Hi everyone,

Unfortunately with everything going on in my life I think I"ll be saying goodbye to my F150 before I had originally planned. With three kids and my wife a full-time student things are a little tighter than I had hoped they'd be at this point. So as frustrating and embarrassing as it is for me, I'll be selling my trailer and trading the truck in on something much cheaper and better on gas. You guys probably don't want to know what I'm considering.

Of course the back end of this plan is perhaps a 2015 F150 when my wife graduates and gets her RN in August, 2015.

 

Tom,

I did a whole career in the Army. Almost every duty station the truck had to go. (5 kids).

A car or a truck. You know the deal.

Last duty station till I got to just keep both.

 

Don't sweat it Tom, they build them every day.

 

and I was starting to feel bad for you .....it`ll all work out for you man

 

Just keep the truck. You will lose lots of money selling it if you bought it new.

 

should have kept the Ex? it was paid for.

i'm sure you'll find something to get you by.

hows the old Lincoln doing?

 

Yeah, that part is gonna stick in my craw for awhile. I've always been a responsible guy, and I have great credit. I'm absolutely unwilling to jeopardize that by holding onto a material possession that can be replaced. Unfortunately I'm the only income in my household. And while I make good money, I'm paying for three young kids in diapers as well as my wife commuting 40 miles each way to school. At the moment we have more going out than coming in. My truck is the largest fixed expense I have, and I just don't need it!

Not really. Yeah it was paid for, but that pig was completely incapable of exceeding 12 MPG no matter what I did to it. Which made it the single most expensive vehicle to operate that I ever owned. I drive around 24,000 miles per year, and that adds up to some big fuel bucks. What I should have done was sell the Ex and trailer a year ago and worked towards paying off my Fusion I had at the time. But I was an idiot and failed to foresee what things would be like this year and bought a new truck instead.

Yep, and ironically enough I'm looking at buying something that's ridiculed here on FTE every day. Good thing I'm not a guy concerned with image.

Meh. It's in great running order, but I've spent a good $500 in parts trying to chase a vibration on the freeway with only limited success. And it has a lot of wind noise due to a windshield sealing issue. Otherwise it's in fantastic shape and runs great, but of course doesn't get much better fuel economy than the truck!

 

Image don't feed the little ones Tom. Personally, I'd chase down a Hyundai, Kia or another vehicle with the larger warranty and excellent MPG's. My sister just bought a 2014 Hyundai Elantra on my most strenuous urgings and passed by the Focus all because of warranty.

 

i drove two different 1994 ford escorts for 10 years of my life. both green, one hatchback one wagon.

i never once laughed at the 34-38 mpg i got!

ya gotta do what makes sense. and sometimes taking the initial hit to get out of a hole, or to keep from making the hole bigger is just what you gotta do. as much as it hurts.

sorry to hear you've hit a rough spot in the road! it seems to be a common thing these days.

i have to say, i am going to miss seeing threads where you lean on your f150, though!

 

Bottom line, you do what's necessary in these situations. Good for you on realizing what the big picture is here. Most just bury themselves in debt that's not needed.

I held on to my 6.0 5yrs longer than I said I would. Wife and two kids and I desperately needed a house. It took me a while to get one..

 

At the moment I'm thinking something 2011 or newer that's certified used. That way I don't eat a ton of depreciation and I get a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. I'm actually thinking about either a Prius or C-Max. I figure if I can average 40 MPG I'll save $150/month on gas with the miles I drive compared to what I get now in my Lincoln, which does better than my truck. The payment would be right around $300 for a car like that, and the gas savings would cover half of that. I figure if I kept the '97 Lincoln as a daily driver I'd be spending that $150/month on parts and other sundry things that come with driving a 17-year-old car. And in the process I'll save $500/month over my truck payment.

Yeah it's going to be a hit, far more than I've ever taken. I carried a little negative equity into the deal with this truck, and looks like I'm around $5,000 upside down on it. Selling my trailer should net me $6K, but at the end of the day I'm giving my trailer away to cover depreciation. But bad news doesn't get better with time, and the depreciation is water under the bridge. "Stuff" happens, and you learn from it.

What makes me so aggravated is that the "rough spot" is self-inflicted. I've seen lots of folks have financial issues and blame others for them, and therefore they never learn a thing. I'm not a fan of abrogating responsibility, this is my fault. Certainly nothing that I can't climb out of, but a place I should have never been to begin with.

Yeah, I'm gonna miss doing it! Still planning on going out to the OH meet this summer though. Hoping someone can show up with an F150, but it will not be me.

 

And BY the way, I'm giving away my slightly used StableLoads to whoever wants them. No sense sending those with the truck, the new owner would probably not know what to do with them!

So who wants 'em?

 

I sent you a PM

 

Tom,

As mentioned, good on you for putting the family first . It's not like it was a family heirloom that has been around for generations. These trucks can always be replaced later down the road when the time is appropriate.

Before I moved to my current house, I was commuting 120 miles daily with a 4-banger, auto trans, front-wheel drive import ('06 Mazda 6i). The color was "violet gray", which was more purple than gray in most light... It can't get much worse of image than that.

Best of luck to you, the family and wife completing her education

 

Don't sweat it Tom! I would love to have a Prius and maybe the CMax. I had fun trying to squeeze 52 mpg out of the rental Prius and also learning "glide mode" you do what you need to do to make things meet. One thing for sure is oh need to stick around here...it is frat having you around my friend!