Well for those of you who dont care for the 04 redesign Ford has extended the life of the old design in a cheapie model called the 2004 F150 Heritage. It still has the V6 and manual transmission options and is the old body style. Dont know how long it will remain with the line but there you have it. Saw a couple of them today at my dealership.

 

Yep, some dealers get people in the showroom advertising cheap '04's & they turn out to be heritage models.

 

homerwinzlow, do the 04 heritages all have the "heritage" option package or do they look like normal 03 pickups. By "heritage" i am referring to the silver/black, red/black,etc special paint and option package that ford offerred for a while on the 03's. Are the 04 heritage trucks just normally optioned 03 V6 trucks or do they alll have the special heritage option package?

 

No, no Heritage option package like we are used to seeing. This why I am amazed they would call it that, for fear of offending those who paid large for the Heritage option previously. However the window sticker is the only place the Heritage name even is seen, so its like calling it the Texas/Oklahoma edition. Doesnt mean a damned thing but that they are keeping the 03 body style for the die hard who want inexpensive trucks for now. Well kinda inexpensive, most I have seen list for the low 20K range.

 

homerwinzlow, thanks, i appreciate the info. I recently asked the same question to 4 salespeople at 3 different dealerships in houston area. None of them knew the answer and i got a mumbling mixture of "Who Cares" ranging up to "if you buy a car from me today i will find out". What really ticked me off the other day was when i looked at a new 03 crewcab (i have shopped a couple of ford trucks but I really want the super crew)at Champion Ford in Katy Tx on I10. I told the sales guy (he didnt offer this info) there was an additional ford rebate if i financed thru ford. The guy said "i dont care to know about those financing discounts; those extra discounts happen in the finance office and it isnt worth my time to find out. Do you want to buy this truck or not ? " i promptly told the salesguy that well hey, the extra financing discount sure matters to me so i left the lot.

 

The '04 F-150 Heritage Model is just Ford's way of getting rid of old, outdated, chassis, engine, transmission, and body parts from the previous model year, WITHOUT having to give the vehicles way.......

 

Here's what the F150 brand manager told me in June:

Tooling a plant costs time and money. In order to minimize production down time, not all plants are converted over at once, hence the continued production of the older body style until all the tooling is completed.

(Not an exact quote)

They did the same thing when the 1997 F150 came out. Old body style production continued as the F250.

 

And the 04 Heritage comes in ONLY the XL & XLT.

 

My dealer has a '04 Heritage...but the morons ordered it with the auto. tranny and V8 (which defeats the purpose of the model pretty much). So I guess it'll be sitting there until '05 or someone feels sorry for it.

 

wxboy, why are they morons for ordering an auto with v8? Many many thousand already sold with that configeration. I am only posting tho because i was told the heritage would only come with v6's. Was it in fact an 04 heritage style with a V8? new subject-- Fanman, not sure what you meant. the 03 "chassis, engine, etc" are not necessarily old and outdated. For sure the 04 f150 is newer, but the "old and outdated" 03 fords are better than an 04 chevy or dodge. IMO.

 

Sorry if I offended you or anybody else with my earlier posting.
What I was trying to say in as few words as possible is that as far as FORD is concerned.....the new 2004 F-150 is brand new from the ground up, with very, very few carryover parts and/or components from the previous 2003 model year.....which in essence, makes the 2003 model year parts and components "old and outdated". In no way did I ever mean to infer that the 2003 F-150 was "old and outdated", or for that matter any recent model year F-150!! Hell, we all know that ANY recent model year F-150 is better than an '04 Chebbie or Do-Dee-Gee, and that those two brands make great trailers.....or better still, firewood holders for your remote cabin in the mountains....if you can get them there.....

 

fanman2, zero offense taken.

 

Chevy and Dodge both have a better chassis (Hydro Formed) the dodge has 13" Brakes, rack and pinion steering, more powerful engines (Even more powerful than the new 5.4), power adjustable pedals, 5 speed auto tranny's, but yeah i guess you could say they're out dated compared to the 97-2004 F150!?!?

The chevy is starting to get outdated but at least has strong engines for a 1/2 ton, a hydroformed frame, tow/haul mode computer setting (that switch that delays shifts).

That style ford still has an old boxed frame that isn't hydro formed meaning its not as stiff or as capable as the newer Dodge and Chevy. The engines are OHC but aren't as powerful as the base engines offered by the two other companies and the new 5.4 is better with torque than the 5.3 but the HEMI still beats it.

You guys are still biased even when the facts are right in front of you. Face it Ford is not the best for everyone, they are better in some ways, but GM is better in other ways, and Dodge is also better in other ways.

 

Just bought one and want to know if I can tow my 2003 Mach 1 (3500 lb curb weight). Trailer weighs about 2000 lbs. Total 5500lbs towing.

Can this truck do that?

 

If you got a V6 no
If you got a V8 maybe
But you wont be going 55mph up any highway grades over 4%
Thats the reason why I got rid of my '97 F150 V8 it had a tow rating of 6,600 lbs but had trouble towing a 5,000 lb trailer up any hill unless you got a running start at it. That and I used half a tank of gas on a 50 mile camping trip