Hey im a Youngish guy (25) who STARES at every f250 i see i literally have to have one. Most guys in f250's are cashed up middle age guys ive noticed no offence to anyone i want to be like you :dance
Im Not Super Cashed up so im looking for some advice. Please help me out with your knowledge on f250's.
So i basically want this to be my forever car that i look after and have for unforeseen years to come. Ill basicly be bombing most of my savings on this i want to be clued up on the reality of it.

Now i want to know everything there is to know about the following things.

What is the best way to go about getting one Im from Melbourne. Im willing to fly/drive back from anywhere in aussie no big deal.

1. Import From Usa/Brazil??
2. Buy off Carsales?
3. An option i dont know about?

Fixing and Maintaining an f250. Now Heres the part you guys might laugh at me about. Im ****e with anything too complicated mechanically i rely on my mechanic to look after the maintenance of my current Ford.
Questions.

1.Is the f250 Expensive to repair/fix because parts have to be imported if something goes wrong/breaks down. Or are most of the parts here but still expensive cause its a rarer truck?

2.Can i rely on a mechanic to fix a f250. DO I Need to be the person whose clued up and can fix all my own problems. You lot seem very clued up on everything about your truck.

^^^^ this is the thing im worried about most. Is my mechanical illiteracy going to sting me if i buy a f250.


What type of F250. I know this is more preference but most of the time preference has a reason.

1. Diesel vs petrol

2. 6cyl 4.2L vs 8cyl 5.4L vs 8cyl 7.3L

3. Auto Vs Manual


Just looking for some knowledge thanks to anyone who decides to post on this thread for the time it took you to help me.
Thanks alot.

Im a Dumb kid who shouldnt buy a f250 is a viable Answer as it'l mean yes i cant maintain a f250 if i had one.

Thanks.

 

I am very interested in this carsales sale.
2001 FORD F250 XLT Ute Private Cars For Sale in NSW - carsales.com.au

Note - i dont want to offroad i want a f250 because they are BEASTS
This guys f250 Looks very well maintained/ lots of extras.

 

Buy one here - you don't want to go down the road of importation... the government red tape is redunculous.


The one you are looking at is a petrol motor - and one I would probably recommend to someone if they didn't have a great deal of mechanical aptitude... as long as you can stand the fuel bills
It has the same motor as the V8 that was fitted to the BA Falcon V8/XR8/GT (different heads/intake/exhaust though), so parts won't be hard to come by, nor should it be hard to find a mechanic to work on it - and anything that was different to the Falcon can be bought very cheaply from the US.

I personally don't like a lot of things that was done to that truck (style wise), but that's my taste, yours might be different.
The "Motor has been computer tuned on dyno" would scare me a bit though, make sure you get receipts for it, and check that it is a reputable person that knows what they are doing.


Manual transmission is the preferred option, but they were only available with the 4.2 or with some of the later (low spec) 7.3's... as they are bullet proof, but a petrol engine doesn't have enough grunt to destroy the auto trans (unlike the 7.3). The rest of the truck is very reliable and simple to work on.
A 7.3l diesel makes the truck a beast, I love them - they sound (and go) really well, particularly once tuned, but your chances of finding a mechanic that knows what they are doing on one is almost impossible (they use an injection system that is the same that Caterpiller fit to their bulldozers/truck engines - i.e. a bit more complicated than an old diesel landcruiser).
The 4.2l is a much simpler (and slower) motor, that an average diesel mechanic could get his head around.

The petrol (5.4) is simple and only available in 4x2 (which given you said you don't want to go off-road probably isn't bad), only potential problem is it blowing a spark plug out of the head - which sounds bad, but there are simple fixes available.

The only other thing worth mentioning is running costs, remember these are commercial vehicles, so if you are thinking it will cost the same as a Falcon to fuel/insure/service fuggetaboutit
The one good thing is if you look after it, they hold their value very well. I still can't get over that people bought a truck 10 years ago for 60k, put 200,000km on it, and then can sell it for 50k.

 

Oh wow you've answered a tonne of what i needed to know.

I see you mentioned Cat. Ive read somewhere else someone giving somebody else advice to just take their diesel to cat, seeing ford australia doesn't know anything about diesels.

