So, I have a new role and with that they rolled out an Auto Allowance Program. Generally, that means Truck, 3 years old limit, and thats about it.
I've been told that I can keep driving the Exploder I have for a bit, but will need to upgrade.
My inclination is to grab an F250 4X4 Lariat with a 7.3, Tremor and the black out package. Also, I want to keep a 6 passenger option. This would allow for us to go in the truck somewhere if needed and all fit in one vehicle. With the 4 kids, thats a plus. In reality, this would mean that I may need to order a truck.
I will spend a large amount of time in the vehicle it would seem. So, I want to be comfortable, but honestly, this is a mid-60k vehicle. Plus with the non-console center section, I may need to order something.
What is hive mind thought on this? Spend more for a sweet truck *of which to be honest a couple K is stacked to just being awesome and no real point otherwise* or just look to save the money and get an XL or something of the sort to get by and walk out a whole lot cheaper.......and prolly still have to order one.
One last note, the wife was in a layoff the same day I am told I will need to do this. So that is affecting it some. If anyone knows of a decent Engineering position for an engineer/manager that has 13 years experience in process engr design for oilfield process let me know!
I am on a similar plan (Cardata) and ours is 6 years, 4 doors, and you need to spend $27,000 or more. They say those details are IRS related and you not getting taxed on the money.
I have almost burned through my second vehicle - the first one was a 5-speed base Accord I bought new and with me doing all the maintenance it might've been a break even deal. The Silverado I drive is nice and comfortable and allows me to do my job easier but I'm in the hole on the whole deal until I sell it.
They say to go cheap as you kill the resale due to the miles. If I didn't have to carry large amounts of hoses I would get a 1 year old rental car Impala or Grand Caravan.
The part I don't like is borrowing a large chunk of money in order to do my job - Dave Ramsey has some suggestions.
It's been a couple of years since I've seen these programs (which are popular) but is there still a reduced payout on an older car?
The plans I saw still paid on old cars just pay less. But, look hard at that smaller pay. I can run my old Prius very, very cheap.
How many miles will you put on in a year?
John Welsh said:
It's been a couple of years since I've seen these programs (which are popular) but is there still a reduced payout on an older car?
The plans I saw still paid on old cars just pay less. But, look hard at that smaller pay. I can run my old Prius very, very cheap.
How many miles will you put on in a year?
They allow for as old as 3 years....but thats it. The official is that, but I think you could get an extra year potentially. There is not a mileage limit, but I plan to put on about 30k a year. They do have it listed as a truck only, as I do work oilfield and its in case I need to move stuff or pull a trailer. So I would think a Ranger or something would be looked....down upon.
One reason I looked to a 3/4 ton is the pricing for close to option to option 1/2 ton the are close to the same. The resale is about $1k higher on the 3/4. Im sure I would get a little nod for it too.... I know Ill be upside down, but the way its written I think Ill be shoved into somthing new.
Can you still get 6 seat 1/2 ton? For some reason I thought they went away. But yes, get the 6 seater. There are too many times when piling the whole lot of you in makes sense. Been there, done that.
And buy some Wet Oklee seat covers for the back seat at least. You can hose kid vomit off them and throw them in the wash. Did that twice in one week once. Fun stuff.
You can, its lower trim levels. Lariat in a ford is top line, I think Custom Trail Boss in Chevy, and LoneStar or Laramie maybe in Ram?
Get a f250 xlt. Right in the middle, trim wise. If you get a diesel one new after 3 years and 90k miles I bet it will still sell for a huge chunk. The resale in gas 3/4 aren't as friendly.
yupididit said:
The resale in gas 3/4 aren't as friendly.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that the price delta between Ford gas and diesel is going to go down since they've introduced the new 7.3 gas engine. I think a lot of diesel buyers are going to come around to the new gas engine and the desirability in general will keep resale higher.
If you look at the difference in a new truck to get a diesel is 8-10k. If you do the math on a 17 now with 135k miles same trim and all options except resale via KBB is 6k.
Plus, oil changes and the DEF and all that. There is a fuel card too, so normally, mpg arent a big arguement. Otherwise I would do some more maths on that. I dont plan to tow everyday, or I would look at the diesel more.
It's not exactly the same, as I am looking at a '17 for doing comparisons, but it seems sound.
I think a big thing is that, I dont know that I can really locate a bench seat in other than a XL/Work truck setup. Which I am not sure I wanna live with. So, probably an order for sure....
You can build an xl into almost an xlt but you may have to look to find one..
the standard seat in the xlt is the bench no console (40/20/40).
I drive 50k / year and really like my xlt, everything I want except the cooled seats. I have the console but would have preferred the bench.
good luck in your search.
I'm buying a truck for one of my guys in the next couple weeks and I am going to try the 7.3. We tow an above average amount, but the math doesn’t pencil out for us any more on the diesel.
You can get front bench seat in F-150 and F-250 (and higher) alike. Tremor package on the F-250 is nice if you will be legitimately off-road with the truck often and using the extra capability. Otherwise, save your money. I really liked the 7.3L when I had one (reviewed it for a week) and there's no point buying the diesel unless you truly need all the torque, it costs more to buy/own/maintain/fuel so making the math work is hard.
Keep in mind, dealer incentives (if they apply to this purchase) will take a LOT of money off of an F-150. Not sure how they are on the 250.
