Had to have my late 2004 Ford F150 inspected yesterday. While waiting I walked about the lot looking at new F150s. I guess you could say I had some sticker shock. None cost less than Nana's new Jeep Grand Cherokee with all the bells and whistles. Most were close to double the price I paid for my current truck. That's not to say they have twice the features or strength or something. Come to think of it, all that I looked at were 4-wheel drives which pushes the price up, then again, so is Nana's vehicle. Some of that cost is part and parcel of being in a more remote & smaller market. Anyway, it wasn't much more truck for a lot more money.
I like my truck. It has been all around the country, back to Houston, down to Florida (both coasts) several times, up to Pennsylvania several times, over to West Virginia several times, down to Pigeon Forge and over the mountain in Maggie Valley a couple of times. My truck is now almost 7 years old and has almost 104,000 miles on it. There is one small dent from a tree limb in the hood, a slight dent in the right rear door from a shopping cart and the bed is a bit banged up with a couple of paint transfers. The upholstery has no flaws that I know of. The carpet and floor mats are in good shape as are the pedal covers. It just passed inspection and gets about 14.5 mpg in town on the subsidized ethanol fuel or about 16.5 mpg with real gasoline. It did about 17 mpg towing the RV but that was real gas. Moreover it is comfortable to drive and to ride. It isn't too noisy. I think I'll hang on to it for a while at least.
I've got an '01 and I'm going to drive it until the wheels fall off. Then I'm going to go to the dealership and pick out a nice used 3-year-old truck that's depreciated to about 15K. Cash for clunkers killed off the good clean used vehicles for a year or so, but the market should pick back up before I'm looking for one.
ReplyDeleteMy '90 F150 finally took the junk route when the Mazda manual tanny locked up in 3rd gear. The odometer broke at 67,000 and change; it had already been around there once before and I guess it had well over 300k on it when we parted company. I bought it used with 40k miles on it for 6500 bucks, replaced the clutch at around 150k and otherwise maintenance expected for that kind of miles. In-line 300 inch engine still ran like a top, I just couldn't see putting $1200 into tranny work. They'll go a long way if you'll go with them!
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