When I was looking for a new work truck, my requirements where an 8 foot bed and an extra cab to store my tools behind the seat. It was very hard finding this combination at the dealers, they all have the short beds, but very few have the 8 foot bed. Then I looked at who had the better fuel mileage, and the best price. Ford F150XL with the 5.0 V8 gas engine stood out for me as the best choice for a work truck. Prices where over $30,000 at some dealers, my local dealer in Tyler came down to $28,000 and wouldn't come any lower so I looked in the Dallas area where they have high volume dealers that move a lot more vehicles then anybody else an was able to get it for $24,000. It was an hour drive each way to get there, and they played the usual games with trade in value, then adding extras to the cost of the truck at the last minute, but I was there late on a Saturday, and if they wanted to make the deal, they had to agree to our terms, which they eventually did. It's just annoying to a have to play those games.
I'm at 90,000 miles so far and my only issue has been replacing the alternator, but my AC isn't cooling like it used to, so that's going to get fixed pretty soon.
If you where looking for diesel, a very good friend of mine owns a crane company in three states and was on the TV show Mythbusters with his cranes. He has 20 work trucks, and went from Ford about ten years ago when he said that he knew they where bad, but had no idea that they would be that bad. He got rid of those trucks and bought all Dodge work trucks. They didn't hold up very well and he went back to Ford a couple years ago, and really likes these newer models.
