neovenator
Active Member
Been posting here and there after months of lurking, so here's my late introduction.
I believe in love at first sight, because I remember the first time I saw that Molten Orange Ford with the black digital mud graphics F-150 SVT Raptor that was unveiled more than a decade ago. I was just a kid, I thought it looked like the most bada** thing on the planet. And it's called a Raptor? There's two things I've always loved and still do to this day: dinosaurs, and autos. How could I not fall in love?
I'd always get excited when I'd see one on the road. They have a presence like no other vehicle on the road, save for a few. There's nothing quite like it on the road back in 2012. Even back then their price tag of +$45k seemed like a LOT to me. When the refresh came out in 2013 with the updated headlights, I felt it just made it even cooler. I had pictures of the refreshed black Ford Raptors as my wallpaper.
I'd never think I'd own a Raptor for as much as I'd love seeing them. They're TOO big, the gas mileage is bad, cars are faster, I don't offroad, it would be a pavement princess, they're too expensive. The idea of buying one never really came across my mind unless I was thinking what I would buy if I won the lottery.
May was a rough time for me. Got broken up with "the one", and found out lots of things that were said were untrue. I went on Turo, and thought to myself, "what's something I could drive that is a) affordable b) unlike anything I've driven before?". My first thought was a Raptor. I said hey, I'll never own one, but let's make a dream come true even if it's just for 2 days. It was a 2019 with everything you could think of, and to keep things short, my mind went, "I need to get me one of these." I had an absolute blast for the 2 days I had it.
Okay maybe not exactly need, but if I come across something that's to good of a deal to pass, I'll buy it. Could be tomorrow, could be in 10 years. After days of heavy research, I decided I would get the one that started it all. There was so many videos and threads talking about how the 6.2 Gen 1 has been surprisingly reliable, easily reaching 200-300k miles. You get the V8 sound, the only thing that was missing from the Gen 2 I drove. To put it simple, my brain, wallet and ears liked the sound of the Gen 1 more, no pun intended.
Okay so by this point, I narrowed down a few things, it HAD to be: black, stock, and be from 2013-2014. The few examples I found were in the high 20s - low 30s. Accidents, damage, more owners than my ex. Nothing really grabbed my attention. Things take time.
The universe heard me, and a listing nearby showed up. 2014, Tuxedo Black, clean title...200k miles. That made me pause for a bit. They were asking $23k.
Here's the thing, mileage doesn't scare me if the vehicle is known for lasting. In my household, we only bought vehicles with 200k miles or up because that's what we could afford. My dad knew how to find good deals on used reliable cars by searching in the wealthy neighborhoods, as these were pretty well maintained. '93 Accord, '97 Camry, '05 Corolla, '93 S-10. He scooped up a '96 F-250 Crew Cab with the Power Stroke 7.3 before they skyrocketed, he always loves talking about it. It's got 325k miles now, backup fuel tank and tank switches ain't working but she's never left us stranded otherwise.
I take a closer look at the listing. It's got a free detailed CarFax report. No accidents. 1-owner. There was so many pages. Got an oil change every 5k miles. Every routine maintenance was done on time. Is this the one?
After a week, we approach the end of June, the listing was gone. I called up the dealership asking if they still had it, they told me to come in. I saw it, and it had the "SOLD" tag on the windshield. I still walked in and talked to the guy if it was still available. He checked the VIN, and couldn't find it on any of the records. Talked to his buddy, he said it was sold but the buyer got cold feet last second and backed out. He then said, "it's your lucky day, let's go check it."
Whoever kept this Raptor, clearly took great care of it. Everything was stock. The leather is in FANTASTIC condition, heck, I don't think anyone sat in the rear seats. Only thing that stood out was the red stripe in the steering wheel was coming off, but other than that, you couldn't tell this had 200k miles. Test drove it for 10 minutes. This was the one. We then head back inside and talk pricing. I remember telling myself, "don't fight for it, just walk away." I didn't need Raptor. Worst thing I can do right now is fall in love with it. "$20k with every fee and cost covered." The salesman got a chuckle from me, and gave me the old, "we've got a lot of people interested in it." I knew that wasn't true. Most people aren't looking for a toy right now, and if they are, this just has way too many miles on it. "If it's still available, send me a text to see if I'm still interested". It's true, I was looking at Raptors in a 500 mi radius.
3 days later, I get a call. They ask me if I still want to take it off their lot for $20k total. "Taxes and costs everything included? Then yes." It was such a pain to get finances for this, banks were scared of the mileage, I had to get an unsecured loan from Lightstream. With that loan, I would get the vehicle under my name, and essentially be paying with a wire transfer. This was when dealership systems were all down so everything had to be done the old school way.
The final price was $19,999.99. I sent a wire transfer for $19,999, and showed up in person with the $1 to make up for it. They said it was fine, but I thought it would be funny story to tell on how I got a penny in change from buying a Raptor.
To this day, I still can't believe I have my OWN Raptor, the very same black Ford Raptor that was on my desktop wallpaper when I was little.
If you made it this far, here's everything I've done so far to it:
- Nano ceramic black tinted the front windows and front windshield to the legal limit - the rear windows were already tinted, not sure what percentage but if they're not 0% I'm taking them off to get it retinted.
- Morimoto smoked side marker lights (lights were going out)
- Fuse 27 relocation (this gave me so much trouble to do haha)
- Morimoto XB LED Taillights w/ Red Lens
- Muffler delete
- Sync 3.4 conversion with navigation and Sync 4 display
My plan is to build it around an OEM+ theme, so nothing too crazy other than modernizing it a bit. Some Morimoto headlights with the Amber DRL's are definitely in store for the future, as well as some nice pair of wheels to move away from the alloys.
I believe in love at first sight, because I remember the first time I saw that Molten Orange Ford with the black digital mud graphics F-150 SVT Raptor that was unveiled more than a decade ago. I was just a kid, I thought it looked like the most bada** thing on the planet. And it's called a Raptor? There's two things I've always loved and still do to this day: dinosaurs, and autos. How could I not fall in love?
I'd always get excited when I'd see one on the road. They have a presence like no other vehicle on the road, save for a few. There's nothing quite like it on the road back in 2012. Even back then their price tag of +$45k seemed like a LOT to me. When the refresh came out in 2013 with the updated headlights, I felt it just made it even cooler. I had pictures of the refreshed black Ford Raptors as my wallpaper.
I'd never think I'd own a Raptor for as much as I'd love seeing them. They're TOO big, the gas mileage is bad, cars are faster, I don't offroad, it would be a pavement princess, they're too expensive. The idea of buying one never really came across my mind unless I was thinking what I would buy if I won the lottery.
May was a rough time for me. Got broken up with "the one", and found out lots of things that were said were untrue. I went on Turo, and thought to myself, "what's something I could drive that is a) affordable b) unlike anything I've driven before?". My first thought was a Raptor. I said hey, I'll never own one, but let's make a dream come true even if it's just for 2 days. It was a 2019 with everything you could think of, and to keep things short, my mind went, "I need to get me one of these." I had an absolute blast for the 2 days I had it.
Okay maybe not exactly need, but if I come across something that's to good of a deal to pass, I'll buy it. Could be tomorrow, could be in 10 years. After days of heavy research, I decided I would get the one that started it all. There was so many videos and threads talking about how the 6.2 Gen 1 has been surprisingly reliable, easily reaching 200-300k miles. You get the V8 sound, the only thing that was missing from the Gen 2 I drove. To put it simple, my brain, wallet and ears liked the sound of the Gen 1 more, no pun intended.
Okay so by this point, I narrowed down a few things, it HAD to be: black, stock, and be from 2013-2014. The few examples I found were in the high 20s - low 30s. Accidents, damage, more owners than my ex. Nothing really grabbed my attention. Things take time.
The universe heard me, and a listing nearby showed up. 2014, Tuxedo Black, clean title...200k miles. That made me pause for a bit. They were asking $23k.
Here's the thing, mileage doesn't scare me if the vehicle is known for lasting. In my household, we only bought vehicles with 200k miles or up because that's what we could afford. My dad knew how to find good deals on used reliable cars by searching in the wealthy neighborhoods, as these were pretty well maintained. '93 Accord, '97 Camry, '05 Corolla, '93 S-10. He scooped up a '96 F-250 Crew Cab with the Power Stroke 7.3 before they skyrocketed, he always loves talking about it. It's got 325k miles now, backup fuel tank and tank switches ain't working but she's never left us stranded otherwise.
I take a closer look at the listing. It's got a free detailed CarFax report. No accidents. 1-owner. There was so many pages. Got an oil change every 5k miles. Every routine maintenance was done on time. Is this the one?
After a week, we approach the end of June, the listing was gone. I called up the dealership asking if they still had it, they told me to come in. I saw it, and it had the "SOLD" tag on the windshield. I still walked in and talked to the guy if it was still available. He checked the VIN, and couldn't find it on any of the records. Talked to his buddy, he said it was sold but the buyer got cold feet last second and backed out. He then said, "it's your lucky day, let's go check it."
Whoever kept this Raptor, clearly took great care of it. Everything was stock. The leather is in FANTASTIC condition, heck, I don't think anyone sat in the rear seats. Only thing that stood out was the red stripe in the steering wheel was coming off, but other than that, you couldn't tell this had 200k miles. Test drove it for 10 minutes. This was the one. We then head back inside and talk pricing. I remember telling myself, "don't fight for it, just walk away." I didn't need Raptor. Worst thing I can do right now is fall in love with it. "$20k with every fee and cost covered." The salesman got a chuckle from me, and gave me the old, "we've got a lot of people interested in it." I knew that wasn't true. Most people aren't looking for a toy right now, and if they are, this just has way too many miles on it. "If it's still available, send me a text to see if I'm still interested". It's true, I was looking at Raptors in a 500 mi radius.
3 days later, I get a call. They ask me if I still want to take it off their lot for $20k total. "Taxes and costs everything included? Then yes." It was such a pain to get finances for this, banks were scared of the mileage, I had to get an unsecured loan from Lightstream. With that loan, I would get the vehicle under my name, and essentially be paying with a wire transfer. This was when dealership systems were all down so everything had to be done the old school way.
The final price was $19,999.99. I sent a wire transfer for $19,999, and showed up in person with the $1 to make up for it. They said it was fine, but I thought it would be funny story to tell on how I got a penny in change from buying a Raptor.
To this day, I still can't believe I have my OWN Raptor, the very same black Ford Raptor that was on my desktop wallpaper when I was little.
If you made it this far, here's everything I've done so far to it:
- Nano ceramic black tinted the front windows and front windshield to the legal limit - the rear windows were already tinted, not sure what percentage but if they're not 0% I'm taking them off to get it retinted.
- Morimoto smoked side marker lights (lights were going out)
- Fuse 27 relocation (this gave me so much trouble to do haha)
- Morimoto XB LED Taillights w/ Red Lens
- Muffler delete
- Sync 3.4 conversion with navigation and Sync 4 display
My plan is to build it around an OEM+ theme, so nothing too crazy other than modernizing it a bit. Some Morimoto headlights with the Amber DRL's are definitely in store for the future, as well as some nice pair of wheels to move away from the alloys.
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