New Ford Trucks

At some point in the next year or so (2 hopefully), I will be in the market for a new truck. I am window shopping online just to prepare myself for the cost, the truck I have now and bought new in 2014 and the market is a bit different now, lol. Currently have a 2014 F150 FX4 Crew Cab with the 3.5 Eco and no complaints at all

I am set on Ford for personal reasons

I do want to get a crew cab with the 6.5ft box – thats what I have now and it works good for hauling the ATV in the back (tailgate up) and also my Otter flipover. I have had the Otter in the back of a truck with the 5.5ft box and its a squeeze. Also I would want the 3.5 ecoboost, but may consider the 5.0L, I am not interested in the 2.7eco as I do a fair amount of towing and have not seen a crew cab F150 with the 6.5 box with the 2.7 eco

Finding an F150 with the 6.5 box as a crew cab is no easy task and when I do, the price is usually $60K or higher. the last few times I have window shopped, I have been finding F250’s with the gas 7.3 for less than many F150s. Does anyone have any real world experience with the F250 and the 7.3L motor?

Im curious on what would be mileage for towing something under 5K lbs or driving without towing on the highway. An F250 would be overkill for my needs, and the registration is more than an F150 but Im curious about the mpg for the 7.3L.

You will get 10 driving and 10 towing. The 7.3 gasser is a great motor. Was my second choice but I went 6.4 hemi. The f250 tabs will be 900 bucks for a few years. I would go 7.3 over 5.0. But that’s my personal preference. Keep in mind the f250 will ride crappy empty. I just did all bilstein suspension and gas shocks to my ram and a steering stabilizer to make it ride like a Cadillac. But it was not cheap. If you enjoy tinkering with motors that 7.3 has alot of potential for big power

I don’t have much experience with Ford, but if you go to a 1 ton registration is like $130/yr.

I just bought a 16 f150 cc 6.5 box max tow 3.5eco last October and like you said they are hard to find. Would have liked a 17 or newer to get the gen2 eco but we needed something sooner than later with my oldest getting his license and we were giving him my work car and this truck was the best we could find in our price range and with interest continuing to rise (went up 3 times in a month) I didn’t want to wait for the perfect truck. We don’t have plans to keep this one long term like we do with most our vehicles but it is a nice truck and does what we need it to do. I would buy another f150 when we go to replace this one. We get about 18mpg average and just over 10mpg towing our 8×17 ice castle. I have seen prices coming down a little bit but the increased interest payments are about the same. Have also started hearing about rebates and lease deals on new so maybe things are changing and used will continue to fall price wise.

I see them used for sale quite often at rochester ford

Proud new Ford owner!

For reference- 2021 F350, 7.3l, 3.73:1 axles – 10 to 12 mpg (towing 5800lb boat) depending on terrain, wind and speed limit. 15 to 17mpg highway empty.

Thanks for all of the responses

Bearcat89 wrote:

You will get 10 driving and 10 towing. The 7.3 gasser is a great motor. Was my second choice but I went 6.4 hemi. The f250 tabs will be 900 bucks for a few years. I would go 7.3 over 5.0. But that’s my personal preference. Keep in mind the f250 will ride crappy empty. I just did all bilstein suspension and gas shocks to my ram and a steering stabilizer to make it ride like a Cadillac. But it was not cheap. If you enjoy tinkering with motors that 7.3 has alot of potential for big power

Seems strange to me that there is not much difference between towing or not, but if that is real world experience so be it

thalweg87 wrote:

For reference- 2021 F350, 7.3l, 3.73:1 axles – 10 to 12 mpg (towing 5800lb boat) depending on terrain, wind and speed limit. 15 to 17mpg highway empty.

Seems to be a pretty big difference when not towing. On my 2014 F150, I am used to 12.5mpg towing on the Interstate and 17mpg when not towing on the Interstate. The numbers on the F350 very comparable to my F150

Some more 7.3l mpg data points in the stickies on the following website – https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum307/

thalweg87 wrote:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum307/

Thanks for the link, some good real world experience there

My best buddy has 130k on his 7.3 so that’s the real world results. My 6.4 is about the same 10 to 12 towing or not. Avg on tach says 10.
Don’t go with the higher number, the point of why it’s odd because pulling the 5k trailer isn’t putting a strain on the truck. I just pulled my old man’s fire brand to south dakota. 600 miles round trip and averaged 11 mpg at 79 mph. I average right at the same empty.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Don’t go with the higher number, the point of why it’s odd because pulling the 5k trailer isn’t putting a strain on the truck.