I have an account at cat all my excavators are cat and get serviced/repaired there. Its pretty close to me/etc.
Ill have to look into whether they would even look at it i see no reason why they wouldn't.

Although they are $$ expensive but its worth it if they are the only people who know whats happening.

Also what is you're opinion on LPG. Or is the mention of LPG just disgracefull to you

 

Adrian has pretty much covered it. If you are hell bent on a F250 and your not into off road, the one you linked looks good. I would be keen to see the service history. That little 5.4 has to work hard to carry that truck around. But you will wished you bought the 7.3. lol. Saying that you step into the big spendy bracket and Im not just referring to the purchase price.
Oh and yes Im middle aged and I dont take offence to it.

 

As a middle aged cashed up guy my observation is that the MAIN cost of owning any vehicle is DEPRECIATION.

To this end the F250 7.3 diesel is the HD of motor vehicles. MAX presence, MIN depreciation.

Hang your ar$3 in the breeze and take a loan/lease - cause at the end of the day/lease/loan period, provided you've looked after your truck, it will be still worth something.

That is also why the HD is the motorcycle most favoured by ACCOUNTANTS, amongst others. Luckily at this time ACCOUNTANTS have NOT discovered the F250 - but when they do the F250 will be worth even more!

 

Dont buy what you dont want if you are comprimising to get the 5.4, it will cost you in the long run when you get a 7.3. Sounds like you have a bussiness in earthworks so you will be able too write that truck off with no need for a log book. I over extended myself to get mine 5 years ago just work harder and it will happen my last payment is next week their are plenty around at the right price you just have to hunt them down. I paid 65k for mine in Townsville when they were selling in Brisbane for 85k body was a touch rough but mechanically it was good. I live near brisbane and caught a plane up and drove it back

 

My Soccer mum wagon (Territory) is LPG.

The 5.4 accepts LPG fine (in the US Ford certified it as "Propane compatible), the only issue I have seen is that when they are re-gapping the spark plugs, fitters have over-torqued the plugs, and you get that spark plug ejection issue that I mentioned.



I will add - if you go down the gas path, I wouldn't use Dual Fuel, tendency not to use the petrol means the injectors don't get used, not to mention fitting gas and petrol tanks means you have a smaller gas tank.
I would get an injected gas system (more $$$ to buy), preferably liquid injection like the new gas Falcons have. My Territory has an injected (gas, not liquid) system, and it makes equal power as Petrol, and gets similar fuel economy.


That said, Geoff and Simon put forth a pretty strong argument for getting a big 7.3... the concept of taking out a loan on anything that isn't a house or piece of land doesn't sit well with me, but at the moment a big effie probably is more likely to hold its value than a house anyways

Just get used to it being more expensive to run than a normal vehicle - they take 16l of oil (about 4X what a Commodore/Falcon does), filters are expensive (cheaper if pre-ordered from the states), expect about 14l/100km on the highway, ball joints in the front end will need to be replaced every 100-150 thousand k's... you may want to leave some cash in the bank in case the trans takes a dump... but beyond that you can expect 500 thousand k's from them pretty easily


If you have a Cat dealer (or even better, a private diesel shop that works on Dozers/big trucks), I would definitely see if you can take it to them over a Ford dealer - the Ford dealers are good at working on Falcons, but they won't see many effies

 

this is a good price
Ford F250 XLT (4x4) (2002) Super Cab P/Up 4 SP Automatic (7.3L - Diesel... | eBay

 

300,000 K's on it. They can and do do a lot more, but it'd need a thorough check-over as if the PO had mangled anything or skipped routine maintanence there could be a lot of expensive problems behind a cheap purchase price.

Having said that I've seen examples with > 250,000ks going for $70,000 +

 

They are not worth what they was, my mate just sold his, around 50k for a 160k crew cab, 20"s with 35"s, 6" lift in awesome condition. I would have bought it if I could. Seen a few extra cab 7.3 trucks lately for 40k, damn cheap

 

See he has 2 for sale??????

 

Yep they have come down in price. Just a reflection of our economic woes. They will go up again.