5.7L police package for sale near me that's a really good price for what it is. All light and intenna holes have been filled and painted, along with hood and trunk lid were painted as well. VERY thick folder filled with miticulous maintenance records. it has 139k miles and at 138k the lifters and valves were worked on, and new gaskets put on. It's had the thermostat and radiator hoses replaced, several control arms and bushings replaced, and other odds and ends while it was still in service at the police department.

I literally can't find anything wrong with it. What do you guys think? is $9700 a good price for this? I feel that's pretty fair.

How many engine hours?

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

How many engine hours?

A tad over 8k. But since the cam, lifters and valves were serviced 1k miles ago I don't think that's going to be a problem as those are the parts that would have been worn from the excessive idling.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

Price seems on the high side but I haven't looked for one lately.
I agree. It's nice the repair has been done but you also have to wonder why someone would do the repair and sell it so quickly? Do they know there's more issues to come? Or did they buy it at an auction cheap purposely to fix and flip?
Did they use mopar parts or the ones that people have problems with failing again fast?

The cam/valve/lifter work was basically the last thing done to maintain the car while it was with the police dept. I wondered about that too, but they always took the car to the same place and from what I can tell from the records, once they worked on something, it didn't happen again. Being a government vehicle, they maintain them pretty well to my understanding. The thick folder of maintenance records is a big plus in my book because I know exactly what's been done and how long ago. There's risk in buying any used car, but I'm way more comfortable buying something that I know the history of than buying blind and just hoping nothing is wrong with it.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

Price seems on the high side but I haven't looked for one lately.

And for the price, I've looked all over the place and there's nothing anywhere around me that even competes when looking at similar mileage. What they're asking is on the lower end of what KBB says someone should be selling it for so everything seems good.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

That would play with my comfort level too. But given the extensive records and recent work and cost of repairs today it might be worth the risk and asking price.

The level of maintenance records is a huge plus for me. I'd probably pass on it if it didn't have all those records. But knowing that some of the most major things to look out for have been fixed very recently, I'm much more confident in the car being reliable for a considerable amount of time/miles.
I put roughly 25k miles on my car a year so I'll burn through those 10k miles pretty darn quick. But thinking about how many cycles a lifter/valve would have made even in 1k miles, if something were to have been wrong with what they did, it would have shown itself. That's my theory anyway, could be wrong but IDK 🤷‍♂️

 

[FlyersHockey]

The cam/valve/lifter work was basically the last thing done to maintain the car while it was with the police dept. I wondered about that too, but they always took the car to the same place and from what I can tell from the records, once they worked on something, it didn't happen again. Being a government vehicle, they maintain them pretty well to my understanding. The thick folder of maintenance records is a big plus in my book because I know exactly what's been done and how long ago. There's risk in buying any used car, but I'm way more comfortable buying something that I know the history of than buying blind and just hoping nothing is wrong with it.

Maybe where you're at, lol. Around here the cruisers are used and abused pretty hard. I'd say the maintenance done is to keep the vehicle running, but wouldn't call the care exceptional.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

The first thing I'd do is have the oil plug removed and inspect some of the oil that comes out.

Several of us here had the cam and lifter issue with varying levels on what was all replaced. Most likely they replaced the cam and lifters and put everything back together and called it a day. Fortunately that's all I needed, BUT I had little flakes of metal in my oil for over a year after the repair. About 5 oil changes in 15k miles to get it all cleared out. While the vast majority of flakes were small they could still present an issue.

If it was me I'd be more comfortable with there being another 10k miles on the car after the repair than just 1,000 miles.

That's a really good point, to see if there's any shavings in the oil. The only thing I can think that would hinder that inspection is that I think there's magnets in the bottom of oil pans most of the time, right? Wouldn't that catch the VAST majority of shavings and end up not seeing them when draining the oil?
I always do my oil changes as close to 3-5k miles as I can. Keeping it closer to 3k miles on higher milage cars like this. I don't care what the oils claim to protect longevity wise. Most cars with this kind of milage burn a small amount of oil anyway so I don't risk it.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

Maybe where you're at, lol. Around here the cruisers are used and abused pretty hard. I'd say the maintenance done is to keep the vehicle running, but wouldn't call the care exceptional.

