I am very close to buying a Raptor. Unfortunately, there is no demo where I live to test drive. I am certain that it will be fine, but I do wonder about three things:

1 - How smooth is the transmission? Does it hunt and act indecisive or is it dialed? My F-250 has a decent transmission but it is a heavy work truck so I would not classify it as smooth or "invisible to the operator". With the extremely low final grive ratio are normal takeoffs smooth or does it shift three times getting out of the driveway? (My F-250 would rock if I could lock out first gear sometimes.)

2 - How good is the stock radio? How about the optional Sony model? The Sony carries a pretty hefty price tag. From what I can gather from the online build thingie, the Sony is not a nav unit.

3 - Since it is not a nav unit, what is displayed on the rear view camera screen during regular driving?

Thanks!

 

The local dealer did not have even a brochure, but after looking at the dealer's (very detailed) build guide and thinking about it, I went ahead and ordered a SuperCab. It is listed as Job 3 but there is a chance it may get bumped to a 2012. I hope there are no crazy new changes for 2012 if I get a 2011.

I waffled between silver/black and orange/orange for a long time but finally decided on the orange/orange. I skipped the exterior graphics, the tailgate step, and the moonroof but got everything else. I hope the Sony nav is as good as the nav in my F-250.

X1R UY 8B 517A 64S 996 446 T7R 425 55L 58N 61R

The MSRP for my order is 49.1K but X Plan drops that to 44.8K, including destination and delivery and silly stuff like fuel charges and advertising assessments. My usual X Plan PIN source used both of her codes this year so if anyone has a spare code let me know.