Not sure if this was directed at my numbers or not but in the event it is – my posting was based on my real world results and I stand by them. The posts at the link I provided are in roughly the same range.

Bought a new Ford Larriet last summer with 3.5 eco and absolutly love it. It was my 3rd 3.5, 2017, 2019, 2022. 2019 best millage, 2022 strongest towing, but honestly all close and within 1 mpg. 2022 21 highway, 10.5-11 towing apx 6500 lb. 22′ Skeeter WX2200. I lockout 10th gear towing.
Got a fantastic deal orderingout even when some were paying over list.
$2500 rebate
$1000 order rebate
$500 military$
$500 free accessories
$3850 dealer disc
Timed everything right when ordering, also bought from a very small community dealer. My previous large town dealer, Wausau, refused to give me a discount, and said they were doing me a favor by not charging over list. I also got a trade in on my 2019 that was a little over $2000 less than what I paid for it. The $2500 rebate wasn’t something everyone got. Dealer said he was seeing anywhere between $500 and $2500 come in.
I do know that I had been on ford’s site before that doing g some sample build outs. So my take away, shop around, especially try a small town dealer. Also there is a dealer in Iowa, that sells orderouts for 3% under invoice. People come from all over the country to buy there. I could have saved another $1000 there but didn’t feel like dealing with it.

thalweg87 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Don’t go with the higher number, the point of why it’s odd because pulling the 5k trailer isn’t putting a strain on the truck.

Not sure if this was directed at my numbers or not but in the event it is – my posting was based on my real world results and I stand by them. The posts at the link I provided are in roughly the same range.

Not directed at you, I hadn’t even read anything you posted. I was giving the op the reasoning behind why the milage doesn’t jump mush when pulling light loads. And this is 130k miles of real life with the truck. But again it’s a good buddies truck not mine. But I’m in it all the time. It’s also going to depend on the gearing you have in your truck. And how it’s driven.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Proud new Ford owner!

What in the actual hell happened there?

I bit the bullet last week and bought a new F150 Supercab. It’s my second one and I couldn’t be happier (except for the price).

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Proud new Ford owner!

What in the actual hell happened there?

thats not even real. its a video game

Once your ready to Buy and You know what you want. Search Car Gurus for that truck (search the whole US). I flew to Ohio to drive back my new Ford F-150 and saved $8k a few years ago. Everything in the cities here was over priced and the 6.5 box was hard to find.

Off topic a bit, But Here’s my experience with Ford in the last 9 months or so…..

Went to local Ford dealer last May to order a new 2023 F150 crew. The used truck market was way up and I wanted to trade or sell my 2018 F150 crew outright before it hit 60k in mileage. Was told Ford wasn’t taking orders till August. No new 2022 trucks on the lot either to pick from. Zero. So I basically had to wait till then to buy a Ford pickup. Mid August came and I Went in and ordered pretty much exactly what I wanted with zero rebates. But figured, hey, my used truck is still worth a bunch and I should come out o.k. yet. A couple weeks after ordering I found out my truck wouldn’t be built till October now. Nice! More waiting… Well I recieved an email from Ford that it was indeed built in October. The 30th. With a shipment date of Nov 11 2022. At this point the used truck market was sliding down hill faster than Clark W. Griswald. And Being that I put on around 6k additional miles on my 18 I figured I lost around 3-4k dollars waiting to buy/trade. Oh well I figured. Not the end of the world. I will be driving a new all winter with new tires…etc.. so thats good. right?

Fast forward to today. As I type I still haven’t got “my” truck. I received an email from Ford about 3 weeks ago that my truck was finally in transit and due at the dealership on Feb 22 2023. And would receive an email when it got there. Still no email from Ford to date, But the Dealer finally called me on Monday letting me know “my” truck was in but it was “damaged” in transit. LOL.

So here I sit with my 2018 FX4 with now over 70,000 miles which is worth about 8-10k less than what it was in May of last year and I have a damaged “new” truck sitting at the dealership with no idea on how long it will take to fix. Not to mention there are like NO rebates on the 2023 F150’s yet!

I have emailed and called Ford many times with ZERO, yes Zero responce in the past several months about the delay in shipping. Have not tryed contacting them yet, yet about the damage.

What would you guys do? It’s not the Dealer’s fault one bit. I don’t blame them at all. I’m just not real happy with Ford.

