Back towards the end of January 2007, I found out that one of the ex-wife's clients was interested in buying my truck for one of his oilfield hands to use as a work truck. Since the truck was about 6.5 years old at the time, I thought, "Sure, I could be happy with a new truck." So I went shopping.
At the time, the truck had 111,000 miles on it. Kelly Blue Book valued the truck at about $18,300 retail, $15,500 trade-in. I took the truck over to the local CarMax for an appraisal, and they only offered me $13,000 for it. I don't mind being screwed, but I usually like a little warm breath on my neck as its happening.
Still undeterred, I went over to the Ford dealership. Just three days prior, they'd taken delivery of their first batch of the brand-new 2008 Super Duty trucks. Of course, I looked at a fully-loaded F-250 with the King Ranch package. The only option it didn't have was a factory navigation system, which is an option on the 08 trucks. The new 6.4L Powerstroke diesel is impressive, and amazingly quiet. The new interior is absolutely gorgeous and well-equipped. I was in love....until we started talking numbers. After tax and all the other stuff they slap onto the price, that truck's drive-out was $56,300 and change. Even with a $14,000 down payment, on a 5 year note I was still looking at payments in the $825 - $900 per month range. Too rich for my blood!
Needless to say, I decided to keep my truck. Since I've owned it, the only problems I've had with it have been a busted driver's side front hub (my fault because I was in a too-tight left turn when I engaged the 4x4 on a hunting trip), the master/slave cylinder on the clutch, a whiney power steering pump that was replaced, and a leaky water pump. I had it in for a recall once. In 7.5 years, those are the only times it has been in the shop. I had other maintenance work done while it was in those times, but those were the primary reasons she had to go to the hospital.
So why not keep her a while and do some upgrades to get her just like I want her? So I've started dumping some money into her.