Due to their simple, no-nonsense nature, old trucks like today’s Nice Price or No Dice Ford F-150 are still perfectly viable for everyday work and play. Let’s see how this nicely equipped long bed works when we consider its asking price.
When it comes to precipitation, hail is the worst. I mean, Gene Kelly went out singing in the rain, and many of us probably know the melody to Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Nobody, however, has ever written a really popular song about a hailstorm.
The 2007 BMW Z4 M Coupe we came together to cast our opinion on yesterday got caught out in a Texas-sized hailstorm and showed the body damage to prove it. That, and an added supercharger that gave the car 500 horses at wheels but had questionable emissions compliance, proved insurmountable to the $36,000 asking price. Ultimately, that shook out in a 91 percent No Dice loss.
Regardless of initial cost, yesterday’s Bimmer likely would demand a lot from its new owner over time. The care and feeding of an older German sports car simply requires some investment in effort and money. That’s just the price to be paid.
Not everyone has the time, nor the money to do so, however. Some folk just need something simple to get around in. The best case for those folks is a vehicle that not only doesn’t require much to keep going but can also make itself useful in other ways.
Meet this 1989 Ford F-150 long bed. It has pretty much everything a parsimonious driver needs, and very little that they do not.
Let’s start with the drivetrain. Power for the truck comes from a 300 cubic-inch (4.9-liter) OHV inline six. That engine was first made available in the F-Series in 1965 and is basically a longer stroke version of an even earlier six. These are about as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning and about as stout as a tall glass of Murphy’s. In this generation of F-Series the big six benefits from fuel injection which gives it 145 horsepower, but more importantly, 265 lb-ft of torque. That’s the longer stroke doing the talking. Behind that are a Borg Warner T18 four-speed manual and Ford 4WD system with a sorta-independent “Twin Traction Beam” suspension in the front and a leaf-sprung live axle in the back.
That’s all bolted to a standard cab/long bed body in bright red with a matching red cloth interior. That interior and the added brightwork on the body means this truck likely sports the XL or XLT trim package. The ad doesn’t specify.
What the ad does note is that the truck comes with a clean title and fewer than 50,000 miles on the odometer. It also has new fuel pumps in each of the dual tanks along with a new secondary. The fuel-sending units have also been replaced. For a bit more off-the-beaten-path capability, the truck has been fitted with dual leaf springs in the back, and duo-shocks on each corner in the front. It comes with the bed cap pictured in the ad, but not the toolbox.
The seller classifies the truck’s condition as excellent. It does look pretty good in the pictures, especially the interior which appears to have been lightly used and without significant flaws. There is some rust creeping up on the wheel arch of the bed, though, found in one of the ad’s pictures. That shouldn’t be too hard to address or at the very least ignore.
It would be hard to recommend many 1989 cars for daily driver duty. But trucks like this? Yeah, why the heck not? That’s especially true for someone who lives in a rural environment or is one of those prepper types. What might one of those folks expect to pay for such a truck?
The seller asks $10,000, which seems like a lot until you take a look at old F-150 prices in general. Yeah, they are nuts. This truck is nicely spec’d and seems to have lots of life left in it, with little to ask (except for that creeping crud on the fender) in return.
What’s your take on this F-150 and that $10,000 asking? Does that seem like a fair deal for a workable work truck? Or, does that price make this Ford unaffordable?
You decide!
Boone, North Carolina, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Pete Childress for the hookup!
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