Meet Sheila
Here’s our 2019 F450 Platinum - we call her Sheila - and Solitude (as yet unnamed) that will be our movable home for the next year or so! Just gotta finish all that pesky moving in…
So, trucks. Turns out that due to a combination of COVID factory closures and steel tariffs, trucks like these are in startlingly short supply. We started looking in earnest about 2 months ago, and quickly found that unlike last fall when we were poking around, dually diesels were thin on the ground. The few that were available were at the tippy top of the market price-wise, and out of our range.
Since Craigslist was turning up little, I started working with a broker to try to turn over more rocks and maybe get a better price on the ones that were available. After some time of both of us looking, he concluded that price and certainty-wise, we'd be best off ordering a new truck. It would cost about the same, and we could be sure to have one (eventually).
So we did - we paid the order fee on a new F450 with the options we considered essential - good seats, the fancy all-around camera system, and 4 wheel drive. The build times were long, meaning delivery wasn't expected till the middle of October, but we could work with that, and sleep easier knowing we would be sure to have a truck.
I left my saved searches up in case something popped up we could afford, but otherwise didn't think much about it. Until someone mentioned that new cars often have a break-in period for the engines. And then they started building the truck, and let us know that rather than mid-October, the ETA was Nov 9th. :mad:
And then we’d have to drive it 1000 miles according to the manual for engine break-in before towing! That’s weeks of driving a truck that we’re only getting to haul… but can’t haul. We wouldn’t be leaving the farm until December at that rate. So that's no good.
So the timeline here was: Sept 6, took trailer delivery. Sept 8th, learned of Nov 9th ETA for new truck. Started looking harder for used trucks (turns out my saved searches were not broad enough). One worried week later - Sept 15th - this F450 showed up on Craigslist at a dealer in Salem. We spotted it over breakfast and called right away.
The 15th was a long day. The dealer underpriced this truck, which on its face would seem good for me, but it made ensuring that I could actually buy it ahead of the dozens of other calls they received rather difficult. People were ready to drive in from Pendleton the next day with cash. It was a feeding frenzy, to hear them tell it, but unlike most statements from car dealers I'd actually believe it.
This was where working with a broker was kind of a mixed blessing. On a purchase where minutes matter, having to bring in a 3rd party to the negotiation added stress and complication. But he also knew the owner, so price negotiation and who's-in-line questions were resolved directly. By 4pm that day we finally made it onto a conference call with the 3 of us and he got a purchase order out. I had been pushing forward my loan application with the bank seemingly all day, but it got approved about the same time. I earned numerous gray hairs that day. But I also snagged a truck. :) And the following Saturday, the 19th, we went to Salem to pick it up.
So in the space of two weeks we've landed both the trailer and the truck, both in competitive markets and at fair or below-market prices. Not bad! It's been a TON of work but so far everything is performing as promised and is in great shape for us to take on the many, many miles ahead.
