Yeah, the toolbox breaking the bed is a deal-breaker.Not if you raise a front-end loader full of bricks 20 ft. high and just drop them into the bed
That commercial alone is enough for me to not consider the Chevy.
They did that test multiple times and it didn't always make a hole in the ford and it did actually make a hole in the chevy bed at least once.
Maybe Ford should do a commercial with all the guys with flat cams and bad lifters due to the AFM system. Now, that is a real world problem.
I bought a brand new Chevy truck in 2004, and it was a great one. But Chevy is in a weird place right now and their Drumpf-Hillarias style of advertising (i.e., "don't look at me, look at how bad the other one is"--totally built on false premises) is ruining the brand for me. I applaud Ford's innovation with aluminum...it may (or may not) prove to be the best option...but they are at least trying to consistently improve the product while standing behind it. The body-shop issue is easy--they simply have to meet these standards: http://www.certifymyshop.com/resources/common/pdf/certifymyshop_requirements.pdf. There are currently 12 certified body shops in the OKC area, and the list is growing rapidly. I'm certainly not trying to sell the Ford, but they appear to be making a great truck right now...Toyota does too...but the Ford can get much better fuel milage. It isn't clear what Chevy is doing, and I still don't trust Dodge.
Good luck finding a new Dodge pickup...
I work for the state, and drive state pickups around construction sites. My work F150 has been through absolute rough crap. Idled all the time by previous driver, idled a lot by me, driven everywhere over everything a 2WD will go. Over a culvert, through mud, loaded down with concrete cylinders, in cold heat/heat. Its a 2010 Ford, and if I didn't love my Frontier (its Nissan, all the bro cuntry boys with Chevys can laugh, until they're stuck ad I'm not) I'd want a 10ish F150 just because of the crap they put up with.
I loved my 08 and it worked its butt off. I took my check today and they will take it to the salvage prolly tomorrow. I've decided on another ford but no on a year.
It seems that a crew 4x4 XLT's are about. $ 15k to 20k. For 115,000 to 199,000 miles
$25k to 29k will get you a 40,000 to 80,000 miles truck
And a sub 25,000 mile to brand new truck start in the mid $30 k's
I'm not really that old and I remember when you could get a decent house for not that much more money. Sheesh.
No kidding. My first 3 bedroom house was $19,000 in a medium income neighborhood. A few years back. lol.
These prices amaze me too. That 2004 Chevy truck (extended cab, 4x4, loaded) was $20,000. The same truck today is at least double that.
That's around an $80k investment just to repair to a couple of model years worth of F-150s. An overwhelming majority of shops won't be doing that investment anytime soon. It is primarily the larger chains and the dealerships that use the aluminum bays to crossover to other brands they sell (like Bob Moore). Even places with multiple locations in the metro like Service King, Caliber and Collision Works are only getting one of their locations certified so they can transfer work from any of their locations to the one specific equipped place. These are direct repairers for a number of insurance companies and just want to advertise the capability. It will be a long time before they spend that money to put that equipment into their other stores.
Those 12 locations on Ford's website also include Ada, Enid and 1 error in listing Bob Moore on I35 & 89th. So there are actually 9 in the metro and I'll be in the next 3 years that number won't double. You should also realize places like Bob Moore, Precision, OKC Auto Works, Davis and GW & Son* had the equipment before it became a thing with Ford because they do enough of the higher end stuff that requires it.
*GW & Son may not be on Ford's website but it would only be because they don't want to attract those customers. They cater to higher end customers/cars.
Now all that being said.... there will be plenty of shops doing the repairs on the aluminum F-150s. My insurance agent wrecked his 2016 F-150 2 weeks ago. It will be dropped off next week to have the bedside replaced. Replacing a bedside, rear bumper, taillight and repairing a tailgate.... ~$4800 in damage. It will be done at a non-certified shop. No aluminum bay, no air filtration system, regular mig, no special rivet gun.... just a regular body shop. This will be common in the market.
My only issue with the newer aluminum F-150s is I believe the insurance rates will increase quite a bit over the next few years. Currently, rates are figured by the average repair cost of prior years. When they start getting enough data on the aluminum trucks, the rates will have to go up. They have a much more limited repair capability and are much, much more expensive to repair than a steel body truck. This cost will be passed on.
Ford is for sure moving to aluminum bodies on all their trucks (either in 2017 or 2018), and supposedly some of the cars/suvs also. If it works out, it'll be common work at most body shops, and nothing special. I'm also interested to see what happens to the insurance prices...Part of that equation is the safety of the vehicle (i.e., medical costs from crashes), so I'm wondering how Ford compares in that way.
