Joined
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20 Posts
Hey Forum,
I'm just posting to get my 10 post requirement, so I can see the pictures of all of your sweet whips.
I'm 35 years old, and I've been driving the same '98 Ranger since my Sr. year of high school. I love that little truck, but it's clearly been on the downward spiral for the past year. As hard as I've been on it, the Ranger's been nothing but reliable for 17 years, but at 197,000 miles I've now rebuilt the master and slave cylinder in the past year, and it's just been running rough overall. I'm still hell bent on getting it to 200,000 even if I have to push it the last mile, but alas, I decided to start looking casually for a good used truck. I've worked hard and saved over the years, so I figured it's time to go full-size and get some horsepower.
Because I've had such good luck with the Ranger (I know. It's really a Mazda.), I was dead set on an F-150. Having never had a car payment (my father let me keep the Ranger when I graduated college), I wanted to keep it that way and pay cash, so I initially set my budget at $10,000. As I began to research, I quickly discovered I wasn't going to get what I wanted on that budget: 4x4, V8, at least an extended cab w/~6.5' bed, under 100,000 miles. Yes. I was naive.
Slowly, my budget began to creep higher and higher, and after test driving three F-150 lemons, I remembered I have a Consumer Reports online subscription that rarely gets utilized. Between CR and Edmunds.com, I did a ****load of research. Honda Ridgeline and Toyota Tundra were by far the highest rated used trucks over the past 10 years, but I noticed something else. While used Nissan Frontiers rated favorably, every year of the used Titan listed, "Need Data." Upon more research, I found this is because the Titan is historically the worst selling full-size pickup on the market (let's get some used truck surveys into CR, people!). The Tundras were WAY outside of my budget (no offense to the Titan lovers on this forum, but I had to consider Toyota. Despite the rotten frame issues they've had in the past, historically, Toyota has a great reputation for a reason). I talked to everyone I know that owns or owned a Nissan (mostly Altima or Maxima, a couple of Frontiers, and of course, NO Titans). Everyone of them RAVED about Nissan, so I decided the Titan was worth a look in spite of the lack of data out there.
I finally found another truck that was almost within my "new" budget of $15k that I was ready to test drive. One of the big dealerships here in the Indy area had an '08 Titan LE King Cab 4x4 w/76k miles. It had been on their lot for 60 days, so they'd marked it down from $18,800 to $15,800. Unfortunately, the salesman (new kid) insisted on riding with me and flapping his jaws during my wishfully-intended quiet test drive, but it didn't stop me from trying this truck's limits.
It was impressive to say the least! It was clear the previous owner took very good care of this truck. The salesman said the guy traded it in for a Sierra, which baffles me because every GM product my family has owned over the years has been a POS, IMO. I'll never buy a GM no matter how much they spend on advertising. Anyway, everything I read on the Edmunds review of the '08 (when it was new) was spot on: plenty of power, smooth transmission, good handling, nice interior, etc. It was almost love at first drive, but I still wanted to get below $15k. I didn't go in there with the intention to buy, but instead just to drive my first Nissan. The rookie only came down to $15.5k. I still balked, not because I was playing hardball, but because I genuinely had no intent of buying that night. Finally, a Sr. sales rep came over and felt me out (so to speak) and said, "Here's as low as we can go. I know you're not buying tonight. Go home. Think about it. Talk to your wife. This number will still be good tomorrow." His number was $14,750. Obviously, I came back the next day and bought the truck. Otherwise, I wouldn't have joined this forum.
Bottom line: I'm more than happy with my decision. I took my time, did my due diligence, and I got everything I wanted. The additional features are what really sold me: LE package (didn't know that was the top at the time) w/Rockford Fosgate stereo system, all leather, factory sprayed on bed liner, hard tonneau cover, towing package, almost power everything controls (though, I am worried about damaging/removing/storing the tonneau should I need to do some serious hauling). Needless to say, it's a huge upgrade from my old Ranger, and I got plenty more features than what I was looking for. For the life of me, I still can't figure out why the Titan sells so poorly.
Anyway, after years of driving a basic pickup, looking at my ride from the mindset of basic utility/practicality, and resisting flashy upgrades, now that I have this truck, I can't stop browsing the web and looking for ways to spend money on my new ride. It's quickly turning into a big toy (pictures uploaded soon, I'm sure), which is what ultimately led me to find this forum. The first thing will be wheels, but I'll save that for another post. Again, I want to get to the 10 post minimum, so I can see what everyone else is doing with their rides.
Alright. Enough of my typical long-winded post. I've wasted enough of the company's time.
