Hi. I am shopping right now for an F150 supercab, either '97 or '98. There's a ton of them on the market right now; I guess a lot of 24 month lease returns are being sold.
I owe a big thank-you to the participants of this message board for enlightening me as to the whole door crack issue. I was on the local Ford lot today and looked at 6 used F150's. 5 of them had door cracks; the one that didn't was a 2000.
I mentioned this to the service manager and he really downplayed the issue as if it was merely a cosmetic "nusiance" problem.
The truck I test drove ('97 F150 XLT 4x4) had door cracks both sides as well. I showed the salesman a copy of the TSB I had printed out and told him to get busy fixing door cracks if he wanted to sell me a truck.
I will be watching this board closely for any more developments. Interestingly, when I asked the service manager about the possibility of a recall, he said that recalls were only for safety related problems and that we wouldn't be seeing one dealing with door cracks.
I'm sure glad I had the benefit of the knowledge of people on this board before I dropped 20 grand on a truck with door cracks!

 

I was back out cruising the car lots today. Lots of door cracks and suprised looks on the faces of salespeople when they were pointed out.
This is a huge problem for Ford. I hope they are going to recognize that there is a serious problem with the #1 selling light truck in North America.
Still looking for the right truck. Been awhile since I owned an F150 ('79 4x4) 20 years ago. That sucker was pretty low-tech (351M, 4 speed) but had absolutely bulletproof body panels. No door cracks there!

 

I'm a salesmanager for a Ford dealership. I love my trucks and it kills me that I rarely see a used F150 w/o door cracks. The Svc Dept loves me, lotsa warranty work.

 

alans:
email me for some info that some of us washington f150 owners are a part of.
n6260k@cs.com

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The truck:
Teal 1997 XLT flareside with 4.6L, auto tranny, electronic shift on the fly, 3.55LS and 4x4 ORP.

Performance mods:
Gen. 2 K&N FIPK
Superchip(removed until further notice)
True dual exhaust exiting out the back
2.5" pipe with 18" glasspacks and 18"x4" round chrome slash cut tips

Appearance:
White face gauges
Euro clear corners
01L headlights
Covercraft tonneau cover
Billet pedals
16" Modern© wheels
265/75r16 Wild Country Radial TXR tires
Factory tinted rear windows
Bug deflector
Euro clear corners

Sound system:
Clarion ADX5655z Double Din Cassette & CD
4 Pioneer TS-A6865 speakers

Other:
Bedliner
Bulldog keyless entry/remote start



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