Is this a good price on an F150?

[zapper2003]

Local lot has a 2005 F150 Extended cab stepside shortbox 4x4 with the FX4 package, 80k miles, 5.4L w/ auto trans for sale. The body is straight, hardly any stone chips, two tone white with a silver stripe on the lower half of the body. Loaded interior, cloth buckets up front, bench in back. Engine/trans is dry, rearend isn't leaking at all, frame is still black like stock (surprising for a rust belt truck) and its got a hitch. New tires (street type tread but thats fine) and its a darn good looking truck, they are asking $14,500.00. Is that a good price for the truck I'm describing?

 

[snake]

You can book it out on KBB.com and edmunds.com as well as NADA.com. Then go to craigslist.org, auto trader.com and cars.com and see what others are asking for their trucks in your area. Remember asking price isn't selling price on these sites..

I'd say the mileage is a little high on the truck you described for the dough. New trucks are like 13K off sticker around here and that comes with new everything and a warranty. Since those trucks aren't very good on gas, lots of folks are liquidating their stuff- you may be able to do better or talk the guy down big time. BTW, I have a autocheck account right now, gimmie the VIN of that truck you are looking at and I'll run it for you.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I would say it is a fair starting price, maybe haggle them down a tad more.

Sounds like a nice truck.

 

[elgato]

A lot should be happy to take $11,000 to $12,000 for that truck considering the mileage and current market. Full size trucks and SUV's are currently selling for waaay below Kelly trade in values at the dealer auctions. I would offer $11,000 and let them think about it for a day.
Good luck.

 

[gotmudd]

i learned a long time ago that what the sticker on the window says and what you pay are two different things. they put the sticker on the window assuming the average joe isn't going to walk in with that kind of money , so they set a higher price in the hopes of getting you to make payments so that they can collect the "extra" ammount in interest. case in point, when i bought the truck that i'm driving i asked the lot what they wanted , he said 2500 w/payments. i said screw payments, what about cash out the door? in the end i paid 1000 dollars plus DOC. so i would say put on your best poker face and go make them a crazy offer. FWIW, my girlfriend spent 20,000 on a fullsize F250 4X4 and it's a 1999

 

[zapper2003]

Well, I know full-well that I'm not paying sticker for anything I buy, except for food, but sometimes I wish i could haggle the price on that even. I haven't gone to the bank yet to see if I could even get a loan on the thing, mostly because I have to sell two to get one, and because I don't need a vehicle, rather, I'm ALWAYS looking for something, be it a vehicle, parts, or a toy. I know for a fact it won't be a chevy, the newer model Dodge trucks are very good looking IMO, and they're in about the same price range. I've even found an 03 F250 with the diesel, auto trans, 4wd, ext cab for 14,900 with 108k miles, but we've owned two 3/4 ton ford trucks, and I haven't liked the way either of them handled. Regardless, I 'blue booked' this truck with what options I think it has, and at the Retail level, the price at the lot is right in there. I do have access to the dealer-only auto auctions, and I've thought about attending one to see what I could find. I agree that the miles are high, however, with regards to how the truck looks, I could almost assure that they are all highway. The crossmembers in the frame have no dirt or gravel in them, granted a good detailer will find these 'trouble spots' and clean them, but how often does that happen? The fuel doesn't concern me, between the firebird and ranger I probably only put on 8-10k miles a year between the two. I've also not discussed or haggled the price with the guy, only found out how much he wanted. He is willing to take a look at my Firebird and talk trade, however, I've never had much luck trading vehicles at all, so my best bet there is definitely selling it outright. As is the same with my truck, I've thought about keeping it and taking it off the road as a trail rig, however, I'd be money ahead to sell it as well and put the money towards good use and leave the offroading to my 4wheeler.


Its a damn sharp truck, caught my eye ya know. Its the only reason I started looking. That and the ability to haul more than one friend with me at a time seems like a good reason to have a fullsize truck with more than one seat. The standard cab ranger, 2 door firebird and the bike, well, none of those are good at hauling people

 

[Jspafford]

I bought a 2002 F-250 to haul people around. It has the same motor as the truck your looking at. The only difference is the motor in the F-150 is a 3 valve 5.4, and mine is a 2 valve 5.4.

Mine gets around 12.5MPG on average and I haul most of the people in the B2 while the F-250 sits and rusts.

