What is the deal? I might want one too!

 

Thanks guys - I love it too !!!

But, I can honestly say I miss my '01 'Screw and I have the itch for something new...

 

The trucks that are avalible are Lariat models with sticker $$$ between $32K and $35K

 

OK, this is the list but it seems a bit short. I want to appear really "in the know" when I inspect truck with dealer next week. What should I look at/for and what should I comment about. I believe I will end up making the purchase.

Fluids: engine, tranny, cooling, brake, p steering, diffs, transfer case and fuel.

Rubber: Will need new belts and hoses. How bout tires????

Safety: Brake calipers will need service. Cruise control recall,

Check condition of all seals

AC rework and seals

Am I missing anything?

 

you'll need tires definetly

check the parking brake.. that'll probably seize up on you

and if they are asking 32-35, walk off that lot as quickly as possible

 

Yea , stay away from it - That price is rediculess, they won't get it.

 

The 32-35K was the origianal sticker price. The dealer won't give a price "yet" as the vehicles are still in some sort of bankruptcy process for another 2 weeks. But you can bet they will offer huge discounts to clear the lot in order to floor new '08s and '09s. As far as what to pay, the suggestions given in this thread are approx what I had in mind, 12-15K.

 

I had an 01 King Ranch Screw and loved it. I went to a car as a daily driver and kept an old '92 reg cab long box Nite Edition and later a high mileage '97 Scab around as a beater when I needed a truck. After a few years of that I sold the truck and the car and went looking for a truck as an only vehicle again.

I came across a few low mileage '03 trucks and even '04 Heritage bodies that were tempting because I agree with some here that the older style still looks better to me. One really nice '03 FX4 with 23,000 miles was around $15k and was tempting but sold before I got serious about buying. But people that feel that way about the old style are the minority and once a truck is two body styles old the market value can drop like a rock....and any day now that will happen to the '97-'03 trucks.

In the end, I found a 2006 F-150 4x4 S-cab, Lariat, 5.4, heated memory seats, console shift, dark stone over arizona beige, power rear slidr and adjustable pedals, blah blah blah...anyhow the original sticker was just under $38k. It was in flawless shape, was a lease return with less than 10,000 miles and had 14 months left on the 3/36 warranty. I paid $20,400.

My point(s) here are:

1) No matter how intreguing an older truck with 2 miles on it is, it is still an 8 year old vehicle and will have a dramatically lower market value compared to a newr truck with the same miles. In two years that 2001 Screw in my hands would have 50,000 miles on it, be 10 years old and worth about $8k.

2) The used market is flooded with 2 year old off lease F-150's of every variety and auction prices are down almost 10% over a year ago. The truck I bought and described above prices out on edmunds and KBB both with a trade-in value a grand over what I paid and a dealer retail around $4,500 over what I paid. Now part of that is clearly that KBB and Edmunds are not fully up to the latest trends and part is that I think I got pretty lucky and the biggest part is probably that the used truck market is in a power dive. There are some great deals on 2-year old trucks out there.

 

Good points for sure. The dealer who is buying this particular Ford franchise is big on moving late model excellent condition vehicles and would rather not have to deal with older models. This I know from his modus operendi on the chevy end for the past 14 years here locally. I smell a very good deal coming.

 

Specifically, for that 2001 Screw...assuming it's a 4x4 XLT, a similar off-lease 2006 with 20,000 miles would be around $18,500 at a dealer these days. I wouldn't pay more than $15,000 for a 2001 XLT Screw 4x4, even with zero miles, unless you were sure you'd keep it at lest 10 years. I also suspect they'll find someody to pay more than that so I'll be curious to see what you find out.

 

This sounds like the end result of some big lawsuit.

Maybe do some research it case this was a lemon batch.

 

I do plan on keeping the truck for more than 10 years, in fact I have an Eddie Bauer Expy in A+ condition '99 that we use as a daily driver for the wife. I really like the look of the 97-03 trucks over the new ones.

As far as a legal issues, none exists. The previous owner inherited from his brother and dad after thier death. He is mentally unbalanced and did not care about running a dealership at all. Needless to say, the dealership ran into the ground, and he did not care. It took him 7 years to admit he failed and declare bankruptcy. In all that time, he refused to even sell one vehicle out of ---pride??? I am not really sure.

Now new dealer wants to expand coverage with teh Ford line and will sell these as soon as deal closes.

 

that answers my question about how can someone leave 200-250k$ worth of inventory just sitting there like that.

 

I use the "mentally unbalanced" explanation for a lot of the things I do too.

 

As much as I love the 97-03 body style, you could get an 04 or 05 with really low miles for this, probably cheaper.