1depd

That is exactly what I have, except in a Lariat version. Since the top rails of the bed are dark grey/black the black bed doesn't look so bad. Not to mention most people can't see into the bed to begin with.

I had to change the truck I ordered. The one I bought was sourced from Dearborn and did not come with a bedliner. I talked with the dealership and had them spray one in. It is a Tough bedliner. I have all of the paperwork for it. So the dealership did have the products on hand at least they did spring of last year.

It is possible that I was misinformed. I don't get to use the trucks very often, but I was told they had factory liners and when they arrived. It is very possible that the liners were applied aftermarket,and the person thought they came from the factory that way, because they arrived with the liners already in. I don't have much faith in my co-workers at times when it comes to actual knowledge of cars/trucks.

In my case the only aftermarket liners available locally were no names. If I wanted to get a Rhinoliner or Linex I would have to take a day off, fight through city rush hour traffic, find something to do at the shop while waiting for the liner to be sprayed, pay the premium price for the inconvenience, then drive two hours to get back home. In total I would have wasted an entire day just to get my bed sprayed. It basically boiled down to free-market principles. The big companies didn't feel the area I live was a big enough market to make it convenient to provide me with a service, so I went with the factory liner. We have factory liners in the trucks at work and they are holding up just fine after about 7 years use. Granted it isn't tough work, but it is about what I put my truck through.

The dealership didn't tell me anything. I bought my truck with Ford Credit so I got the 1k off, then refinanced it a month later when the first payment was due.

There is also the stability issue at higher speeds. I don't know if the F--150 specifically has issues, but do know that at higher speeds cars tend to lose stability as air builds up under it. The wife had a Ranger with a little 4 cylinder that truck could go 139. She was clocked at 139 by a deputy one day. Fortunately he had the same truck and "knew" it could only go 100 before the governor kicked in, so he thought his radar was broke and the wife got a warning.

Yup my Lariat has the light wood trim. At first I wasn't too sure I'd like the color combination of light wood, silver, and grey, but it's like a fungus. It grows on you. It does help that the interior is the pale adobe so the light wood kind of blends in to the surroundings. There is also the option of a dark wood interior for the Lariat, even if your dealership doesn't have it on their lot. You can't get the XLT with the "wood" interior from the factory.

It doesn't make sense from a driver's perspective, but from a lawyer's having the windshield wipers start first makes perfect sense. If the windshield washer is squirting while the wipers are sitting at the bottom then for a couple seconds the driver is blind. That results in liability for Ford. Damned lawyers!.!

I'd take the Ford financing, then before you make a payment refinance with your bank (all credit checks for the same item within 30 days are considered one check). The truck still considered new, you won't have to pay the higher interest from Ford, and you get the $1k incentive. I just did this and saved myself the $1k as well as over 2% in monthly interest. I took deliver April 20 and don't have a car payment due until June 30.

I asked this same thing a few months ago. I think the answer was October.

Just a thought. Have you tried to purchase Ford stock? You will need 100 shares and you have to own them for 6 months. In my case I would have paid $7-8 per share (I've owned them a lot longer than 6 months and paid a bit more for them), but saved over $3k. After the deal is done you can always sell your shares and recoup your money, or keep them and collect dividends (when they start paying again). I noticed my dealer became very friendly when I advised I had x-plan because I was a share holder. Apparently they thought I was a friend or family of a Ford employee. There aren't any Ford partners in this area so there are few x-plan sales here. The one guy who was familiar with the x-plan was mistaken in that he thought you had to own >$10k worth of stock to qualify.

ilmo--I had a similar experience with my bed liner. Before anybody gets froggy I know Line-X or Rhino is better, but I live in a human wasteland and those options aren't readily available. I ordered the truck with a factory bed liner. Changed trucks mid-stream to one that did not have the bed liner in it. I started checking prices and got a quote from the sales manager of ~$300 in an e-mail, I think. It was $25 more expensive than a no name local installer, so I went with the dealer option. When it came time to pick up the truck I was told the cost of the spray in is ~$480. I told the salesman the manager quoted me ~$300 and if I had to pay the higher price I would just go with the local guy. I also told him it price quote was in an e-mail that I could bring in if he needed. That wasn't necessary and he gave me the bed liner at the quoted price. I also bought the truck using x-plan as a shareholder. The salesman was the only person who knew a lot about the program (no Ford partners in the area), but was mistaken in the fact that I had to own over $10k in shares to qualify. I received very good service after he was advised I was a shareholder.

On another forum I post at a guy tried running premium instead of regular. He did get a small fuel mileage increase, but it wasn't enough to offset the cost of the gas. If I recall correctly he only ran one tank of premium through and his truck wasn't completely broke in yet. It wasn't an ideal survey, but he did it.

If those numbers are even close to correct, I'll be loving it. I am pleased with my mileage now, I can't wait to get it broke in. I have only ~700 miles on the odo and I'm getting right around 20 mpg in mostly rural driving.

