I was talking personal, That's what this post is about, I thought, If we're talking business, that's a different ball game all together. My SD XL's invoice for about 72,000, my 550s close to $100, My f-150s are about 65,000, My box trucks, but $100,000.

Most of my vehicles/ trailers are billed out daily on projects . Anywhere from $125 to $200 a day just for the vehicle. They pay for themselves. But we're in a different ball game if we're talking that way.

Just ordered for what is needed, not for the 2nd buyer

I'll be ordering six trucks here by the end of week once I get all the upfit in line.

 

A 'compact sedan' is also on the Do Not Buy list... neither my wife and I like cars, for a good number of reasons, including personal preference.

Funny story... we were in the Ford dealer, and our sales girl was new... so the sales manager had to strut out and make sure she wasn't giving anything away. He's asking us about why were ordering a truck, why not just buy one off the lot (typical sales manager stuff.) Then he starts drilling down, asking us why we wanted, of all things, a Super Duty... I mean, what were we hauling? He actually recommended we buy a Ranger. I was taken so off-guard I didn't even know what to say, and my wife just about got up to leave.

 

I have a few more years of being able to getting into a lower riding car and use my left leg left so I am making the best of it, having grown up throwing a VW Rabbit and Ford Escort around on the mountain roads of Appalachian foothills and in the snow belt. Unless I am towing/hauling, I am happiest rowing my own gears in a modestly powered FWD compact and do the "driving a slow car fast" routine.



I think ford dealers who are more truck oriented dealers are getting more and more far and few in between. They are now just financing companies who happen to sell cars. Even my local dealer who is ostensibly a well known "truck shop" is for the most part staffed by the same sales staff one might find in a Hyundai or Nissan place.

 

That makes two of us. Sadly, it will likely never be in a truck, again... pickup or semi. The only thing I have left are 2 motorcycles...

 

Yes. My little Mazda-rati sure is fun! I call it my little go-kart...

 

Makes three of us. Unfortunately, my 6-speed is a "summer only" car. Already parked for the winter, as I had shoulder surgery on 9/22 and won't be doing any "rowing" for a while.

But note that Chevy just announced a 6-speed manual pickup. Of course, it also has a 1,000 HP engine and costs over $125k. Oh, and it's only a 2WD 1500... So not really a "truck".

 

My wife is already trying to figure out how to trade both of our trucks in for one of those... she likes a manual as well.

In Bill Cosby's classic 200 MPH, he opines that vehicles like that should automatically come with 6 speeding tickets...

 

Makes 4 of us! ALL of my old trucks are manuals, when I bought my F350 if I could've found a 6 speed I would've bought it instead, sadly the manual trans is going the way of the DoDo... would've had a manual Sasquatch Bronco but the idiot salesguy ordered it as an auto, it was a want not a need so I still haven't ordered a new one, and they don't offer the Cyber Orange anymore which was my color choice on it... and I have enough old trucks to drive so it would probably live in the shop and collect dust lol.

 

....I still have three 6 spd manual diesel trucks plus my FJ40 and two motorcycles so I get my shifting fix.

Dave

 

For me the simpler the better (Just my opinion).. I am more concerned with capability ( payload, gear ratio, engine, etc....), and the look of the truck. I don't need leather seats, or seats and a steering wheel that heat and cool, I love that I have to use a key to still start my truck and don't have to push a button, and I have no need for all the driver assist features they take the joy out of actually driving my truck. I don't need a sunroof, sliding rear window, power seats, or a digital screen. I prefer the vinyl floors and seats but opted against them this time to get the STX trim on the XL model. Even with the back up camera and all the other cameras screens and sensors, my truck has more than I will ever use or need. To me the less bells and whistles (especially with electronics) the less that can go wrong, and the cheaper to repair.

 

I'm just a little jelly are any of them F350/7.3/4x/CC/DRW with appx 162k you'd want to swap?! Had a Scab 7.3/6spd/4x/DRW come up locally, well, in Kalifornia, but it was gawn before my msg got responded to... don't get me wrong, I love my 02 F350, but I would trade/sell it in a heartbeat for the same truck with a 6 spd. I still have my FZ09 also for my 2 wheel fix, growing up, my dad was always saying, "any idiot can drive an automatic, you need to know how to drive a stick", plus growing up on a farm and in the country, every piece of equipment were manuals, I was driving semi's at 10 with no clutchy clutchy from watching the older guys drive them. All of my kids learned to drive on my old 66 F100 with the T-18, and I lost count in HS of how many girls I taught to drive a manual in my 66 F100 I had then. It's sad how the automakers have dumbed down the population with autos, even big rigs. I have bought a few older trucks just because they had the 3oT, which was my favorite to drive as a kid in our old 56 Chevy p/u

To the OP, sorry for the I enjoy reading about the newer trucks and folks take on them, my work truck is a '22 F550 XL so that's my only peek into the new rigs, I don't have a need for a new truck yet but... in about 5 yrs or so I'm going to start looking for a F350/450 to tow a Tucker Sno-cat with for my retirement gig, so I'm sort of doing research now seeing what folk's like and dislikes are on the yrs I may be looking at then.

 

A man after my own heart! And, in particular...

...and that's really it. I love to drive, I was born to drive. Not in some stupid Talladega Nights way, but in a professional and purist sense. When I was driving OTR, there were days when I was just out west, rolling the hills, working the truck, hauling that freight... and I thought 'My God, they are paying me to do this!' Of course, there were days where I said 'Good Heavens, they don't pay me enough to do this...' and that was usually up on the east coast.

When I was test driving my 2017 2500HD, the salesman kept telling me to use the backup camera... 'it's a safety feature!' I'm like... 'why? I have 3 good mirrors already'

 

Agreed, but I will say, having a back-up cam is sooo handy when hooking up to trailers all the time, everything else is just excess noise... looking for the best wireless one to stick on the back of my 02 or my other trucks when I use them.

 

[QUOTE=Pickupmanx2;21683422]Agreed, but I will say, having a back-up cam is sooo handy when hooking up to trailers all the time, everything else is just excess noise... /QUOTE]
Yeah, I'd like to see a competition where one group has a rear camera and the other doesn't, for solo trailer hookup...

 

[QUOTE=TestPilot57;21683588]After having one on my work trucks, it's almost idiot proof, then when I jump in my "old" 2002 F350, well, let's just say I get out more than once when backing up to hook up... 😂 hence the soon purchase of a magnetic back up cam for it, used to be I had it down to maybe one look-see... hmmm... a competition, well I know where I'd put my Benjamin's lol