Ford 6.4 diesel

[RollingsFarms]

In another life I worked as a sales manager at a dealership. I would literally bring out the cost of the vehicle, true cost, not some bogus cost, and would then negotiate as to how much the customer thought was fair for the dealership to make on that particular vehicle. If the care was easy to replace and common, about any profit was fair. If it was a new model and hard to get we simply negotiated what would be fair. It generally made for a much less adversarial buying process and I never sent the dang sales person back a dozen times with some bs offer. I don't play that game.

It worked well enough for me to start my own business with what I made from the dealership selling more cars than it had before. After I left, twenty years ago, they went back to their same way of playing games and their sales have never been the same since. Maybe I'm just too dumb, but what's so hard about doing things that way? Customers know the dealership has to make some money. Why not just cut the games and, if the customer wants to buy that vehicle, just negotiate a fair profit which translates into a fair price?

couldn't have said it better myself! i wish i could meet a salesman like you. well i have, just not in the car business. it took me 30 min to buy a $20,000 tractor. i was happy with the price, the salesman was happy with his profit. i've gotten the run around for 3 dang hours in a car dealership trying to negotiate a price for a truck before. won't do that again. i just be up front with them now "sir, or mam, i would like to buy this truck. i need your BEST offer the first time. if i'm satisfied with the price i'll buy it. if i think it's too high i will counter offer. if you can't or won't accept it then i'm going somewhere else. i will not buy from you if you change your mind an hour, a day, or a week from now. i want your BEST offer the first time."

 

[davygp38]

I will admit. that I did not get into the whole dance with the salesman. I was just looking for now. I realize, that I have to play the game, but I was not prepared to buy, and had not done my home work. The point is even after a good old fashioned horse trade this truck was going to cost.

 

[Diamondpilot]

couldn't have said it better myself! i wish i could meet a salesman like you. well i have, just not in the car business. it took me 30 min to buy a $20,000 tractor. i was happy with the price, the salesman was happy with his profit. i've gotten the run around for 3 dang hours in a car dealership trying to negotiate a price for a truck before. won't do that again. i just be up front with them now "sir, or mam, i would like to buy this truck. i need your BEST offer the first time. if i'm satisfied with the price i'll buy it. if i think it's too high i will counter offer. if you can't or won't accept it then i'm going somewhere else. i will not buy from you if you change your mind an hour, a day, or a week from now. i want your BEST offer the first time."

I do the same thing. I bought my last truck 1 year ago, a Nissan Titan, in about 3 minutes. I told the sales lady that she had 5 minutes. I have found its best to show up at 9am on the last day of the month. They are trying to get good numbers for the month so they are ready to deal. Usually they are having a big push the last day. I told here she could start off her day with the easiest sale of the year.

Anyway I walked in at 9am and said I want to buy that truck and you have to 9:05 to make the deal or I walk. She asked what I would pay, I gave her a crazy low ball price 20% less than sticker, she came back with the sales manager and I let him know I left my car running and was ready to go, he shot me a price, I countered, he accepted and we shook on it. Got it for about 18.5% off sticker. Done in 3 minutes and was out of the dealership in 1 hour flat.

Chris

 

[pitt_md]

To be real honest when I bought the 08 F250 I was looking for a new F150. I was convinced that I could pull 7000 lbs of horse a trailer without much problem with the new F150. The problem was I could buy the new 08 F250 for the same price as the 09 F150. If they would not have taken so much off the F250 I would not have bought one.

 

[Ford850]

Pitt,
It's funny you said this. I just was on the Ford site, and built 2 trucks for pricing. An F150 4x4 Lariat, and an F350 4x4 Lariat. Both gasers. I added as many common options as I could, and the price was within $1000.

 

[pitt_md]

Pitt,
It's funny you said this. I just was on the Ford site, and built 2 trucks for pricing. An F150 4x4 Lariat, and an F350 4x4 Lariat. Both gasers. I added as many common options as I could, and the price was within $1000.

Were these both 2011 trucks that you priced? I know they don't give away the F150's but it's hard to comprehend getting an F350 for around the same price as a F150

 

[Big Bri]

Were these both 2011 trucks that you priced? I know they don't give away the F150's but it's hard to comprehend getting an F350 for around the same price as a F150

after reading ford850 post i went to edmunds.com (place to price cars and trucks with options) any way if you equip both trucks the same they are very close, around $1200 for the one i did in price. Now the super dutys jump in price once you add the diesel engine.

 

[James150]

I have a 1995 Ford F350 SRW 4X2 long box that I have used to tow my 32' Holiday Rambler 5th Wheel (12,500#) and a variety of enclosed trailers (<8,000#) and flat trailers with various tractors and implements on them (<10,000#).
I keep scrupulous records and over 139,750 miles I have averaged 16.2 MPG. 63% towing and 37% non towing but not what you would call 'empty'.

I am not a hot rodder, I like the power of the 7.3 but don't abuse it. I use the cruise control when possible but will let her run up speed downhill whenever possible. I try to keep the top speed at 67 MPH if I can.

I think that there are lots of things the driver can do to tweak his driving to improve mileage but most driver's don't do them. You must exercise discipline and self-control, something that I find easy to do when a lack of it will cost me money.

That said, I'm not 20 years old anymore (51 at last count) and even with all the tweaking in the world you bump up against the maximum MPG for a given engine/transmission/drivetrain pretty quickly.

I do find that keeping good records (I have a small notebook in the glove box that I record everything in) really helps me keep my expenses down by allowing me to take a fact based look at my situation. How many guys do you know that can average their mileage over 15 years and 140,000 miles. I'm proud of that. My wife, however, thinks I'm nuts.

 

[Ford850]

f350 was a 2011, and the f150 was 2010. Both gas engines, but the 350 has the larger engine. Both had the Lariat package which has a lot of nice features. I was shocked I could get a 4x4 f350 loaded for around 45k after reading all the 63k posts here. What I didn't add was a 4 door crew cab, and no camera or internet screen on the dash. No extra chrome and no diesel. Those features add the real $$.

 

[James150]

I should probably add that my best mileage, downhill, empty, at 60 MPH with a tailwind over 600 miles was 22 MPG.

My worst mileage uphill, with a 50 MPH headwind, towing the 32' camper over 500 miles was 10.7 MPG. That only happened once and I remember it well.

I have a 1995 Ford F350 SRW 4X2 long box that I have used to tow my 32' Holiday Rambler 5th Wheel (12,500#) and a variety of enclosed trailers (<8,000#) and flat trailers with various tractors and implements on them (<10,000#).
I keep scrupulous records and over 139,750 miles I have averaged 16.2 MPG. 63% towing and 37% non towing but not what you would call 'empty'.

I am not a hot rodder, I like the power of the 7.3 but don't abuse it. I use the cruise control when possible but will let her run up speed downhill whenever possible. I try to keep the top speed at 67 MPH if I can.

I think that there are lots of things the driver can do to tweak his driving to improve mileage but most driver's don't do them. You must exercise discipline and self-control, something that I find easy to do when a lack of it will cost me money.

That said, I'm not 20 years old anymore (51 at last count) and even with all the tweaking in the world you bump up against the maximum MPG for a given engine/transmission/drivetrain pretty quickly.

I do find that keeping good records (I have a small notebook in the glove box that I record everything in) really helps me keep my expenses down by allowing me to take a fact based look at my situation. How many guys do you know that can average their mileage over 15 years and 140,000 miles. I'm proud of that. My wife, however, thinks I'm nuts.