Sort of new member - i've posted a truck in the bullnose truck forum, and done a lot of posting in the 2009+ f150 forum.

now i find myself here. it is kind of funny, actually. I have been wanting to NOT get a 250/350 truck because of the cost of them new (and used, really) so been looking for a "heavy half" instead.

well. as i am posting here, obviously that did not work out.

Yesterday, on a whim, i drove by a small dealer near my parents house - we were having a belated thanksgiving with just us after the big deal on Thursday. They had a SD with a Crew Cab long bed - just what i needed! so i hopped on pickuptrucks.com to look and see if it was listed and, it was, so i checked it out. 4500 dollars below blue book, gas (i know you diesel fans will frown at that, but we wanted gas) crew cab, long box, even already set up for a 5th wheel - which may be in our future.

I walked in and the sales guy started talking about a deep discount on the truck "today only!". we were not really planning on buying, so i told him we were just looking at it today.

boy was i wrong.

i looked at it, liked it, service manager buddy just happened to be with me because we were doing some home repair at my parents house and he liked it. it was all dry under, pinion seal was leaking slightly but nothing serious, and it was all dirty in addition to being dry, so they didn't appear to be power washing off any obvious issues.

called the wife, she stopped by and looked at it, we test drove it, and as we were getting ready to go back to the dealer and say "thanks, if it is still here when we are ready i'll give you a call" when my wife says "i was thinking we should make XXX offer on it"

we got to the dealership and start talking turkey - the guys asks how i heard about it, and i told him it was an online ad, told him the price, and listed off several smaller issues (needs tires, few small things) - he went to talk to the sales manager and then came back and sheepishly said "um, could you show me that ad?" so i did, and he left, then came back and said "we will honor that price, but i can't come down on the price at all" at this point, i was willing to walk, and started to get up when he says "i understand why you are willing to leave, but you should know that i was going to knock off 3000 dollars on the truck for you, but i can't because the truck was mis-listed - it was supposed to be 22999 and somehow it got listed on that site only as 18999. so, here is what i'll do - obviously, i'll fix all the broken stuff (cruise doesn't work being the big one) and i'll split the tires with you, at dealer cost.

they worked out an interest rate of 1.9 and tell us our payments are XXX, which is 70 dollars lower than my current payment, which will be paid off next month. Cha Ching! so.. i've got a new truck through random dumb luck.

i ended up with a 2008 F350 crew cab, long bed 4x4 XLT already set up with a nice 5th wheel hitch (my buddy tells me the hitch is worth probably 4-500$ used, cool.) its got 117k miles on it, and the 5.4L gas with built in trailer brake control. it doesn't have a LOT of features, but that is OK. got 14mpg average last night on the way home at 70. better than i expected, honestly.

handles better than i expected, although the bumps definitally get away from you with it empty - the shocks are probably going to be upgraded before too long, and i've got a 800 pounds of shingles in my garage that i think will find their way into the bed to see if it rides better that way.

anyhow long story to wait for a picture: