I took the GT350 out for a drive and stopped by to check out the 2018 Lightning Blue Raptor I mentioned earlier in this thread. I told them that I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it and they still offered to let me test drive it. So I took it for a short spin and overall it drove decent, but has what felt like a rattle / choppiness coming through the steering wheel when hitting small bumps in the pavement. I've driven a lot of trucks and everyone says how smooth the Raptors are, it seemed a bit off to me. It was quite noticeable. I asked that they have a tech check the air pressure in the tires, since they could have been over inflated.
They held firm on their price but did say my GT350 was pristine. They also had a 2017 Roush edition Raptor for $82k in Oxford White. It was pretty sweet looking and had quite an upgraded suspension. For that package, it was clear that most of the money went into the new shocks, wheels and tires. Otherwise, everything else looked to be cosmetic upgrades.
They turned my attention to a used 2017 Raptor 802A which had most all options in Avalanche without the graphics package. It was just traded in with 25k miles on it. I checked it out and overall it was in pretty nice shape. The interior showed little to no wear and the body looked very clean. I didn't crawl underneath to inspect it for any damage, but they offered it to me for $66k. I did note the the tires showed some uneven wear in the center of the tread, most likely due to over inflation. They dropped the price to $65.5k and said they'd install a new set for $1300. Quoted me just slightly over Flood Ford for the 8/125k ESP Premiumcare warranty. If the mileage was around 10k, I would have been more interested. In all fairness, if I averaged more than 5-6k miles per year in the Raptor, I'd be quite surprised. It won't be my daily driver.
I do have to admit that I really liked the Avalanche color. I thought about that color on the GT350 when I was buying it. On the Raptor, it looks really good.
I ended up leaving without buying anything. It's a big purchase and I do have an impulsive side, so I'm proud that I was able to get back into the GT350 and head home. I emailed them to see if they could sweeten the deal by $500 on the 2018.
Overall, it was a very nice truck. There were two things I didn't like. I can't find any love for the brakes. Now I'm going from probably one of the best braking systems on a modern Ford product (GT350) to one of the worst, so it was far more noticeable than I was expecting. Seemed far worse than my 2012 FX4 as well. The pedal was really spongy. Maybe I'm spoiled that my other cars have a pretty firm pedal, but I was really surprised at the feel and travel for sub-50 MPH stops on that truck. The other was the exhaust noise. I drive a 3.5L Ecoboost on a daily basis, so I know how they sound, but in the Raptor, it's just kinda meh. It wouldn't stop me from buying one and it's really a nit-picky thing to mention, but there's just something about a good V8 note that gets my blood pumping. I did like the comfort, the looks and the commanding view of the road.
We shall see what happens.
They held firm on their price but did say my GT350 was pristine. They also had a 2017 Roush edition Raptor for $82k in Oxford White. It was pretty sweet looking and had quite an upgraded suspension. For that package, it was clear that most of the money went into the new shocks, wheels and tires. Otherwise, everything else looked to be cosmetic upgrades.
They turned my attention to a used 2017 Raptor 802A which had most all options in Avalanche without the graphics package. It was just traded in with 25k miles on it. I checked it out and overall it was in pretty nice shape. The interior showed little to no wear and the body looked very clean. I didn't crawl underneath to inspect it for any damage, but they offered it to me for $66k. I did note the the tires showed some uneven wear in the center of the tread, most likely due to over inflation. They dropped the price to $65.5k and said they'd install a new set for $1300. Quoted me just slightly over Flood Ford for the 8/125k ESP Premiumcare warranty. If the mileage was around 10k, I would have been more interested. In all fairness, if I averaged more than 5-6k miles per year in the Raptor, I'd be quite surprised. It won't be my daily driver.
I do have to admit that I really liked the Avalanche color. I thought about that color on the GT350 when I was buying it. On the Raptor, it looks really good.
I ended up leaving without buying anything. It's a big purchase and I do have an impulsive side, so I'm proud that I was able to get back into the GT350 and head home. I emailed them to see if they could sweeten the deal by $500 on the 2018.
Overall, it was a very nice truck. There were two things I didn't like. I can't find any love for the brakes. Now I'm going from probably one of the best braking systems on a modern Ford product (GT350) to one of the worst, so it was far more noticeable than I was expecting. Seemed far worse than my 2012 FX4 as well. The pedal was really spongy. Maybe I'm spoiled that my other cars have a pretty firm pedal, but I was really surprised at the feel and travel for sub-50 MPH stops on that truck. The other was the exhaust noise. I drive a 3.5L Ecoboost on a daily basis, so I know how they sound, but in the Raptor, it's just kinda meh. It wouldn't stop me from buying one and it's really a nit-picky thing to mention, but there's just something about a good V8 note that gets my blood pumping. I did like the comfort, the looks and the commanding view of the road.
We shall see what happens.
