And the winner is... Fleet truck content.

I made a decision and bought a truck for the fleet. I'll be driving it for a week or so while my Touareg is in the body shop getting a trailer dent out of the back hatch. 

The beast in question. This is a 2017 F150 XLT with the 2.7 Ecoboost. It has 100k on it and is in extremely good condition. I would call it new condition, including new tires. Zero rust, zero dents, zero scratches. Even the interior looks brand new. Book value is $20-$23k, I paid $22k for it. This is the color I am going to be changing all of my trucks to as I replace them. With some signage, it should look very professional and not blend in with every other cheap white work truck.

I bought it from Carmax. Their prices are not bargain basement but they were extremely painless to deal with. I will definitely keep them in mind for future purchases. 

Driving impressions. It's not as heavy feeling as my Silverado was. Granted it's unloaded and actually does weigh almost 1000 pounds less than my Silverado did. The steering is pretty loose compared to the Touareg and it rides like a truck. There is no avoiding that. I've gotten out of the habit of driving trucks so it feels huge so far. 

The build quality is really very good. Ford did a damn good job with this truck. It has a lot more hard plastic than the Touareg but the interior bits are significantly quieter. Unlike the Touareg, there are no creaks and squeaks as it goes around corners or over bumps. The seats are decent. Like most truck seats, you sit on them instead of in them. The HVAC controls are a bit of a reach but not terrible. There is no touch screen so it's all buttons, which I much prefer. Telescoping steering is nice for those of us with long legs and short arms. 

The engine bay absolutely swallows the 2.7 Ecoboost. It's in there, but it's almost lost in there. As small as the engine is, it does get the job done. 325 hp and 375 tq is plenty for a truck. It has a decent amount of torque throughout the rpm range. You don't have to worry about it constantly hunting for the right gear. It will accelerate in whatever gear it's in and if you mash it to the mat it will get on down the road with authority. As powerful as it is, over the past two days, I've averaged 19 mpg. While my Silverado had more HP and Tq, it also averaged 12 mpg around town. 

All in, for a 100k-mile truck, it is in extremely good condition. The PO must have taken care of it. It is tight, runs well, and drives well. At least for a truck. 

I'll update this again after I've driven it a while. So far I can recommend it, and that makes 2 Fords I've bought in the past year that I can recommend. They are building some good stuff. 

Cheap white work trucks are just fine!  

Mine has the 3.3l v6, which is the most base of base motors, and it does fine, as long as you're comfy at 4500+ rpm, haha

That is really clean for 100,000 miles.

And yeah, you might not get the best deal buying from CarMax, but I like to think you're paying a little extra for a slightly better experience.

Colin Wood said:

And yeah, you might not get the best deal buying from CarMax, but I like to think you're paying a little extra for a slightly better experience.

Not to mention their 30 days/1500 mile return policy. You're paying more for their service, because their service is significantly better than the competition. 

mtn said:

Colin Wood said:

And yeah, you might not get the best deal buying from CarMax, but I like to think you're paying a little extra for a slightly better experience.

Not to mention their 30 days/1500 mile return policy. You're paying more for their service, because their service is significantly better than the competition. 

Add to that a 90 day 4000 mile warranty for those little things that may crop up. 

In reply to Spearfishin :

When you have a fleet knowing which one is your's is a big deal.

The 2.7L gets maligned in the chest-thumping truck world. It has enough torque for 90% of owners, and pulls down halfway decent fuel economy.

Rons said:

In reply to Spearfishin :

When you have a fleet knowing which one is your's is a big deal.

I'm lucky. I have a long commute and they like to keep our company trucks at a reasonable mileage, so since I pile on the miles, I get new trucks more frequently. Have had a 5.3 Chevy, 5.0 Ford and now this. I prefer the Ford to the Chevy in most ways that matter to me. Definitely find the seats more comfortable, and that's comparing my '18 Chevy work truck and a friend/coworkers '21 Chevy work truck to the '20 and '21 Ford's I've had. The Ford's definitely fit my ass better in the bottom of the barrel trims. 

I'll edit to add that my company's logo is on both doors and website on the tailgate, but I blurred it before posting using fancy phone photo editing technology to maintain some degree of Internet anonymity. So the guy cashing the big checks and signing my medium checks knows his trucks when he sees them out the window of his 6 digit Bimmer. 

White isn't terrible. All of the rest of my trucks are white. While none of them are new, I try to keep them in pretty good condition. They are on the road 5 days a week and frequently 100-350 miles a day. Nobody wants to drive a beat-up POS that much. I will get pissed off if they don't take care of them. They know it so they do a pretty good job of letting me know about issues and keeping them clean. 

We will be playing musical trucks in the next week or so. The blue F150 will go to my senior guy as soon as the Touareg gets out of the shop. 

