Want A Cheap V8? Get A Work Truck

[ZephyrEFI]

This surprises me a little (that trucks are the good V8 value), given how outrageously stratospheric full size truck prices can be. It wouldn't have shocked me at all to find that the American automakers had abandoned what used to be the work truck market, (and therefore the roots of the full-sized truck class) in favor of the mega-high-profit loaded models. I guess it just goes to show that while they were bumping up the price of trucks, they did the same with the ponycars, if not more so.

https://www.autoblog.com/2017/08/03/...truck-opinion/

I do tend to be cynical about full-sized trucks. I don't understand why people let the automakers charge what they do for them by buying them in numbers that dwarf everything else. Still a regular cab short box V8 truck makes for an intriguing proposition. Those engines have a ton more power than trucks of old, and need to be able to haul around a bigassed crew cab, loaded to the gills model. It's just a shame you can't get manuals in trucks anymore.

[brianj]

You really want to see a comparison, go to a dealer. Drive to the way, way back of the lot, and look for the leftover white painted fleet pickups. I was at ford getting my wife's car serviced, and I killed some time back there. A leftover F250 8 foot bed standard cab, 2016, 4X4, plow package with rubber floor mats and crank down windows ( but with a/c and cruise) was offered to me for 38K. It was the big gas engine- 6.2? 6.4? Cant remember which. There were also 2 similar F350 diesel trucks for well under 45K, but they were pretty option heavy, even being standard cabs. I'm willing to bet I could have had that F250 for around 34K with some dickering.

[MercuryBlues82]

Yeah Fleet Vehicles! I agree about the manual transmissions. I had a Ranger with a massive 4.0 V6 that was originally intended to be a fleet vehicle (bare bones options on the inside) but the dealership painted it black as a sort of upsell. What a great truck that was. When I was buying my F-150 several years back I asked the lot manager if they had any manuals and he just looked at me funny... I recently read somewhere that only 4% of vehicles sold in America have manual transmissions. Lazy cagers!

[xctasy]

In New Zealand, its 6%.

In 1975, its was 85%. The 15% were V8's, some sixes, and a few Pinto engined 4 cylinder cars, Austin Americas with the 4 speed AP auto, and some forgettable Morris Marinas which could actually do a burnout with Dunlop Aquajet 175 SR 13 tires.

The 5 speed Mazdog Explorer and Ranger 4.0 OHV is very snappy. The 205 hp 5 speed auto 4.0 SOHC is faster than the 5.0 215 or whatever GT40P headed Mountaineer and EXplorer XLT 4 speed auto.


Adding a good manual gearbox effectivley adds more than 20% more flywheel horsepower to an engine on a chassis dyno. Most V8's on a dyno loose 48 to 65% of the SAEnet flywheel hp in transmission losses, a good T5 or ZF, Getrag or Toyo Kogyo manual trans, about 26.5% on average. It varies, but that's the chasiss dyno figures. On a drag strip, a transbraked or shift kitted auto picks up all those losses because it noramlly can get the power to the ground better. Especially if its a modified V8 FX4 AWD truck with all the good stuff.

And where do we Kiwis and Ausssies get our most loved US V8 and V10 engines from? Front frame clips from crashed Excursions and SRT Dodges.

Long mote it contine!

[ZephyrEFI]

Yeah, the manual thing is a whole other discussion No one offers them anymore. I got one of the last manual Fusions (no longer offered), but Ford didn't make them easy to get. The only way to get one was by special order. Dealers did not stock them. I would've loved to have a manual Transit Connect, built in Spain and you KNOW Ford sells them in Europe, but nope.

[mcfairmont]

Yeah, stick shifts are getting pretty scarce. In late 2009, I factory ordered a new 2010 Ranger, with a 4 cyl. 5 speed, love it as my daily driver. And when I asked at that time, manual trans were no longer available in F150 thru F 350 trucks,. Both my drag cars are sticks (Jerico 4 speeds), my tow vehicle is a 1999 F350 Dually with a 6.8L V10 and 5 speed, and my hot rod project, is a 1959 Ford 2 door sedan, with a 428 Cobra Jet, and you guessed, a Toploader 4 speed. Only automatic in the driveway is the wifes Corolla.
As for truck prices, most dealerships tend to stock loaded 4x4s crew cabs, and hope peoplw will buy from dealer stock, rather than order one and have to wait. (My Ranger took 6 long weeks from order date to delivery).The Ford dealer I bought my Ranger from had 14 F350s in stock, all 4x4 crew cab diesels, all higher end (Harley Davidson, Platinum, King Ranch), stickered as high as $83,000 Canadian, and these were all single rear wheel trucks, 7 years ago!) I have seen loaded F150s as high as 62,000 Canadian, crazy. Doesn#t seem that long ago that a LOADED pickup meant that you had power steering and brakes, and maybe a AM radio!
Certainly a lot of people driving around with way more truck than they need, like diesel crewcab dually 4x4s that have never seen a trailer or carry any thing heavier than a bag of grass seed or a couple of 2x4s.

[ZephyrEFI]

Yeah, stick shifts are getting pretty scarce. In late 2009, I factory ordered a new 2010 Ranger, with a 4 cyl. 5 speed, love it as my daily driver. And when I asked at that time, manual trans were no longer available in F150 thru F 350 trucks,. Both my drag cars are sticks (Jerico 4 speeds), my tow vehicle is a 1999 F350 Dually with a 6.8L V10 and 5 speed, and my hot rod project, is a 1959 Ford 2 door sedan, with a 428 Cobra Jet, and you guessed, a Toploader 4 speed. Only automatic in the driveway is the wifes Corolla.
As for truck prices, most dealerships tend to stock loaded 4x4s crew cabs, and hope peoplw will buy from dealer stock, rather than order one and have to wait. (My Ranger took 6 long weeks from order date to delivery).The Ford dealer I bought my Ranger from had 14 F350s in stock, all 4x4 crew cab diesels, all higher end (Harley Davidson, Platinum, King Ranch), stickered as high as $83,000 Canadian, and these were all single rear wheel trucks, 7 years ago!) I have seen loaded F150s as high as 62,000 Canadian, crazy. Doesn#t seem that long ago that a LOADED pickup meant that you had power steering and brakes, and maybe a AM radio!
Certainly a lot of people driving around with way more truck than they need, like diesel crewcab dually 4x4s that have never seen a trailer or carry any thing heavier than a bag of grass seed or a couple of 2x4s.

Sweet. We had nothing but manuals for years. Had to finally compromise with the TC. Before that, my first 14 or so cars were all 2-doors. Seems I like to fight losing battles.

[ZephyrEFI]

double post