Oh, and By the way I get around 10 mpg hauling my 18′ enclosed trailer ice fishing with my 2018. 3.5 eco. 23 empty. Been super happy with it and I had an 2011 and 2015 F150’s with the 3.5L. All have been trouble free.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
Proud new Ford owner!

What in the actual hell happened there?

Nothing real

Bill Mundt wrote:

So here I sit with my 2018 FX4 with now over 70,000 miles which is worth about 8-10k less than what it was in May of last year and I have a damaged “new” truck sitting at the dealership with no idea on how long it will take to fix. Not to mention there are like NO rebates on the 2023 F150’s yet!

how serious is the damage?

bigcrappie wrote:

Once your ready to Buy and You know what you want. Search Car Gurus for that truck (search the whole US). I flew to Ohio to drive back my new Ford F-150 and saved $8k a few years ago. Everything in the cities here was over priced and the 6.5 box was hard to find.

This!! I did it last summer with my new to me F150. I found a dealership in Bismarck that shipped it down to the Twin Cities and pick up my other truck in trade. I did buy without test driving so I spent $4,500 on a 6 year 60,000 mile warranty. The AC compressor went out 2 weeks into ownership and it would have cost me $2,200.00 but all I paid was $100.00. Nothing else has gone wrong since and the shop looked everything over and gave it a clean bill of health.

When I bought new 1.5 yrs ago…and waited 7 months.

I used the Ford online order/Build program.
F350 and 250 were same cost.
Built a F150 as comparable as possible and it was only $2500 less than 250/350.

350 tabs in MN are only $120 a year for life, for non-commercial. I see you are from WI and am not sure on your tab costs.

250 and 350 tabs (in MN) are $900 a year for several years, then drop to about $ for a few then lower at some mythical rate…. any way if the math is correct it was like in 2 yrs the $2500 upgrade from 150 to 350 was a wash and money saver by hundreds a year after that. But the 250 would still be more upfront AND pay the same high rate tabs. So in the end a 350 was a no-brainer over the 250 and if not a daily driver a no-brainer over 150 as I did not buy a truck for fuel mileage.

So, look into WI tab costs.

Also Ashland Ford was Invoice cost which saved about $2500 less on my spec built truck compared to any dealer in 100 mi of me who was going to charge MSRP.

A few months before your ready to buy start trying to get a Ford PCO (cash offer). I have gotten 3 of them over the last 3 years ranging from 2-3k and have been able to use them all towards new trucks.

Jason wrote:

A few months before your ready to buy start trying to get a Ford PCO (cash offer). I have gotten 3 of them over the last 3 years ranging from 2-3k and have been able to use them all towards new trucks.

Explain this…. Guessing simple but I’m missing it

Ford will send out PCO’s via mail or email to customers periodically typically ranging from $1500-3000. To get them you have to usually go onto Fords website frequently and request for info on the vehicle that your looking at. If and when you get a coupon code it can be added to your deal over and above the negotiated price that you can swing with your dealer of choice. You can custom order a vehicle and the credit gets applied when you take delivery of it months later.

There is some luck involved but alot of people get them…

When I was looking for the exact truck 2 years ago, there were very few to be found new even on order to the dealer. The only 3.5 with the 6.5 ft box were a PowerBoost or Platinum here and there, which where expensive.

Not wanting to take the time to order and wait, I decided to go used and used the search for certified used on the Ford site as well as I think on cars.com that had a filter for box size. Without that kind of a filter, you have to weed through all of the shorter boxes to find the trucks you are looking for.

Anyway, I ended up with a truck from Canada at a Honda Rochester dealership.
2019 3.5 Eco with 6.5 box. Max Tow. Lariat.

how serious is the damage?
[/quote]

I don’t know. Going in this afternoon to find out what the deal is.

I have the exact truck you are looking at. I’ve had some dash electric issues, and door lock actuator. The ext. warr. I took thru the dealer has $0 deduct if fixed in their shop. Knock on wood nothing since. My only dislikes are after 50 years of 8′ beds, it’s my first 6.5′ bed. And after buying it off the lot in 2020 when trucks were scarce. I noticed, it didn’t have heated mirrors or climate-controlled heat and air-conditioning. On a $50,000 truck. My $30,000 GMC had that!! Due to the dash issues, I will probably buy another new one when the 125,000 extended warranty runs out. I will probably buy the same truck again but check the options closer. Having to manually adjust the heat up and down is like a tv with no remote!