long story short, my 17 y/o son totalled my 2002 F250 Lariat. (he is/was fine but truck was not).
so i'm shopping for a replacement and can't come to a decision.
My requirements are: Crew Cab, Diesel and i'm iffy on 4x4. I could convince myself that i don't need 4x4 easily enough, because the last truck didn't have it and it was never a problem.... but it would be nice to have it.
the part I'm stuck on is I have a budget (somewhat imposed by my wife) that would put me in about 2011 loaded lariat territory at the top end of that budget.
However, that's still a lot of damn money to spend on a vehicle. So i could step back to a 2008-2010 models and save about 8k. But i can't decide if it's worth it to save 8grand when I'm already spending a small fortune, because w/the +2011's i get the newer body style, and the newest engine (6.7 vs 6.4 diesel). and of course, if i drop the 4x4 AND go w/an older model, I can save around 10 grand, which is more significant.. but then i'm having to give up the 4x4 and then leather, etc. :-(
What i'm seeing is that there's not THAT big of a price drop between a 2010 and a 2011 (like you'd think there'd be due to the re-design) and there's not THAT big of a price drop between XLT and Lariat in most cases. It seems like the prices i'm finding are driven mostly by yr and mileage.
The Dave Ramsey answer is eff it... pay cash for a 15-20 yr old truck and live w/it!
Every time I convince myself to go with the absolute cheapest that fits my most basic requirements, then i'm like, well hell, for just a few thousand more, I can get a newer and nicer model... NONE of them are cheap. And I kept my last truck for 12 yrs and plan to keep the next one at least as long.. which also is a factor.
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