What's your Test Drive Story...or your first time in any Raptor?

Every Raptor owner has a story, what's yours?


I'll start with my first Test Drive...

I had been looking at Raptors for nearly a year. I kept putting off buying one, because every time I went by a dealer, the only Raptors they had were already sold. Finally, last December around Christmas, my dad and I were driving thru the Smoky Mountains in NC and we stopped by a Ford dealer in Canton, NC. And behold, a white Raptor...that wasn't sold!! lol Finally, I got to open the door and look inside...then I was offered a test drive! Hell Yeah, my time has come!! I climb up in that driver's seat feeling like I was king of the world. The key turns the ignition, and that 6.2L comes alive. I remember the smile on my face overtaking me as I pulled the gear shifter handle into drive. My foot releases the brake, and we're cruising thru the rows of new F150s...FX4, King Ranch, Tremor, HD, Platinum...I just smirked at the thought of all those sad souls who would eventually buy those trucks and never know what they could have had (a Raptor!). We managed to maneuver thru those parked F150s, around all the people car shopping that day - who watched in envy as we rolled in the Raptor. And there, at the end of the parking lot we sat...ready to pull out onto the highway...I could finally see what this Beast is made of! Ready!! Set!!...... um, nothing. It stalls.....and dies..... yep, out of gas.

True story.

I still bought her, and she and I have been fighting this fuel thing ever since!

Never test drove, stepped inside or even looked inside a raptor until I got the one I own. I ordered it via email and phone from out of state, waited five months and finally was able to do all three when I went to pick it up. Prior to that I about watched every youtube video I could find and gawked at everyone else's raptor pictures at FRF.

Drove it home with a full tank and smiled all the way home. Shit, I am still smiling.

LOL, same story. Found mine on eBay Motors in Texas, But I waited for the right price when Ford announced they will continue the Raptor for 2011.
Prices for the 2010 1/2 6.2L dropped from $50,000-$58,000 to below sticker price for a fully loaded Black Raptor.

RDFTS said:

Never test drove, stepped inside or even looked inside a raptor until I got the one I own. I ordered it via email and phone from out of state, waited five months and finally was able to do all three when I went to pick it up. Prior to that I about watched every youtube video I could find and gawked at everyone else's raptor pictures at FRF.

Drove it home with a full tank and smiled all the way home. Shit, I am still smiling.

Click to expand...

There's definitely something about the Raptor that gives us the ability to tune out the world. When I'm watching Raptor youtube videos, I feel like a kid in a toy store lol I just wish there were more of them!

Started looking for a new vehicle in mid 2010. I remember the first one I saw was a black scab with graphics package and at the time thought, "oh look another lifted F150" had no idea what it was and was still set on a SRT Cherokee or 5th gen 4runner.

Got orders to Germany and knew that AAFES had a vehicle discount so I was all about it. V8 Challengers for $24k, The new SRT8 Cherokee came out and was $60k, used 09 and 10 Cherokees for $30k, 4runners for $35k but couldn't be custom ordered, they were everywhere, but couldn't commit due to either something not right or just wasn't perfect. Still kept looking at that Raptor with the $45k pricetag though.

Fast forward to late 2012, came off a deployment COMPLETELY debt free, made my next stripe to E6, got divorced and as soon as everything was official, I walked into AAFES and said I want a Raptor. They were offering 4-1 deposit match and had a $1500 rebate to boot. Ordered it up exactly how I wanted, financed $49k, and said hope I like it. Showed up 4 months later and have never looked back.

Never test drove only saw pictures and couple that were on the road. I chased down a black scab and the owner let me look inside for a minute.

I had never really saw a raptor up close until the day I bought mine. There's very few up here in northern Arkansas, so after I sold my Cummins, I was wanting to go back to a gas truck, but didn't really want a regular old truck. Read a little about the raptor, decided I wanted one, searched and searched and searched and finally found my 2011 White Screw in Oklahoma. Drove 5 hours to test drive it, in the pouring rain. Couldn't really get on the gas at all, but was immediately hooked. Never looked back since. Love this truck. I only drive it a week out of the month as I work on the railroad.

When I was in high school i convinced my local dealer to let me test drive one. My assumption is he didn't know how old I actually was. Right when they first came out. As soon as I sat in it I was hooked. 3 years later I bought mine.

Late 2013 decided to trade in my 2008 Trailblazer SS (loved that thing). Had about 6k worth of work to get done on her so it wasn't worth me keeping. Walked into a dealer in PA convincing myself I couldn't possibly find a Raptor for the price I wanted (NJ is typically 5-10k markup). So, I bought a brand new, loaded FX4 w/appearance package....this was September 2013

Fast forward to May 2014, countless mods later, I was still not happy with the FX4 or ecoboost engine. Got kind of tired looking at it in the driveway...felt like I had married the wrong girl (possibly another story for another day haha j/k...maybe)...called a few dealers in NJ, including my cousins dealer, all wanted 5k over and were lowballing me on my FX4 which only had 7k miles on it. Finally, found Maplecrest Ford, walked in, talked to the salesman and figured out some numbers - checked truecar and had them match the price of the cheapest NJ dealer, which was roughly $2700 under MSRP. also got about 6k more for my trade from them vs every other dealer. It was a no brainer, ordered that day, only to get a call 8 weeks later that my truck was somewhere in limbo in Newark (not sure if it ever actually arrived)...but hey! a tux black SE just happened to roll in "come check it out"....bought it that day...end of semi long ass story...

*Reserved, lol.

Need to collect myself for this.

In May I decided that I really needed a truck and I was ready to move on from my C6 Z06. I was originally looking at GMC Sierra All-Terrain's and just happened to stop by a Ford dealer and looked at an FX4. I wasn't all too impressed by the FX4 but noticed a Raptor sitting off to the side that I guess was sold but I went up and looked in the window and checked out pricing because I wasn't sure I could afford one.

Well I went on vacation to SoCal and stopped by a dealer that had a shit ton of Raptors and they let me test drive one. I was hooked after that. That's when I discovered this forum and started actually learning more about the trucks. I was hoping to do some form of a deal but that dealership stated the best they could do on price was $10k over MSRP and that that was a deal because they normally charge $15k over. I laughed and walked out and figured it'd be an easy time finding one much much cheaper. Boy was I wrong.

End of story though I finally found a dealer that had allocation and was willing to deal on price so I placed an order and just drove to Phoenix to pick it up last weekend. So far I'm loving this truck and I only slightly miss the Z06. Oh and I just happened to pick up the Raptor on my 1 year wedding anniversary which was kind of a nice present.