2005 Ford f-150

$3,200 for a rust free 4×4 truck with 127,000 miles on it seemed like a good deal to me so I bought it (the guys was asking $3,600 but I negotiated; don’t want you to think Im going soft).

While the body (was in good shape the engine was not so.  It was suffering from the classic 5.4 3v engine timing issues of the cam phasers and guides failing.  I contemplated doing the job myself but opted to pay a local shop to do the work to the tune of $2,700. (I’ve since learned that a guy a little to the south of me does a lot of these and would have only charged about $1,600).  It also suffered from the well known exhaust manifold leak caused when the studs at the front or back of the manifold shear off.  That was another $956 to repair.  

I drove the truck for about 14 months.  Hauled some cars home.  Drove to work every day, took it on family trips, business trips and got some good use out of it.

As I kept looking at the numbers of what the truck was worth and what I had put into it I reached the realization that I ought to sell it before I needed to put another significant chunk of money into it.

I was able to sell it for $174 less than I had invested into it.  While I didn’t come out ahead, it only cost me $174 to use the truck for 14 mo.

Deal done, onto the next one.