How y'all doing. I got an opportunity I hope some of you can lend your advice/experience to help me make up my mind about. I am in the market for a new vehicle. I got the standard American family....couple of kids, the wife and a large lab. I currently own a 2001 F-250 SD so they whole clan won't fit in my rig comfortably. This puts me in the market for either a SUV or, cough, a mini van type thing. This will be the wife’s ride anyway. I'm currently deployed in Iraq<ST1</ST1 (Marines) and have a chance to get a 2007 eddie bauer 4x4 expedition (addition of the trailer towing package, convenience package and luggage rack) for 35K through some program the military has. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me but I have no experience or frame of reference for what you can get an SUV like this for back stateside at a dealer. Plus with gas prices the way they are, is owning a 250 (diesel) and an expedition gonna burry me? I know it ain't gonna be pretty. My other option is to get a 2007 Honda Odyssey, which by the way is around 35K as well. I know I'd much rather have the expedition but I suppose the Honda gets better gas mileage. Don't know if it'll hold up on those camping trips though.
My questions are, 1. What would you all do in my shoes? 2. What kind of gas mileage do you expedition owners get? and 3. Is 35K for the 2007 Expedition a good price? Let me know what y'all think.

 

The MSRP for the car you described (4x4 EB with convenience, luggage rack, and trailer packages) on the Ford website is $40,415, so $35,000 sounds like a great deal to me.
I would definitely pick the expy over the minivan - it's been redesigned quite a bit for 2007, and there's a lot of excitement - it seems like a great truck. The published fuel economy is 14/20, but in all of the reviews I've read, the average seems to be around 17 or 18 mpg, depending on what type of driving you do.
I think your choice is clear - I ordered an expy el LTD and I can't wait for it.
That's just my opinion...

 

Welcome to the site sully16!

Man, I have to agree with Eric123.

The van gets about 18/26MPG per the Honda website. Thats pretty good but not as good as i expected.

I've had this same thought a million times, we are now getting ready to have our third child and currently own a 2003 Expedition.

I decided that i wasn't comparing apples and apples, but its not until you get under the two that you see the big differences which in my book means the Expedition wins. Know what i mean? 4 wheel drive, ground clearance (only marginally better than the minivan though), tow package, V8, its not a minivan, etc. If your wife is like mine, being the standard american family and all, she would probably rather drive the truck anyways and when you get back, you'd probably rather drive the truck than the van to your first camping trip!

I get about 15 MPG on our Expedition now. Thats not too shabby and i hear for 2007 the transmission is a 6 speed which should make the mpg go up.

And i would agree that the price you have been quoted for the truck you describe is a pretty good deal, although don't forget that at the dealer level they may do even more for you if you ask, like oil changes or car washes, tire rotation for life, etc.

As far as your F-250, i think you would find about any add on tuner or filter or exhaust either by itself or as a package "kit", would pay for itself over the life of the vehicle in fuel savings. I personally installed a complete Banks Kit on my f-350, 1 ton truck and can get up to 24 MPG on deisel fuel - no bull. You cant hot rod it and expect to get that kind of mileage but man is it hard to resist hot rodding it, this is getting 24 MPG and will put you in the seat - and keep you there - as hard as any musclecar ever would. You might look into something like that on a return on investment scenario. Or a pure fun scenario. On avaerage i get 19.5MPG. Theres a lot out there for the 2001 7.3 liter.

Hope this helps you make your decision. Almost forgot, they are lengthening the Epedition to compete with Tahoe and Suburban - you gotta get the EL model to get the third row with more storage area behind the seat. As soon as we can were ordering one, they have held them at the factory to release a t one time, or so the salesman tells me. shouldn't be long though.

Be safe.

 

I'd have your wife check with local ford dealers. Right now, here in California, they're offering up to 5k back in rebates, 7k is you take their financing. Don't know if that would beat the military deal, but it's worth looking into. I think this deal lasts until the start of October.

Thanks for your service to our country. Be careful over there!