I think I get what you are saying. Essentially the dealer makes approximately the same on a plan sale as they do on a typical regular sale, after negotiations. Correct?

I had to order two brochures after my first one expired. I ordered the third one under my wife's name and finally received the second coupon. When I picked up my truck I still hadn't received the coupon yet so I asked the finance guy about it. I had to provide the program code from the brochure and they looked it up in Vincent. They found it and applied it to my purchase. Three days later the hard copy coupon arrived.

I might be misunderstanding what you are saying or you might be misunderstanding what I am saying either way. The price would not be close to MSRP. How it was explained to me is the discount came off the listed invoice price, but the profit level for the dealership was still at the same. Or are in the last sentence when you say "it" are you referring to the profit not the price?

I don't know how the process works behind the scenes, but.....One person explained that essentially the x-plan discount is coming directly from Ford, so to the dealer it is as if you went in and paid sticker for the truck. If that is accurate, it would explain why they gave me so much for a 10 year old Explorer, with many problems. My calculations are based on retail, but the dealership would have to put in about $1500 just to bring the SUV up to good condition (so wholesale would be maybe 1/2 that?). This is not including the cosmetic issues, which there were many. I can't see anybody with a brain paying $3500 for that vehicle.

Picked up my truck on Tuesday. I paid 34200 out the door. I received 2k for my trade-in, 3250 in rebates, and about 3100 discount for x-plan. All in all it was a better deal than I was expecting and there was no haggling. Invoice was $36800. With the down payment my payments are a little more than the car I financed three years ago, but the truck is much nicer. I will be refinancing in about a month to get a much better interest rate. The finance guy at the dealership said many times there was no pre-payment penalty (almost like he was telling me to refinance).

Assuming you get the EPA estimated mileage then the eco-boost is worht the money. With gas prices where they are now, I will achieve payback in about 3 years. I will own the truck for at least another 7 after that.

If you missed it, I stated I highly doubt Ryan's budget framework will be passed as an actual budget. So I think my compensation is about as safe as yours. Believe me if I thought there was a good chance the framework would become the budget I would have either purchased a newer used truck or used some of the cushion to completely fix the wife's truck, rather than buying the brand new one I bought. Even then if the framework was passed as the budget I would lose the house any way. I already have a good monetary cushion saved up. As far as saving up more of a cushion, it wouldn't really matter much. I am not going receive a pay raise in five years, if the framework becomes the budget. So I would need to save up $40-50k in less than a year to be able to outlast the down turn. That is also assuming no other increases in expenses. Neither is likely to happen. Due to my position I have to receive approval from the legal people in my agency before starting any off duty employment. The only job I have ever seen them approve is cutting yards. In this area yard cutters are a dime a dozen so the pay is not good, add to that I would have to invest in about $4-5k in equipment it makes that idea a money loser in the short and mid term. The wife is currently looking to go back to the uncertainty of the private sector, but with a very good pay raise after working a short period in federal service.

She changed jobs to one that is more stable. Unless she develops a long term case of the dumbutt, she won't be fired (she took a job many pay levels below her experience level) although a lay-off is not an impossibility. If Congress decides to substantially cut compensation, which is still up in the air, then we are in trouble. If Congress cuts our compensation, the truck payments (or lack thereof) would not be enough to matter. We would have to cut about $1k per month, all of the liabilities that we could cut, outside of the house payment equals less than that amount. Unlike the government the only thing that matters is that our expenses do not exceed our income. Whether we purchased the truck or not is irrelevant. Either way our expenses would be more than our income. The only thing that can be cut that would bring our expenses in line with our income is the house. The rest of it is like saving $38 billion when we have a $1.5 trillion deficit. It doesn't matter. We still wouldn't make our bills at the end of the month. Without the truck note I would literally have to cut off electric, gas for the cars, water, internet, phones, cable, auto insurance, default on the two credit lines we have (payments <$100 per month) cut out half of the food budget, bum a ride to work everyday, then hope for O/T so we could afford to pay the house note. Or I could walk from the house and actually be able to take a shower and eat dinner in a lit dinning room.

Yup, I know what you mean. The wife is a brain tumor survivor, and I've done several tours in the mid-east. As far as the neighborhood situation goes, the best I can hope for (short of the neighbor's leaving), is Paul Ryan's budget framework being passed as the budget (I highly doubt that will happen). If that happens my pay as well as the wife's will be cut dramatically and we will have to cut almost $1k per month out of our budget. The only way to get that level of expense cut is to walk from the house. The wife and I have been living on a tight budget, because she used to work in the banking industry and when the melt down happened to say her job was questionable was a stretch at best. At the same time she was having serious health problems and we cut our expenses to a minimum. Even if you cut all of the niceties out of our budget (cable, phones, internet, truck payment, etc) we wouldn't cut $700 and we would still lose the house.

It showed up yesterday, a couple hours after you updated. Thanks! This truck is great! :happy feet: :happy feet:

Thanks. I wish they would let me drive over and pick it up. It is so close. :hyper: :hyper: :happy feet: