I wouldn't mind lifted if it was a 3", my wife will not have a 6" lift, probably wouldn't fit in the garage anyway. Thanks for the links though! I appreciate everyone helping out. I've always said this is the best ford truck forum around!
Steve

 

I just found another one that may be good, put in a call and left a message. It's in WA, about 1600 miles away however. I would fly out for the right vehicle.

2005 Ford Excursion Eddie Bauer eddition 6.0L 4x4 112,000 miles 6.0L powerstroke diesel w/ 5spd automatic transmission. This has every option available with power everything and everything works. Two tone leather seats with no rips or holes. Dual power seats with drivers seat memory and Seat Heaters. Four wheel drive with tow package. DVD player with wireless headphones. 10,000 miles ago over $3k in new parts including New oem upgraded parts: oil cooler turbo drain tube turbo oil feed tube oil pressure sender IPR screen HPOP fitting thermostat blue spring fuel pressure regulator 6.4L banjo bolts to get rid of fuel line restriction air filter Rebuilt turbo EGR delete with new down pipe installed from bulletproof diesel switched over to cat elc-1 coolant and distilled water after flushing with VC-9 cleaner and Restore to clean out the old ford gold coolant crap remote coolant filter added I also have a SCT XF3 tuner with tunes from vivians quick tricks automotive that I'm willing to throw in if the price is right. comes with an extra set of aftermarket carpets and I added an mp3 player input to the factory radio. I am the 2nd owner and have all of the paperwork from the original owner including all service records from Ford dealership. I have some oil sample reports that i would include as well. I love this truck, I'm only selling because I ended up with a different job much further away than I had anticipated commuting. This runs and drives awesome and has tons of power, I can email more pics, $22,000 obo

 

How soon can you get a flight to Washington?

And yes, you were right to walk away from the one that you werent allowed to drive (Wtf?).

Good luck,
Karl.

 

You did good. You will find another, dont rush into it.

 

Can you ask a member here whose live nearby to take a look before you fly out? $22K is a bit much for my blood. I paid $15K in Dec 11 with 127K on the clock.

Remember you'll still need to spend a few grand to upgrade the springs and shocks anyway. my temp difference was good after I bought it for a few months, then started to creep up so I had to change the EGR and Oil coolers in June of this year. $22K plus another $5K for up grade is a bit much...

 

That's a good idea to see if someone could look although I would hate to ask. The oil cooler has been replaced and EGR deleted. Sounds like a lot of the work has been done but I always expect more. I would upgrade the suspension, but wouldn't need to be right away. That price seems reasonable compared to what I'm finding. I haven't talked to the owner yet, will see what info I can get.

 

I would not have walked.... I would have RAN!

If your looking all the way in Washington state, you should check down south, we have lots of rust free vehicles here in Az.
i have seen this one, it came through one of my stations when I was working there. I was more interested in the 7.3 that his buddy had. He mentioned that he was putting his up for sale and that he has not had any problems with it. They were all highway miles he said.

2005 Excursion 4X4 Deisel

it had some bumps and door dings on it when I saw it. It looked like it was parked in a grocery store parking lot its entire life.

 

You did the right thing walking away, especially for what he was asking. The only way I would of stayed would of been by low balling him and seeing if he went for it.

 

Yeah, don't go back to that black one. If they guy didn't care enough to replace a simple cheap shock, what else has he neglected. I looked for 4-5 months and finally found mine out in CA. Bought it sight unseen, pretty risky. But the sales guy didn't act like one. He was a straight shooter and got answers to all my questions, sent me an obscene amount of pics and movies of the Ex. The shop was willing to do every inspection/test/check and they were willing to put it all in writing. I ended up shipping it back and it was even better than expected. I'm picky and it was almost showroom condition inside and out. I picked it up for $28500 with 62k miles on it. I'm not sure what they go for now, but that was $4k under market value at the time in Jan '10.

If that WA one looks good I'd check into it. And if a member would swing by and take a look for you it would be even better! Sounds like you know what to look for and ask, good luck and have fun.

 

When I bought my Ex from TX off ebay here is what I did:

1. Got all the info I could from the Ebay seller to convince me it was in the condition stated.
2. Then I went to a local dealer and convinced them to purchase the vehicle and ship it. If it all checked out then I would purchase the Ex plus $2000 added to the ebay price for there expenses.
3. If the Ex was not as advertised then I was not obligated to purchase.
4. Worked out good for me as the freight alone was 1500 due to the size. Plus they had to make some changes to get it to pass inspection.

So if your looking to buy and dont have time to look at it, see if your local dealer will pick it up and get it to you. It opens up a larger market for you to look at.

I bought a 02 Limited Unlimited 7.3 W/180K on the clock for 18K after all the costs with dealer.

Not sure if it was a good price but I was happy with it, plus I have not seen very many Unlimited Excursions out there.

 

I would have walked also, you always drive the vehicle before purchasing if possible. Most people that care for there cars would have fixed the shock issue. Missing shock and cant drive is a red flag to me.

Take your time, there are lots of good Ex's out there you just have to wait your turn.

 

Sounds like a winner, but $22K is a bit much. My guess is that he's trying to recoup the cost of the repairs made; at the same time, $22K is about right since he did alot of the legwork you would've had to do at some point. So it's more or less a "Premium" Excursion.

I'd definitely check it out...

Just make sure to get plenty of pics up front before you fly out.

 

X's nearly always list over KBB as well. Supply and demand is crazy for a good clean X.

 

That's exactly what I'm finding. Insurance gave around $15k for my 2003 7.3 XLT w/ 162k. That was current retail. Had thousands in mods though. Was planning to keep for a long time. It was a good strong truck!

 

If you find that your Ex was worth more than insurance paid, you can contest the amount they gave you. I had to do that to a car that was totaled. I had to collect a bunch of info on similar vehicles that were for sale to provide proof that I needed more $$ to replace the car. State Farm was very quick and fair and I ended up with $2500 more.