Just an FYI.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I bought a 2002 F-250 to haul people around. It has the same motor as the truck your looking at. The only difference is the motor in the F-150 is a 3 valve 5.4, and mine is a 2 valve 5.4.

The 3 valve has 35 more hp and 15 more lb ft of torque than a 2 valve, and when you start shaving the 3/4 ton weight off they get pretty good milage (in the upper teens to low 20's on the highway)

My 2002 (with the same 2 valve engine Jspafford has in his truck) gets about 16mpg on the highway now, before I hung my grille guard on the front I was getting 18-19 mpg.

 

[Jspafford]

The 3 valve has 35 more hp and 15 more lb ft of torque than a 2 valve, and when you start shaving the 3/4 ton weight off they get pretty good milage (in the upper teens to low 20's on the highway)

My 2002 (with the same 2 valve engine Jspafford has in his truck) gets about 16mpg on the highway now, before I hung my grille guard on the front I was getting 18-19 mpg.

Seriously? The grille guard knocked that much off? Man, I wonder if that's why my mileage sucks. I will kick myself in the butt if I sell it and that was the reason my mileage was bad.

When I first got it, I got better mileage. Then I put the grille guard on. I never connected the two.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Seriously? The grille guard knocked that much off? Man, I wonder if that's why my mileage sucks. I will kick myself in the butt if I sell it and that was the reason my mileage was bad.

When I first got it, I got better mileage. Then I put the grille guard on. I never connected the two.

Yeah, as soon as that baby went on it dropped consistantly. They are not light and I guess it must really mess with the aerodynamics as well. When I get time I am going to take it off to touch the paint up and the plan is to leave it off until next fall when the rutt starts cranking up again and the deer get stupid.

 

[zapper2003]

All good info guys. There's another dealer here local that can only be described as the Walmart of carlots. They have quite literally ran almost all of the other car dealerships out of business, and which ones they couldn't run out, they bought. Regardless, their prices are very good on most of their vehicles, service SUCKS a fat one, but their prices are good for those of us who do our own work anyhow. They have a whole host of 05/06 Dodge 1500's in 4wd and most cab configurations, the most appealing being the 4 door shortbox pickups, and almost all of them are in the 14,900 range. Only problem here is they don't budge on price one single bit, and dont even think about a trade. So I'm really considering one of those too, as I really like the look of the Dodge pickups.

 

[snake]

Be forewarned about certain years of the 5.4 engine- some have sparkplug issues- i.e, they break off in the head when you try to remove them! It is easy to find out which engine the truck has, google it- the "bad" engine will have a certain letter in the VIN number so check that b-4 buying.

As far as dodge goes, I've seen way too much stupidity in their products lately, some of the cars use PLASTIC ball joints. They call them nylon, but whatever. They last about 30K and clunk and raise hell. I don't think they've incorporated them into the trucks, but I don't trust the bastards. My ex had a dodge minivan and what a POS that turned out to be. If Ford had gotten the 5.9 cummins into their trucks way back, dodge would be nothing but a memory by now...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Sadly most 5.4's some 4.6's and most 6.8's have some spark plug issues that should have been well ironed out 100 years ago.

97-03 5.4's pop the spark plugs out, there are only three threads in an aluminum cylinder head to hold the spark plugs in. They sound like a ticking lifter before they let go for good and if caught soon will do no damage to the head. If you let it go and let the plug work the threads you can just get a timesert and put in the head to give the plug a steel thread to screw into (what it should have had to start with IMO) Some dealerships will try to stick you for a new head, this is a bunch of bunk and them trying to squeeze extra money out of you.

All 04+ 4.6 and 5.4 (not Heritage trucks) have a really long reaching spark plug, they get corrosion around the extended tip and the tip twists off when you remove them. Rumor has it that Champion has a new design out now that has the whole plug machined from once peice of stock rather than having the tip crimped on. They supposodly fixed this for the 2008 model year with the one piece plugs (nobody is changing plugs on 2008 trucks yet to be sure)

They have a TSB out, and following it greatly reduces the chances of breakage. Once again some shady shops will try to break them in hopes of the chance to pull the head off for you.

If you snag a low milage truck get the plugs changed with the one peice ones before the corrosion has time to build and you should have smooth sailing after that.

 

[zapper2003]

Don't shout...I bought a dodge instead.