Cheers!
I'm just posting to get my 10 post requirement, so I can see the pictures of all of your sweet whips.
I'm 35 years old, and I've been driving the same '98 Ranger since my Sr. year of high school. I love that little truck, but it's clearly been on the downward spiral for the past year. As hard as I've been on it, the Ranger's been nothing but reliable for 17 years, but at 197,000 miles I've now rebuilt the master and slave cylinder in the past year, and it's just been running rough overall. I'm still hell bent on getting it to 200,000 even if I have to push it the last mile, but alas, I decided to start looking casually for a good used truck. I've worked hard and saved over the years, so I figured it's time to go full-size and get some horsepower.
Because I've had such good luck with the Ranger (I know. It's really a Mazda.), I was dead set on an F-150. Having never had a car payment (my father let me keep the Ranger when I graduated college), I wanted to keep it that way and pay cash, so I initially set my budget at $10,000. As I began to research, I quickly discovered I wasn't going to get what I wanted on that budget: 4x4, V8, at least an extended cab w/~6.5' bed, under 100,000 miles. Yes. I was naive.
Slowly, my budget began to creep higher and higher, and after test driving three F-150 lemons, I remembered I have a Consumer Reports online subscription that rarely gets utilized. Between CR and Edmunds.com, I did a ****load of research. Honda Ridgeline and Toyota Tundra were by far the highest rated used trucks over the past 10 years, but I noticed something else. While used Nissan Frontiers rated favorably, every year of the used Titan listed, "Need Data." Upon more research, I found this is because the Titan is historically the worst selling full-size pickup on the market (let's get some used truck surveys into CR, people!). The Tundras were WAY outside of my budget (no offense to the Titan lovers on this forum, but I had to consider Toyota. Despite the rotten frame issues they've had in the past, historically, Toyota has a great reputation for a reason). I talked to everyone I know that owns or owned a Nissan (mostly Altima or Maxima, a couple of Frontiers, and of course, NO Titans). Everyone of them RAVED about Nissan, so I decided the Titan was worth a look in spite of the lack of data out there.
I finally found another truck that was almost within my "new" budget of $15k that I was ready to test drive. One of the big dealerships here in the Indy area had an '08 Titan LE King Cab 4x4 w/76k miles. It had been on their lot for 60 days, so they'd marked it down from $18,800 to $15,800. Unfortunately, the salesman (new kid) insisted on riding with me and flapping his jaws during my wishfully-intended quiet test drive, but it didn't stop me from trying this truck's limits.
It was impressive to say the least! It was clear the previous owner took very good care of this truck. The salesman said the guy traded it in for a Sierra, which baffles me because every GM product my family has owned over the years has been a POS, IMO. I'll never buy a GM no matter how much they spend on advertising. Anyway, everything I read on the Edmunds review of the '08 (when it was new) was spot on: plenty of power, smooth transmission, good handling, nice interior, etc. It was almost love at first drive, but I still wanted to get below $15k. I didn't go in there with the intention to buy, but instead just to drive my first Nissan. The rookie only came down to $15.5k. I still balked, not because I was playing hardball, but because I genuinely had no intent of buying that night. Finally, a Sr. sales rep came over and felt me out (so to speak) and said, "Here's as low as we can go. I know you're not buying tonight. Go home. Think about it. Talk to your wife. This number will still be good tomorrow." His number was $14,750. Obviously, I came back the next day and bought the truck. Otherwise, I wouldn't have joined this forum.
Bottom line: I'm more than happy with my decision. I took my time, did my due diligence, and I got everything I wanted. The additional features are what really sold me: LE package (didn't know that was the top at the time) w/Rockford Fosgate stereo system, all leather, factory sprayed on bed liner, hard tonneau cover, towing package, almost power everything controls (though, I am worried about damaging/removing/storing the tonneau should I need to do some serious hauling). Needless to say, it's a huge upgrade from my old Ranger, and I got plenty more features than what I was looking for. For the life of me, I still can't figure out why the Titan sells so poorly.
Anyway, after years of driving a basic pickup, looking at my ride from the mindset of basic utility/practicality, and resisting flashy upgrades, now that I have this truck, I can't stop browsing the web and looking for ways to spend money on my new ride. It's quickly turning into a big toy (pictures uploaded soon, I'm sure), which is what ultimately led me to find this forum. The first thing will be wheels, but I'll save that for another post. Again, I want to get to the 10 post minimum, so I can see what everyone else is doing with their rides.
Alright. Enough of my typical long-winded post. I've wasted enough of the company's time.
Cheers!
