It's finally here!!!
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 86
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From: Minnesota
It's finally here!!!
The stork finally dropped of my new baby at the dealership today. 04' Lariat Bright Red SuperCrew fully loaded. Heated captain's, console, Audiophile, moonroof, power slider, bed extender, 3.73LS, 18" Goodyear’s, etc.
Now the lease was up last month on the 2001 Screw so it's time for a new ride. Will I go with the 04??? Absolutely, despite my gripes:
1. No underhood light
2. Nowhere to store jumper cables or tow straps
3. Questionable longevity of the seats
4. Foreign piece of garbage style tilt steering wheel locking mechanism.
5. Being forced to pay additional for two-tone paint when I want an all bright red truck.
6. Fly-by-wire throttle.
Most of my gripes have been raised in other threads but here's my $.02:
1. Cost cutting measure.
2. Haven't figured out why they got rid of the storage bins.
3. Padding seems very thin compared to the '01s. Time will tell.
4. Who made this idiotic change? Having driven Fords for years, this will take a lot of getting used to. I really hate this new style. I often use the steering wheel (instead of the grab handles) for support getting in and out. It used to be a simple two step process. Step one, get in vehicle, pull lever, pull wheel down, let go. Voila it locked in place. Step two, pull lever, let wheel go up, voila it locked in place. Now you have to unlock lever, pull wheel to desired position, relock lever, then unlock lever to raise the wheel. If you fail to relock it, it will come crashing down should you grab it getting in or out. Yes this design allows for infinite positions, but come on, realistically one of the four positions offered by the previous design worked for fine.
5. Does bright red paint no longer adhere to the lower half of a Ford F-150? Did something in the chemical composition of Ford's paint change? Still seems to work on the 250s & 350s. What's the deal here? Oh yes, there's an additional charge to customers who happen to want a bright red truck.
6. I love the latest and greatest new technology but this sucks. I don't care what anyone says, this changes the feel of the throttle response, thus the overall feel of driving the truck.
Now it's obvious Ford can listen to their customers. The new headlamp switch is a perfect example. Now we can run fogs in Park and Auto modes without having to do the damned mod. And the Auto-lamp delay is no longer fixed at a worthless 20 seconds. It's user definable up to 3 minutes. Hopefully they will listen again and address what they did wrong.
OK, so that's it. It still seems to be an awesome truck overall and I will still swear by Fords. Just hope I don't have some of the more serious issues such as the rear-end shutter many of the guys have posted about. Now if I didn't have to wait 7-10 days to go pick it up. Switched from leasing to purchase and have to wait for bank financing to process. Grrrrgh.
Sorry guys...no photos yet. Dealer didn't want me taking it more than a few miles since it hadn't even been prepped.
Now the lease was up last month on the 2001 Screw so it's time for a new ride. Will I go with the 04??? Absolutely, despite my gripes:
1. No underhood light
2. Nowhere to store jumper cables or tow straps
3. Questionable longevity of the seats
4. Foreign piece of garbage style tilt steering wheel locking mechanism.
5. Being forced to pay additional for two-tone paint when I want an all bright red truck.
6. Fly-by-wire throttle.
Most of my gripes have been raised in other threads but here's my $.02:
1. Cost cutting measure.
2. Haven't figured out why they got rid of the storage bins.
3. Padding seems very thin compared to the '01s. Time will tell.
4. Who made this idiotic change? Having driven Fords for years, this will take a lot of getting used to. I really hate this new style. I often use the steering wheel (instead of the grab handles) for support getting in and out. It used to be a simple two step process. Step one, get in vehicle, pull lever, pull wheel down, let go. Voila it locked in place. Step two, pull lever, let wheel go up, voila it locked in place. Now you have to unlock lever, pull wheel to desired position, relock lever, then unlock lever to raise the wheel. If you fail to relock it, it will come crashing down should you grab it getting in or out. Yes this design allows for infinite positions, but come on, realistically one of the four positions offered by the previous design worked for fine.
5. Does bright red paint no longer adhere to the lower half of a Ford F-150? Did something in the chemical composition of Ford's paint change? Still seems to work on the 250s & 350s. What's the deal here? Oh yes, there's an additional charge to customers who happen to want a bright red truck.
6. I love the latest and greatest new technology but this sucks. I don't care what anyone says, this changes the feel of the throttle response, thus the overall feel of driving the truck.
Now it's obvious Ford can listen to their customers. The new headlamp switch is a perfect example. Now we can run fogs in Park and Auto modes without having to do the damned mod. And the Auto-lamp delay is no longer fixed at a worthless 20 seconds. It's user definable up to 3 minutes. Hopefully they will listen again and address what they did wrong.
OK, so that's it. It still seems to be an awesome truck overall and I will still swear by Fords. Just hope I don't have some of the more serious issues such as the rear-end shutter many of the guys have posted about. Now if I didn't have to wait 7-10 days to go pick it up. Switched from leasing to purchase and have to wait for bank financing to process. Grrrrgh.
Sorry guys...no photos yet. Dealer didn't want me taking it more than a few miles since it hadn't even been prepped.