ineedaBubble
FRF Addict
Because I woke up Thursday morning (I'm a few days late with this thread) and saw this in my driveway:
Be prepared, because this will probably be pretty long winded. If you skip ahead to the photos, I won't be insulted!
Now, some backstory. As some of you may or may not already know, I've been somewhat actively posting on this forum for the better part of the past year or so. However, I did not yet own a Raptor nor was I quite at the point of being ready to do so. My wife and I agreed that we'd spend 2017 paying off our debts, so we utilized the snowball method and attacked our student loans, then our credit card.
Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, where she tells me that she'd prefer I wait until the new year to buy a truck, but that if I find a deal I can't pass up, she's on board with me buying now. I'd been perusing cargurus.com, craigslist and the classifieds here on FRF pretty much the entire year, just trying to gauge the market.
In between meetings one day at work, I decide to give cars.com and autotrader a shot. And in doing so, I also increased my search radius to 500 miles (had been trying to stay within 200 miles prior to that). Well, what do I find, a 2013 Blue Flame SCREW (CPO) in Delaware with only 55k miles.
Fast forward a couple days (don't want to bore you with all the minutia), and the truck ends up not passing certification for one reason, it had an aftermarket exhaust (Borla). It passed every other criteria on the checklist, but Ford couldn't certify it unless I was willing to pay to replace the Borla with a factory exhaust.
Figuring I'd rather just develop an emergency fund to cover any repairs, I told the salesman (who was awesome and had great communication throughout the entire process) I was willing to proceed with a potential deal.
They initially offered to take $500 off the asking price since I would be traveling from MA to Delaware. But after the decision to not certify the truck occurred, I got them to take another $500 off the price. So what was originally listed as $42,995, I had negotiated down to $41,995 (not a huge difference, but still a great price), pending my approval once I made it down to Delaware to check out the truck in person and drive it.
The salesman sent me a ton of photos and videos of the truck, so I could be sure it was worth the trip down. Once I was pretty confident that the truck was in great shape, I booked a flight out of Providence to Delaware (cost me $96 plus 7,500 AA reward miles) and the dealership agreed to hold the truck for me.
Here are said photos/videos:
The front seats, especially the drivers, were worn a bit more than I would have preferred. The dealership, once I showed them proof of my plane ticket, had their upholstery guy come in and work on the seats. This is how they came out (a big improvement, in my eyes):
And so, this past Wednesday, I embarked on what amounted to be a bucket list item for me. That is, flying out of state to purchase a vehicle and drive it home.
Since I traveled alone, I didn't have much of an opportunity to take many photos, but here are the few I was able to take:
Waiting at what I thought was the correct gate at TF Green airport
Once I realized I was literally the only person in the vicinity, a nearby employee informed me that the gate had changed...luckily, I only had to walk about 100 feet to the new gate
My view pulling away from the gate
Hello Philly!
The infamous Bobby Bird (talk about a car salesman name) and I (I'm the one wearing jeans, in case anyone wasn't sure)
This chick was legit watching a movie on her phone while navigating through NYC traffic...I kid you not
Traffic up until now had been surprisingly fine, but Connecticut was brutal so I pulled off the highway after about 5+ hours of driving non-stop for a quick bite and beer in Stamford, to recharge
After embarking on my roadtrip from Delaware at about 12:45pm, I pulled into my driveway right around 9pm and, beyond exhausted, took this photo before passing out on my couch
And there you have it, folks. I am now an incredibly happy and grateful Raptor owner. And it wouldn't be possible if my wife wasn't so amazing and a true team player. I guess it is true....that good things happen to those who wait.
Now to wait for all my paperwork and insurance so I can actually drive this thing (out of state transactions dealing with my home state of MA can be a real pain in the ass). I look forward to sharing all my experiences with this truck with you all.
Cheers!
Be prepared, because this will probably be pretty long winded. If you skip ahead to the photos, I won't be insulted!
Now, some backstory. As some of you may or may not already know, I've been somewhat actively posting on this forum for the better part of the past year or so. However, I did not yet own a Raptor nor was I quite at the point of being ready to do so. My wife and I agreed that we'd spend 2017 paying off our debts, so we utilized the snowball method and attacked our student loans, then our credit card.
Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, where she tells me that she'd prefer I wait until the new year to buy a truck, but that if I find a deal I can't pass up, she's on board with me buying now. I'd been perusing cargurus.com, craigslist and the classifieds here on FRF pretty much the entire year, just trying to gauge the market.
In between meetings one day at work, I decide to give cars.com and autotrader a shot. And in doing so, I also increased my search radius to 500 miles (had been trying to stay within 200 miles prior to that). Well, what do I find, a 2013 Blue Flame SCREW (CPO) in Delaware with only 55k miles.
Fast forward a couple days (don't want to bore you with all the minutia), and the truck ends up not passing certification for one reason, it had an aftermarket exhaust (Borla). It passed every other criteria on the checklist, but Ford couldn't certify it unless I was willing to pay to replace the Borla with a factory exhaust.
Figuring I'd rather just develop an emergency fund to cover any repairs, I told the salesman (who was awesome and had great communication throughout the entire process) I was willing to proceed with a potential deal.
They initially offered to take $500 off the asking price since I would be traveling from MA to Delaware. But after the decision to not certify the truck occurred, I got them to take another $500 off the price. So what was originally listed as $42,995, I had negotiated down to $41,995 (not a huge difference, but still a great price), pending my approval once I made it down to Delaware to check out the truck in person and drive it.
The salesman sent me a ton of photos and videos of the truck, so I could be sure it was worth the trip down. Once I was pretty confident that the truck was in great shape, I booked a flight out of Providence to Delaware (cost me $96 plus 7,500 AA reward miles) and the dealership agreed to hold the truck for me.
Here are said photos/videos:
The front seats, especially the drivers, were worn a bit more than I would have preferred. The dealership, once I showed them proof of my plane ticket, had their upholstery guy come in and work on the seats. This is how they came out (a big improvement, in my eyes):
And so, this past Wednesday, I embarked on what amounted to be a bucket list item for me. That is, flying out of state to purchase a vehicle and drive it home.
Since I traveled alone, I didn't have much of an opportunity to take many photos, but here are the few I was able to take:
Waiting at what I thought was the correct gate at TF Green airport
Once I realized I was literally the only person in the vicinity, a nearby employee informed me that the gate had changed...luckily, I only had to walk about 100 feet to the new gate
My view pulling away from the gate
Hello Philly!
The infamous Bobby Bird (talk about a car salesman name) and I (I'm the one wearing jeans, in case anyone wasn't sure)
This chick was legit watching a movie on her phone while navigating through NYC traffic...I kid you not
Traffic up until now had been surprisingly fine, but Connecticut was brutal so I pulled off the highway after about 5+ hours of driving non-stop for a quick bite and beer in Stamford, to recharge
After embarking on my roadtrip from Delaware at about 12:45pm, I pulled into my driveway right around 9pm and, beyond exhausted, took this photo before passing out on my couch
And there you have it, folks. I am now an incredibly happy and grateful Raptor owner. And it wouldn't be possible if my wife wasn't so amazing and a true team player. I guess it is true....that good things happen to those who wait.
Now to wait for all my paperwork and insurance so I can actually drive this thing (out of state transactions dealing with my home state of MA can be a real pain in the ass). I look forward to sharing all my experiences with this truck with you all.
Cheers!