Lariat is the mid-trim now for all Ford trucks, XLT is the basic-ish-nice-ish trim and you have King Ranch, Platinum and Limited all above Lariat. It will be tough to do a Lariat-or-higher bench seat, if possible at all, but should be common enough on an XLT.
I think the ride quality is relatively lousy with a 250 if you are driving it unloaded more often than not, the F-150s are more than capable for most folks at this point. Would the Pro Power Onboard generator setup be useful for you, if you had a 2021 F-150? Up to 7.2 kW of power out of the truck bed.
Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) said:
I think the ride quality is relatively lousy with a 250 if you are driving it unloaded more often than not, the F-150s are more than capable for most folks at this point. Would the Pro Power Onboard generator setup be useful for you, if you had a 2021 F-150? Up to 7.2 kW of power out of the truck bed.
All great points. I honestly think I will need to order in a truck. Most are either an XL "work truck" with a vinyl bench, or they go to console as that is the most common setup people want.
As far as the Generator setup, yes, that could be cool and I could use that on a personal basis too. Ive been doing some price breakdowns to see. The biggest issues I have is that I dont want to go through a mid 60k vehicle. I like the look of the tremor, but will not use it as it should for 97+% of the time. So an FX4 would work too, that black edition tremor looks REALLY good though.
Anyone have opinions of a 6.4 Hemi "Ram 2500" Vs a 7.3 Gasser "F250"?
Everything about the new 7.3 indicates it was designed specifically to be a fleet engine - durable and easy/inexpensive to maintain. A few years later and I haven't read anything that indicates Ford missed the mark, so I'd definitely choose one over a Ram 6.4.
I've done both options depending on where I was at financially and what I was willing to put up with. Both work equally well IMO, as long as you are mentally accepting of the cost or lack of luxury.
Ultimately this is likely an area you will spend a lot of time in and to me there is opportunity cost associated with that as long as I can swing it. Also resale tends to be better which helps in the long run.
Are they paying you the allowance now with you current vehicle? If so...I wouldn't buy anything until you get a nasty gram or your supervisor takes you to a dealership lol. I was recommended that when I first started, didn't and kinda wish I had lol. Told some new employees to do that a couple years ago and around 6 months in we went to a fleet program. Basically got our new reps some free money.
So far, they have told me I am going onto it. I haven't received the next paycheck, but it is supposed to be on there. I am planning to wait it out, and try to move what I have back towards that. I think the main driver to move vehicles is that I know I am getting into the last 5-10k miles on the tires that are on the current ride. My last trip the other week was around 1200 miles. So, thats something.
The F150 XL actually has some decent features *foldout work area on the center fold-down console* which is making look towards that. I can get the Katskinz or something of the like to throw onto that and could swap the radio for something if its a BASE base setup. So that is the way I am leaning towards.
Plus, if the initial purchase price is low enough, maybe getting the 5.0 and adding a supercharger is worth it......
Thinkkker said:
One last note, the wife was in a layoff the same day I am told I will need to do this. So that is affecting it some. If anyone knows of a decent Engineering position for an engineer/manager that has 13 years experience in process engr design for oilfield process let me know!
Just to make sure - I take it that it's your wife who is looking for the oilfield engineeer posting, and that you're staying in the current job for the forseeable future. If you're looking for a better job yourself, things really change.
The main questions I have are:
1. How much money is the company putting up, and how much are you?
2. Do they specifically mean a pickup truck, or does anything that can carry a lot of cargo and go offroad fit the bill?
3. How berkleyed are you if you wind up leaving this job? I'm guessing you are left holding the bag for 100% of the payment.
Given that you're going into this on one income, I'd probably go for maximum penny pinching unless you have a lot of savings you can fall back on, at least this time around. Plan for the worst likely scenario - you don't want to have to face an extended job hunt weighted down with a payment that doens't fit current income.
MadScientistMatt said:
Thinkkker said:
One last note, the wife was in a layoff the same day I am told I will need to do this. So that is affecting it some. If anyone knows of a decent Engineering position for an engineer/manager that has 13 years experience in process engr design for oilfield process let me know!
Just to make sure - I take it that it's your wife who is looking for the oilfield engineeer posting, and that you're staying in the current job for the forseeable future. If you're looking for a better job yourself, things really change.
The main questions I have are:
1. How much money is the company putting up, and how much are you?
2. Do they specifically mean a pickup truck, or does anything that can carry a lot of cargo and go offroad fit the bill?
3. How berkleyed are you if you wind up leaving this job? I'm guessing you are left holding the bag for 100% of the payment.
The Wife is looking and I am staying at my current job.
1. $1100 assistance
2. They are calling for Pickup. I think the bed is a portion of what is needed.
3. That depends. We hold a note on the Explorer we got. Which is an '18 so I can last this year theoretically without an issue. We can survive if bad things happen, but one thing that has me back looking at lower level trims and some in house things to make nicer and such.
I agree on the penny pinching. I could go pickup a 70K vehicle, but I would want the wife employed to do that. The extra income is helpful for sure. Plus, I like to get the most out of what I can, which means prolly 50kish is the sweet spot and will get me something nice. The 6 passenger point is a little difficult to find still, so I may have to order to make things happen....
