Friday, April 30, 2010

New used car


I've been driving my 1999 F250 Super Duty truck since May of 1998. Ford did some introduced-half-a-year-early that year. It served us for 12 years and 180,000 miles. We are keeping it to move kids to college, haul junk with, tow trailers with and such.
But if I kept driving it another year, it would be over 200,000 miles. It's also expensive to operate. 14 quart oil changes, $10 oil filters. And I do it myself and it still cost $45 every 3000 miles. Then the cost of diesel fuel is about 30 cents higher than regular gasoline. So this past winter I started shopping. I noticed a used Mustang convertible on a dealer lot. It was still there several months later. I'd spent that time shopping other cars, test driving my parents old Honda. Which they traded in on a 2006 Solara convertible.
One Friday morning, I told the wife that I was ready to buy. Her only reply was "not that convertible". That's like throwing the red flag in front of the bull.
I got it at a great price. Considering that it only has 15000 miles on it, is Ford Certified, which means it has a full factory warranty for 4 more years and up to 100,000 miles. It's also a blast to drive.
Wife drove up the day I brought it home and thought I was playing one of my tricks on her. Until she saw our checking account! I'd paid cash up front.
We took the car with the top down to dinner that evening and then on for our Hot-Date-Friday-At-Wal*Mart. Funny, the next week, I was getting into her 2008 red Corolla for HDFAWM, and she grinned and said "let's take the Mustang again".
She then proceeded to liken the interior "mood" light, to a Lava Lamp.

You know you've been checking out car lots when your truck is in a Craigslist Ad for one of the local dealers!! The F250 Crew was me driving by checking out the Mustang they were photographing.





And here is our "Ford Family Photo". clockwise from the green car.

Green 1969 Mustang Coupe. Dad bought it in 1971. I learned to drive on it.
Orange 1970 Mustang Mach 1, 428 Cubic Inch Cobra Jet with Ram Air. One of the last of the Muscle cars. The thing is brutal to drive. I bought in in 1991 as a non-running basket case.
Red, 2008 Mustang GT convertible. My new daily driver.
Green 1999 F250 Super Duty crew cab. retired to occasional use.
And the enclosed trailer and the flat bed trailer. For hauling junk around.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice car!
warm greeting from BMX lover ^^!

BMX photo said...

keep up your good work my friend 0_0

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Anonymous said...

it is so gerous.

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Unknown said...

Colorful garage, Ray! I would want to have four cars in my garage, too, one day. You have great taste for cars. Do you still own all of these until now? How do you maintain all of them? Keep the blog updated! I'd love to see more pictures of them. Drive safely always!

Fe Penley