Polarbear, not sure what part of the NW you are in, but I have seen many in my section of the Northwest (SRW like my order, not DRW). There are significantly more 250 shortbeds, but 350 short beds do exists (there were 4 at my local dealers last week). It could be the pregnant lady syndrome, once you start looking for it, you see them EVERYWHERE!

 

I just checked dealer inventory again, all 4 are still there. All are CC like mine.

 

Paul-
we're just due East of Portland, in what I would describe as a rural/semi-rural market. I just ran a locate in the PDX area, and this is definitely a metro-area model. There's a few of 'em in town, but as soon as you search outlying dealers the model vanishes. Which proves 1) markets are regional and 2) you're never too old (or experienced) to learn something.

 

This problem should not happen when you purchase a new vehicle from an auto broker. Mine goes to the manufacturers' website, and we go through EVERY OPTION on the list. They go find they vehicle, negotiate options with me if they cannot find an EXACT match, and offer it to me at a SUBSTANTIAL SAVINGS!!! Until the dealerships treat their customers better, auto brokers have EARNED MY BUSINESS!!!

 

Come to the Tri-Cities, quite popular over here in the fields.

 

I'm sure your broker does a fine job, but when you add a third party to the transaction, the possibility of a goof generally increases, not decreases. The broker generates those savings by bypassing the retail sales department and going directly to the dealerships Fleet Department. Something, I might add, almost any customer can do.

This is most effective if the customer already has a clear idea of what they want. Most fleet guys don't have the time to do a multi-hour show-and-tell on the lot.

 

Interesting- of your four local dealers, one seems to stock them, the other three don't. Now it'd be interesting to know who does the best job, marketwise, in that area.

This fascinates me because customer tastes are a moving target. From our side of the fence, time on the lot is money. Big money if you're not stocking what sells quickly.

 

Polarbear (or is that rainbear since you are near Portland ),

Of our 5 dealers around Spokane, 3 have trucks. The 3 cover a broad spectrum - small town dealer (who has 2!), mid-size Spokane dealer, and the largest dealer in town. Not sure I can tell much, except that 60% of our dealers had the truck (unfortunately, none with MY options!).

I'm not sure how these (350, CC, SB) are used more frequently - personal or business. I'm purchasing mine to pull a good size 5th wheel and have room for more passengers than 2-3. We have several at my company that are used to carry employees and pull heavy trailers. Certainly SD LB are more used in business (just a guess), but SB - who knows.

BTW, when I went to town today, I saw two at the same intersection

 

Polarbear,

You really have me going - Am I ordering a very unusual vehicle that might not be resalable (not that I care if it works for me)?

I expanded the search further east into Northern Idaho. Of the 5 dealers who had any 350s, there were a total of 6 350s CC SB - only 1 dealer did not have one.

Certainly, East of the Cascades seems to like these trucks.

 

Paul-
we may be on to something here. This has got me going to- probably for a different reason. First off, the way the market is today, you could paint pink flames down the side of that truck and still have a top-dollar resale piece, so I wouldn't worry a second about that. The issue is whether the truck does or doesn't do what you need it to, and it sounds like you've done more than your fair share of research.

A quick story: back in the mid-90's, every fool knew you couldn't give away a Chevy E/C Z71 without a 350V8 and an Automatic. It was just a given. I had one customer order a 5.0V8 with a 5-speed in a nicely equipped E/C Z71, and we all thought "o boy, hope we got a big enough of a deposit on that deal." Anyway, the truck came in while the customer was out of town, and we had a number of customers try to buy that truck. no, we didn't sell it out from under him, but I did start carrying that model in inventory. First one at a time, then 20-30 at a shot. And they flew out the door. Moral of the story: it pays to keep an open mind and listen to you customers.

BTW, in the mid-late 90's we were berating our Ford rep over why we didn't offer leather and other amenities in the trucks. Poor guy thought we were nuts. "Chevy buyers may want leather, but Ford buyers want real trucks." And how many Lariats/King Ranches do we see on the road today?

Seeing that the metro dealers generally aren't stocking this model, but dealers in other areas obviously are, I have to question if there's a market here we're missing.

re: usage. I'm guessing the thought process goes something like this- a lot of F250 customers could really get by with a 150, but for whatever reason choose to go with the SD (diesel availability, I think is the main issue). The 350 customers are more likely to need...and use the extra capacity, and that spells "long-box" for many users. What's changing is that more private (non-commercial) customers are migrating towards the bigger trucks. What really threw me was E-Wa's comment that the SB was quite popular out in the fields.

 

Paul,

The $780 difference between the 250 and 350 wasn't much when you are spending 45K or more. If I was to do it over, I would order the all weather floor mats and the cab clearance lights.
You won the race on who got their truck first, unfortunately you got the long bed.

Amante

 

Au Revoir: I agree on the clearance lights and all weather mats. With the Crew Cab , I ordered the one long mat for the back seat , usually made for a van, because it covers the whole area rather than two small foot mats . With muddy shoes/boots, the all-weather catches all the yuck. I had to order on-line ( Ford Brand site for perfect fit ) as none of the local dealers offered the full-wide mat. As for the 350, my husband doesn't go for it because we don't need it to pull a horse trailer and he feels the ride wouldn't be as comfortable for every day driving.

 

Hi Polar Bear,

You are correct. One CAN go into the dealerships fleet department, and hope that somebody spends the time with you to "spec" out a vehicle. Or, you can work with the couple that I have been buying cars and trucks from for years. If you don't already have your vehicle options in mind, they WILL walk you through the process with as much time as you need. Changes? They expect that when they find your vehicle, you may either want to change to leather, up/downgrade the radio, or go to a different manufacturer altogether. Try that in a fleet department. These guys have arraingements with several dealerships in a rather large geographical area, to look into their inventory and locate the vehicle of your choice. Have we talked to a shark yet? Nope! In my case, just a guy and his wife working from their home. I could either go to the dealer and drop off the check and drive away, without interfacing with a shark, or go to their home and pickup my new vehicle. They even offer financing, and recognize the current manufacturers rebates. You get the best of it all! No pressure, no stress, no sales shark in your face. Did I mention that I have saved from 2500 to 5000 per vehicle. Wayyyyyyyy better than ANY offer given to me by a dealer. I even remember a Dodge dealer once telling me that I would have to give him an extra 1000 to spec out and order a custom vehicle. My F-250 was built in 4-04, and I bought it 6-04. My last Dodge was only off the line about 3 weeks before I got it! Can't say enough good stuff about my experience with the auto broker near me!!! Only had to mess around with the dealer recently, beacuse I feel I'm gonna need the extended warranty, and the broker didn't have this capability. Got the 100K/5yr plan in the hopes of getting the bugs out before it gets broken in at 100K!

BTW, if anyone up there in Washington needs a broker to get a quote or a vehicle from, I could give you a name and number for up there. He can find those "in demand" vehicles that most cannot locate.........

Thanx for reading............

 

I have to be real careful what I say here, because we've probably done business with your broker at one time or other . All that's possible (even routine) in a fleet department, including looking at multiple brands. All depends on what franchises an individual dealer/dealergroup carries. To be honest, the dealer isn't really that concerned how the sale happens, as long as it does (broker/credit-union/lease company- it's all biz).

Don't even get me started. Those high-pressure, strong-arm tactics have made some dealers an awful lot of money- especially the ones that avoid those tactics and are geographically close to competitors that do.

In any event, since you seem to have a good thing going, no need to do anything different, right?

 

Yup, except to pray alot!

Thanks for your time!