Haha I'm not sure what area you're from, but I'm in Fort Wayne indiana and the car was from the Elkhart County Sherriff's dept. Around here things stay pretty quiet for the most part and cops are just crusing around town waiting to get a call or catch someone for traffic violations.
I have a handful of friends that work for local law enforcement and they all think the maintenance for their cars is pretty good.
Everything has to be taken with a grain of salt, but I trust their opinions.

 

[Slidd]

Maybe where you're at, lol. Around here the cruisers are used and abused pretty hard. I'd say the maintenance done is to keep the vehicle running, but wouldn't call the care exceptional.

I'd agree with that... oil changes, brakes, tires and anything that breaks. They definitely don't do any more maintenance than they have to nor should they.

Like on a transmission service, I would seriously doubt they would do that unless they had a problem. If the car can make it to the mileage figure they are expecting before dumping it at auction, why waste the taxpayer's money?

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

I'd agree with that... oil changes, brakes, tires and anything that breaks. They definitely don't do any more maintenance than they have to nor should they.

Like on a transmission service, I would seriously doubt they would do that unless they had a problem. If the car can make it to the mileage figure they are expecting before dumping it at auction, why waste the taxpayer's money?

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

They did an awful lot of work right before selling it at auction if that's the mentality they had. Like I mentioned before, I don't know where you guys are from, but around here my handful of friends that are in law enforcement think they keep pretty good care of the cars in their fleets. Not questioning your point, as I'm sure it's valid. I'm just not sure if that's the case with this one in particular. It doesn't seem to have any of the issues that you are told to look out for when getting an ex-cop car.

 

[MikesDodge]

It depends on use and size of dept. If they're not big they usually want to run their cars as long as possible and good on maintenence. Others run them till they beeak. It could have had a lot of service because of how it was beat on.
I have no records for my 2014 but it didn't need much when I got it and it was mostly from sitting before they got rid of it. Another one I have I do have records for and it got oil changes even if it didn't have any use.

 

[FlyersHockey]

That's a really good point, to see if there's any shavings in the oil. The only thing I can think that would hinder that inspection is that I think there's magnets in the bottom of oil pans most of the time, right? Wouldn't that catch the VAST majority of shavings and end up not seeing them when draining the oil?
I always do my oil changes as close to 3-5k miles as I can. Keeping it closer to 3k miles on higher milage cars like this. I don't care what the oils claim to protect longevity wise. Most cars with this kind of milage burn a small amount of oil anyway so I don't risk it.

I'm not sure if there's a magnet on the Chargers, but even so it won't catch anywhere close to all of it. Consider my oil looked like glitter when it happened. I did an oil change after 500 miles. The several changes after that would diminish, but still noticeable. It shouldn't take more than a quick unscrew to get a cup of two of oil to take a look.

 

[Rhill1124]

I'm not sure if there's a magnet on the Chargers, but even so it won't catch anywhere close to all of it. Consider my oil looked like glitter when it happened. I did an oil change after 500 miles. The several changes after that would diminish, but still noticeable. It shouldn't take more than a quick unscrew to get a cup of two of oil to take a look.

I believe, from what I’ve read, that the plug itself is magnetic. Could be wrong. Even if that’s correct, that’s a very small piece to rely on catching everything.

 

[BoomerSpeed01]

I'm not sure if there's a magnet on the Chargers, but even so it won't catch anywhere close to all of it. Consider my oil looked like glitter when it happened. I did an oil change after 500 miles. The several changes after that would diminish, but still noticeable. It shouldn't take more than a quick unscrew to get a cup of two of oil to take a look.

I thought about simply putting some strong magnets in a ziploc bag and just dunk it in the oil drain pan after doing an oil change to see if there's any shavings.