If we’re to believe the ad for today’s Nice Price or No Dice F450, it has the later 6.7-liter turbo-diesel rather than the 6.4 that was available when it was built. Whether that’s a typo or a pleasant surprise, we’ll still have to decide this huge truck’s fate regarding its asking price.
Like the contemporary Cadillac Seville and Chrysler Cordoba, the 1976 Ford Granada Ghia we looked at last Friday was named for a city in Spain. Such a practice seemed to be a bit of an obsession for the Big Three back in the day. Today, Spanish cities are more appropriately represented by Spanish cars, those coming from the Volkswagen subsidiary, SEAT. That didn’t stop some remembrances — both good and bad — in the comments over our ’70s Ford, though. There wasn’t much to be said about its $9,000 asking, however, as that fell in a 60 percent No Dice loss.
OK, another week and, well… another Ford. To be fair, you couldn’t get much further apart in size, function, or features than between Friday’s Granada and today’s 2008 Ford F450 Lariat 4X4 turbo diesel. In fact, this huge dually pickup is such a unique proposition that you just don’t see them that often outside of the slow lane of the freeway, towing a house.
As unique as it may be, there is one glaring discrepancy in the ad that we need to get out of the way first and foremost. That is the ad’s description of this truck’s engine as a “6.7 PowerStroke.” It’s a bit of a puzzlement since this is a 2008 truck, and the 6.7 Powerstroke engine didn’t arrive on the scene until the 2011 model year. Not only that, but the two engines are vastly different.
There are two answers to this conundrum. The first is that there’s a typo in the ad, and the truck actually sports the standard issue 6.4-liter single turbo Powerstroke and not the later 6.7. The other — and far less likely — explanation is that someone Frankenstein’d the truck by dropping in a later, larger mill. It would be easy to tell if the seller had included even a single under-hood shot in the ad since there are distinct differences between the single turbo 6.4 and the twin-turbo “hot valley” 6.7.
Regardless, this is a big bruiser of the truck, with a towing capacity of over 16,000 pounds at the hitch and over 24,000 via a fifth-wheel mount. To hit that latter number, the seller will handily include the fifth-wheel mount in the sale.
This being a work truck, it’s nice to see pictures in the ad living up to its potential by towing something. In this case, that’s a boat. It’s equally reassuring to see in the description that the truck comes with a clean title, an accident-free history, and the seller’s assurance that it “Runs amazing.”
It looks pretty good too. The bodywork and paint each appear to be in fine shape with no noticeable flaws in either. Aftermarket lights on both the nose and tail, along with a bug-beater grille and bull bar with add-on LED lights help to dress it up, too. The big ticket upgrade, though, is the switch to American Force polished alloys. Those look like they’ve been yanked off a Kenworth and are claimed by the seller to have cost $10K alone.
In contrast to the lightly modded exterior, the interior appears completely stock, with two rows of leather-topped seats and all the bells and whistles the Lariat package afforded back in the day. It all looks to be in great shape, barely showing the truck’s 165,000 miles at all. Of course, this being a monster diesel, it comes with two batteries, and, as a bonus, those are claimed to be new.
OK, so: big truck, big price tag, right? Well, the asking price in this F450 is $27,500, and anyone in the market for such a beast will likely acknowledge that a new truck with similar kit will cost somewhere around four times that amount once taxes and dealer shenanigans are taken into account. The question for all of you, though, is whether this older model is worth that $27,500 asking with the years and miles under its belt.
What do you say, is this F450 worth that kind of cash as it’s presented in the ad, and despite the head-scratcher of what engine lies under its huge hood? Or is that too much cash for what’s arguably too much truck?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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