I think Tom should pick up a 6.0 in a year or two.

 

No doubt some are. Sadly I'm gonna be lumped in with them. Perhaps if I remove the catalytic converter people won't consider me a "green person".

Never say never, I'll be craving a truck awfully bad a year from now.

 

I bet if I sent you some videos of that sweet 6.0 whistle you will get the itch.

 

You'll just have to sacrifice some mileage every now and again and "drive it like you stole it".... no doubt then you're not driving to save the baby seals!

 

Yeah, it was traded locally. No worries though, if I see the new owner driving like an *** I'll have to show him some videos from the truck's childhood. In Ohio.

 

you`ll be back in no time Tom.....reminds me of a thread on the Superduty side some guy got rid of his to truck to return to school said he`d be back (in a Superduty) after getting the schooling and career thing sorted out and damned if he wasn't like clockwork a year or two later posting pics of his truck.....actually was kinda inspiring to see someone handle their business like that

 

i remember selling my First Excursion with a worry about money and promised to get another some day. turned out that some day was a month later haha! i could not handle not having it.

i hope you enjoy the car Tom and it does what it needs to do.

 

As painful and embarrassing as it is for me to say this, I might be in the same boat. See back in Sept, the CFO and I were set on getting a new travel trailer, with all the fixings.

I found one a client of mine was selling for a stupid deal. Well I told my client I would absolutely buy his TT, but needed a month to secure the proper truck and finances etc...

Found my '13 Max Tow (Trailer was roughly 8,500 lbs dry and I wanted to have a good safety margin) hence why I opted for Max Tow & 3.73's. Fast forward, client TRADES IN his trailer he was going to sell me, on a new $60K 5th wheel trailer, because he was nervous he would lose the deal on his new 5er.

Anyway, I'm now stuck with a VERY expensive, and Very thirsty Max Tow, F-150 I am grossly underutilizing (BUT LOVE DEARLY)

After continuing to look around for trailers, we changed course and decided to sell our home, and move to a newer neighborhood with better schools etc.. Needless to say our current home closes in a week & 1/2 and will be moving into our brand new home next week.

Our new home is quite a bit more in cost than our current, which is plenty doable, but with both kids still in private daycare/ pre-school at $2200/month I'm getting the itch to abandon my sky high FX4 payment, and drive a beater until our two boys (or oldest) moves into Kindergarten.

(Please don't laugh) at me fella's, and I loathe GM's but there is a mint, and I mean MINT condition, 4-CYL GMC Sonoma at a local dealer to me with 80K miles on the odometer. It's got new tires, brakes and almost looks showroom condition, they want $4500 for it and I could buy that outright in cash and have zero car payments. But in the end I just don't know, I REALLY, REALLY love this '13 FX4 I'm driving, and it really is my dream truck.

 

We all make sacrifices for the greater good of our families. In 2010 I sold my '88 F-150 because I was simply done with it. I was determined not to spend one more dollar on it.

My oldest daughter had a baby shortly after and my SIL's car was the biggest heap that you could imagine. There was no way that I could allow a baby to ride in that POS even around the block so we decided to give them my '99 Taurus wagon.

So now i'm suddenly down to one vehicle (my wife's Ex) so I bought the 2010 Focus as my DD. I had planned on getting a 2010 F-150 Lariat, I had spec'd it out and had started the process of negotiating when all this happened. That became less important.

About a year later when I had my money worked out the way I wanted it, I was able to pull the trigger on my 2011. I didn't get the all the goodies that I wanted but I got what I could afford and I kept myself within the self imposed budget. An amazing deal came into play for me on this truck and I believe it's because I was patient and I really helped the kids out of a jamb.

Truth be told, I love my truck but I'm over it. I could dump it tomorrow and not bat an eye of sorrow or regret. It's a very expensive machine and they build them everyday.

 

Where you live, your kids education, and your overall lifestyle are all FAR more important than a pickup truck. Especially something that's still in production that they make better ever year. It was a hard thing for me to post up about this, and I'm sure it was for you too. Just remember that your dream truck is still being made every day. Thanks for posting, you made me feel better that I'm not the only one whose circumstances has changed.

I was telling myself that exact thing as I was cleaning it out last night. Still made me sad though. Which is silly, because it SHOULDN'T have. But it did.

 

[quote=tseekins;14238837]We all make sacrifices for the greater good of our families.

quote]

Guess I'll chime in, my situation is a little different.......
I got out of the USMC in '93, the wife and I had a '86 Mustang (V6) that was a POS and I had a '89 S-10 (I purchased new before getting married, no radio, no AC, 4 cyl / 5 speed, didn't even have a back bumper when purchased) talk about cheap. Anyway, as soon as I could, I got the wife a '94 Mitsu Gallant, which was a program car, but to us, that thing was like a Bentley or something at the time! I drove the S-10 until '97 when it got flooded by Hurricane Danny (it was at a boat dock in South La. as I work in the offshore oil / gas industry). All I had was liability on the truck as it was paid for, ended up buying a '87 Nissan Pickup from my Dad, paid a $1,000 cash for it. Drove that thing until 2000, it had 258,000 miles on it, in 2000 I secured employment with my current employer which provided a company vehicle. (during this time, as our family grew, my wife had a couple of newer vehicles, couldn't stand the tought of my family broke down on the side of the road, so I kept her in something dependable).

Anyway, long story short (kinda) I drove beaters until I was fortunate enough to have a company vehicle, it wasn't until 2011 that I actually purchased myself a brand new truck, I was 42, two of the three kids had graduated HS and we were in a financial situation to afford it.

I am probably going to get rid of the Harley this year, I have my last child graduating HS this year and will need a vehicle for college, my employer is probably doing away with the company trucks and to be honest, I didn't purchase the truck for my needs, It was what I wanted, a toy really. I love the truck, but in the grand scheme of things, it's way low on the list of priorities, at the time I purchased it, I wasn't considering practicality.

Ironically enough, the Nissan truck is still going strong, has over 300K on it. I gave it back to my dad in 2003 as it was just sitting in the yard. No major maint. issues either, last time I was home, I changed the starter and flywheel for him, still running like a top.

 

You know, with all of the F-150 EcoBoosts Tom has sold with his towing videos and in depth reviews, you would think Ford would be providing him a free Platinum to drive as he wishes, with a gas card.

Ford, if you are listening, send this man a free 2015 to drive. or he may start making videos of *cough* *cough* Tundra's pulling trailers, which would equal loss of sales.

 

You got my vote!

 

WOW I would have not been so nice to that Prius owner.

Fellas selling a truck to provide for your family better is much more important than forcing yourself to keep paying for a truck that you know you cannot afford because you don't want to give it up.

I have given up quite a few things including a gold wing motorcycle that I just finished paying off and was my passion. We needed the money more and I sold it. Sure I absolutely LOVE my truck...but I would give it up if I needed to in a heartbeat. Like was mentioned before...they make them everyday and maybe the next one will have a few more goodies and towing capacity for you down the road.

Drive what you want to drive and who cares what others think about it. If others don't like it they don't have to buy one!!

Tom...have you looked up "gliding and coasting" in a Prius yet?

Here is a video explaining it to maximize your economy...it does get rather challenging to try and squeeze as much MPG out of your car after awhile...lol Have fun with it!

 

Try the term Pulse and Glide if you're actually interested in it. I tried it a few times with my '03 Focus and while it did show promise, 2 lane blacktop isn't the place to do it since you'll have a lot of angry traffic behind you .