Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

[Silver68RT]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

Have you looked at F-250's? I've got an '02 F-250 XLT with the 5.4L, and it's been a great truck. I wish I'd got the 4x4, but other than that I have absolutely nothing to complain about. There's so much heavy duty / towing stuff standard on the F-250, and I love the big mirrors that extend out for towing. I thought the F-250 had a lot more going for it compared to the F-150 in that kind of time frame.

I've towed a bunch of different cars and trailers with it, and it's done great every time. While towing my '68 Charger R/T back from Kentucky I had to dodge a couch lying on the interstate doing 70 mph, and whipped it onto the shoulder. Truck handled it no problem.

[FIREBALLMONZA]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

The only F-250 that I knew came with 4.6's were the light duty 7700gvw trucks. They have the look of the F-150 but sit taller and they have 7 lug wheels

[ford141]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

Dang man, $10K for a '99 with 106K? Sounds a little steep. My brother just sold his 02 F150 last spring for $8K, and it was a really clean truck with FX4 off road package, slightly larger all-terrain tires, and only 75K miles. But, that being said, clean trucks are hard to find, especially older ones, and I wouldn't mind paying a premium for one if that's what I wanted. The 5.4 is a plus too. Not a powerhouse, but definitely better than the 4.6 pig.

Really, the spark plug issues are the only problems that I know with these trucks, and even that really isn't a big deal. If it spits one, you can fix it in about 20 minutes for around $20. Other than that, normal wear stuff like ball joints, wheel bearings. The emergency brakes like to freeze up on these trucks, but it usually isn't the cables, it's the actuators in the wheels themselves. They rust together and then freeze up. All you need to do is disassemble them and clean the actuators really good and coat them in grease or neverseize (grease works better).

[milner351]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

how much hauling are you going to be doing and how much people moving?

I'm bringing this up because I just sold a supercab to buy a crew cab.

For price comparison - I bought a rust free 2001 F350 crew cab long box 4x4 Lariat 7.3 powerstroke with 189,000 for $8400, with nearly new tires and shocks.

If you think you will be wanting to haul more people - than I would strongly recomend a full four door truck.

I agree that the history of this silver truck and the nice cap are surely good reasons to buy it - but it still sounds expensive to me. Some research should tell you if it's in the years of the bad spark plug threads - for some reason I think '99 was before all those problems started, but I'm not sure of that.

I'm impressed with the 5.4 3 valve engines for the most part - but any of the modular engine 2v heads just aren't a good design - I'd like to choke the guys that came up with the whole modular engine design - but that's another rant all together.

[Huskinhano]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

how much hauling are you going to be doing and how much people moving?

I'm bringing this up because I just sold a supercab to buy a crew cab.

For price comparison - I bought a rust free 2001 F350 crew cab long box 4x4 Lariat 7.3 powerstroke with 189,000 for $8400, with nearly new tires and shocks.

If you think you will be wanting to haul more people - than I would strongly recomend a full four door truck.

I agree that the history of this silver truck and the nice cap are surely good reasons to buy it - but it still sounds expensive to me. Some research should tell you if it's in the years of the bad spark plug threads - for some reason I think '99 was before all those problems started, but I'm not sure of that.

I'm impressed with the 5.4 3 valve engines for the most part - but any of the modular engine 2v heads just aren't a good design - I'd like to choke the guys that came up with the whole modular engine design - but that's another rant all together.

John, thanks for the input. I have thought about a crew cab but what tempers it a bit is my present location, it would be a little too big. Not sure when we would be living in PA, which wouldn't be an issue for having the crew cab. As far as a trailer, right now it would be my single axle trailer ~2000 pounds which is fine for now. I'd also use it to tow 2 Mustangs out to PA either on a dolly or maybe a trailer for about 135 miles. It would mostly be my wife, daughter and myself in it. My son looks like he'll be moving out and taking a job his friend offered him in MD when he graduates college this May. My daughter will be with us for at least 4 more years until she starts college.

The timing at this point couldn't be much worse to have to buy something. I definitely wasn't even thinking about buying anything since we will be closing on the PA house a month from now and will have other new expenses besides the loan. My 150,000 beat up Windstar was great because I didn't give a sh$t about it getting dirty or dented and it was paid for.

About $1K out of the $10K is for sales tax, title and registration fees.

I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

[VTJUNK]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

Sounds like a lot of dough for what it is. I'd look around before buying it.

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

bulletproof vest for the plugs shootin through the hood

Yeah and Obama doesn't own Ford. Blah blah blah ;) ;D

BUT - that is a huge problem with the fords

the presidential seizure of GM is a different matter

[hoofhearted]

Re: Thinking of buying a 99 F150 XLT....comments?

I have a 2003 F150 crew cab. 2wd, 5.4 I get 20mpg on the hwy doing 75mph. I could get better at 65 to 70mph, but what fun would that be. Its a fun truck and in great shape.