Goodbye to 2007 Ltd V8 Trac

[oldracer]

I started my retirement positioning Sat by trading my 6 month old V8 Limited Sport Trac for a Mercedes C230 Sport for my wife.

 

It is cheaper, as a bonus for the payment, Insurance and of course terrorism juice,(gas).

 

I got $26K for the truck, and owed less than that, got an additional $3K discount and 4.4% from Mercedes......I am still amazed

 

I ran the True Cost of ownership on Edmunds with my exact option set and decided that 32%, (about $10.6K of retained value), after five years and $54K operating costs to get there was the nail in it's coffin. I have lost lots of $$ trading Fords in 2-3 yrs, no more of that for me.

 

We liked the truck very much, but the little things were annoying: E.G. - No Memory seats available, and the generally ponderous driving experience in daily commuting. It was fine on highways, left a lot to be desired in the city.

Still a decent vehicle overall though, just too much for one little passenger every day...seemed wasteful to spend $60 in gas for every 125 miles of city driving...........

 

I had also planned to use it as a secondary tow vehicle for the 20' race trailer, but common sense says, I already have a 2007 LTZ Suburban....so why have 2 tow vehicles, we like the 'Burb better overall, so ST went.

 

I'm left with 2 Mustangs, & 2 Focus's from the Ford arena...

[Davew]

Good luck with the Benz, especially since they came in dead last in reliability.

[FLLMTR]

? Your post is sort of a comparison between apples and ... a block of cheese. Seriously, to knock a truck for fuel mileage and resale value in comparison to a car isn't a fair comparison. People buy SUV's and trucks for the utility of these vehicles. If a person is really keen on saving money on fuel and having a strong residual value, buy a Honda Civic. They're safe, cheap to own and have one of the highest resale values in the industry.

 

If, however, you want a vehicle that can haul mulch and fertilizer for the lawn this spring, haul a boat on the weekends while having one of the quietest interior noise levels, and one of the strongest safety performances in its class... it is really hard to beat the Explorer.

[oldracer]

I was not knocking the truck as a comparison to any car...cars are usually worse.

 

I was verbalizing that every Ford I have owned since 1994 except Mustangs & Cobra's has shown dismal resale, and that is a fact

of owning cars/trucks that are sold by rebate/low price as their leading attraction.

I knew that and bought anyway to allow me to fund race cars and bikes...I'm just getting off that wagon now.

 

Mercedes ratings are a result of S class and M class crap and their huge list of questionable electronic and technical

gadgets primarily.

 

We avoided troublesome options and frivolity pretty much.

 

We got the Sport pkg, 13.6" frt brakes, 11' rears, 7.5" frt wheels. 8.5" rears, 7 spd A/T, AMG suspension is incl here, heated seats, sunroof pkg, 6 disc CD, pwr tilt & telescope wheel, memory 10 way seats, AMG frt & rear spoiler and rocker panels, and all the std power stuff.

MSRP was $36,985, I paid $33,361 after TT&T with my discount, there was also about $1,500 positive equity in the ST, which further reduced my cost difference.

Every competing car we drove: Lexus IS250, G35, Volvo S80, BMW 328i, Acura TL, CTS, and Saab 9-3 & 9-5 were more $$ after the BS was removed and the check amount needed was revealed.....the BMW was an incredible $6K+ more and the only other car that drove and handled as well. I liked it, but the shitty dealer killed any chance of me reconsidering.

 

We had also driven a 2007 Jetta GLI w/package 2 and 18" wheels with my stalwart GM pilot buddy, list was $30.6K, he is buying it for $28.6

next week, his first NON GM vehicle in 39 yrs...he is selling a 2004 Barbados Blue GTO with 24,000 miles for 21K to relace it with the jetta for his airport car.

 

The C class is according to my 3 friends who own them, (50-110K miles on each car), have been all but immune to

that set of issues. They have only forked over routine maintenance costs so far...no issues at this point.

 

Just to be safe, I bought the Platinum Warranty from my Credit Union for $2145.00; $0 Ded, 7 yrs, 100K miles, fully transferable

to a new owner.

 

It drives amazingly well and my wife is thrilled with the whole package, she still pointed out that we need another Mustang and we will get one this year I imagine.

 

The ST is a great vehicle for utility, I jsut did not need it anymore.

[range]

Should have waited for the new C Class. The current C Class only gets 4 stars in frontal impact safety and only an Acceptable in side impact tests. I think Mercedes will probably fix these ratings with the new design.

 

The ST was 5 stars all the way around.