2007 Sierra Classic. 230k miles. Currently driven by the guy who will end up with the blue Ford. 

2011 Silverado WT. 208k miles. Currently driven by the guy who will end up in the Sierra. 

Not pictured is a white 2003 Ranger with 278k on it. It is currently being driven by the guy who will end up driving the 2011 Silverado. The Ranger is getting a little long in the tooth to be sending hours out of town so it's going to be a backup and spend most of its time in the parking lot or close to the shop. All of us are pretty big guys so the Ranger will be the penalty box. If you break your truck, you get stuck with the Ranger until your truck is fixed.

Also not pictured is the Ridgeline. It is a really great vehicle but it's not a great work truck due to bed length and the angled bed rails. It's hard to load and difficult to work out of. It currently has about 280k on it. It will be sold to one of my employees for pennies on the dollar. 

In the next 3-6 months, I'll start shopping for another truck. I have a helper who is about ready for his own truck so we will do the shuffle again and the new truck will go to the next guy with seniority. I would like to have them all replaced by the end of 2024 or mid-2025 but that's going to depend on what the cash flow looks like. 

I just spent a week at corporate and it was a sea of these...

We run 160,000 miles before replacement and the fords have been bulletproof; V8 and both size V6. Chevy's with the V8 have had a ton of issues but the 4 cylinders have been great. Oddly, everyone who got a dodge loves them and there are no major issues which surprised me. We have about 400 people in these around the nation so we see  issues pretty quickly.

TLDR; good choice

I think you chose well.  Ford definitely gets my nod for assembly quality and materials quality.  That's partly why your interior looks like new

chandler said:

I just spent a week at corporate and it was a sea of these...

We run 160,000 miles before replacement and the fords have been bulletproof; V8 and both size V6. Chevy's with the V8 have had a ton of issues but the 4 cylinders have been great. Oddly, everyone who got a dodge loves them and there are no major issues which surprised me. We have about 400 people in these around the nation so we see  issues pretty quickly.

 

TLDR; good choice

Our last 30 trucks were Dodge. I hope they're back to getting Ford's when I'm due again!

Yeah, I waited extra for a ford. I'm a dodge guy but the 2018 F150 I had before this was so bulletproof I didn't want to try anything else. I do 3-4500 miles a month and can't have down time.

my 2.7 f150 4x4 averages 21mpg... and I've seen 27mpg on the highway..  Good motor and great truck.

Fueled by Caffeine said:

my 2.7 f150 4x4 averages 21mpg... and I've seen 27mpg on the highway..  Good motor and great truck.

Done any towing to speak of? We have mostly 5.0 Ford's and a few of our higher ups have the big Ecoboost, but I don't think we have any of the smaller turbos. 

In reply to Spearfishin :

not yet.  I wanted to rent a camper a few times this year, but didn't have time.  We're looking at buying a small camper. 

The closest I have is my mountian bike trips with my giant upright all steel bike rack and 5 mountian bikes.  It dropped highway mileage at 75mph to around 19.5..  I find the truck is super sensitive for MPG for speed.  Below 70 and you get crazy good mileage.. after 70 and it drops like a stone.  

I must be used to driving slow cars because the F150 with the 2.7 EB felt damn quick to me. 
 

I hope it treats you well.

In reply to CyberEric :

0 to 60 is 6.3 seconds. It is not a slouch for sure. 

A week in. 

It's still a nice truck.

My biggest complaints:

The side mirrors are terrible. I'm not sure who decided to put the blind spot portion in the top corner, but they are idiots. Worse, on the passenger side, the blind spot doesn't see any farther right than the standard mirror. Since they aren't adjustable separately, you give up the most important part of the mirror for zero return. It's a terrible design. 

The engine sounds terrible. The PO had put some kind of aftermarket cat-back exhaust on it. I ended up taking it to an exhaust shop and having the factory exhaust put back on. It still sounds like ass but at least it's quiet. 

My biggest likes :

The fuel economy is really outstanding. In the daily grind in bumper-to-bumper traffic, it's getting just under 20 mpg. While I have seen 20s out of trucks on the highway, none of them were ever close to that in town and in traffic. Being able to do that in a 2.7L gas truck that makes more horsepower and more torque than the 7.5L big block in my old motorhome is amazing. 

The engine has ample power all through the RPM range. It doesn't have to hunt for a gear. It will accelerate in whatever gear it happens to be in. When necessary, the transmission shifts quickly and smoothly. 

I will say, I'm ready to get my Touareg back from the shop. The F150 truck drives like a truck, rides like a truck and handles like a truck. They aren't something I care to daily drive anymore. 

Toyman! said:

I made a decision and bought a truck for the fleet.... This is a 2017 F150 XLT with the 2.7 Ecoboost. ...

As small as the engine is, it does get the job done. 325 hp and 375 tq is plenty for a truck. It has a decent amount of torque throughout the rpm range.

Looks like a great buy.  The fact that these are "base" engines is kind of wild.   20 years ago looking across the most powerful 1/2 ton pickup engine options in 2003... 

GM:  6.0 LS V8 option:  300hp / 360 ft.lbs

Dodge:  5.7 Hemi V8 option:  345hp / 370 ft.lbs

Ford:  5.4 V8:  260hp / 350 ft.lbs   (excluding the Lightning's Supercharged V8)