How do we like the 1st gen (2010-2014) Ford Raptor?

My wife is kinda encouraging me to get a better/newer truck than the (albeit rust-free) E36 M3-heapish '93 F150 I've been rocking in the last few years.

I'm not a big truck guy as mentioned countless times, but a fairly high mileage (144k), single owner 2012 Raptor at the local Ford Empornium caught my eye. It seems to be the cheapest Raptor around after I did a bit of Googling as these things seem to hold their value incredibly well. It's also silly enough that I might be able to overlook that it's a truck .

So, what does the hive think about them? Anybody here got experience with them?

How many miles on the 93?

I don't know these tricks but all the ford trucks o have had from the mid 2000s have all started to get needy at that millage.

In reply to dean1484:

Close to 160k.

So trading for a much more complex truck that has about 15 k less miles.

The only up side is the new one should be much safer in terms of crash safty

Suspension might be expensive to replace. The Ford 6.2 and the transmission are fine. Nobody tows with a raptor so that's fine. I'd probably look for one of the HD F150s with the 6.2 first.

IMO, it's a cool truck if you live somewhere that you can use it. Otherwise, it's an extra-wide, extra-tall (doesn't fit in some parking garages) F-150 that's worse at actually being a truck. And sucks more gas too.

Gas would kill it for me. They suck it down like crazy. Allegedly they get worse mileage then the SRT-10 Rams which is what I always suggest if you want a crazy truck.

Also frame bends on the early ones if they had an idiot for a owner.

An idiot can bend the frame on any car!

In reply to dean1484:

That's true, but there's also the "wife hates my current truck" factor.

Anyway, it's off the table. I went and looked at it, and took it for a short test drive. The ergonomics don't work that well for me, plus I walked away with a distinct feeling of strong 'meh'. Yes, it's nuts. Yes, it makes glorious noises. No, it didn't speak to me in a way that said "buy me".

Not to mention that we ended up with an average mpg on the test drive of about 9mpg while babying the truck.

The main issue with my F150 is that I suspect it's been used for towing a lot in a former life (it's got an uprated transmission, massive transmission cooler etc) and it's getting to the point where it wants a fair amount of money thrown at it. Still less than a newer truck would cost me, but more than it's worth.

Anyway, I'll see if I can find a non-bro-dozed Cummins as I remember driving a mid/late nineties before and liking it better than the mid-nineties Ford offerings. I guess they're in the aisle right next to the rocking horse poo though...

Last option would be to postpone the problem until it really becomes to onerous to have the current F150 pull the race car over the Sierra Nevada. I suspect that this time is soon though, as the truck is noticeably down on power after the trip to retrieve the Formula FST.

The newest 3/4ton gasser you can find in your budget from ford or chevy would be my recommendation. As much as I love diesel buying them used without really proper care they end up with some really expensive repair bills. 2000-2006 seems like a good range for solidly built trucks that last well over 200k. The issue with the dodges is not the engines but everything else, reports of stuff like the dashboards literally falling apart etc. (my current budget puts a decent one around 10k so if you are looking at raptors I am sure you could do better)

The Ford Raptor is a cool truck. But it sucks at being a truck. If I lived in the Southwest, I would have one, because I'd have access to a bunch of cool trails to drive it on.

But I refuse to be that douchebag I see commuting in one every morning in DC traffic. berkeley that guy.